Looking back on a year of success
We kicked off 2023 with the publication of our 18th edition of Futurum Careers magazine – a bumper issue showcasing a wealth of interesting research and inspiring researchers in our redesigned and reimagined style.
We love the visual appeal and striking modern look of our new articles, activity sheets and magazines, and we love that researchers, students and teachers love them too! “Wow! The magazine is amazing!” was the reaction of Dr Janet Page-Reeves, a cultural anthropologist who is creating peer support groups to reduce social isolation among Mexican immigrant women in the US. “Our brochure is fantastic. Spectacular, really! We are so pleased with the outcome – a really beautiful brochure that has transformed our very academic research into a visually and textually engaging product.” We also asked teachers what they thought of our resources. “The design is contemporary and well-organised, making the resources appealing and accessible for my students,” said secondary school teacher Adrian. And we are taking teacher feedback onboard, so expect to see slightly larger font sizes in our brochures in 2024.
This year, we have published 117 sets of educational articles and activity sheets, plus six issues of our magazine, introducing students and teachers to inspiring researchers and role models from around the world. From Heela Yoon, who founded the Afghan Youth Ambassadors for Peace Organization to promote education for girls and women in Afghanistan, to Ryan Hickman, who founded his own non-profit recycling company in California, to Francisca Rockey, who founded Black Geographers to encourage more Black students to study geography in the UK, we are proud to highlight how young people are fighting for a brighter future.
Our educational resources are being used by teachers and students around the world. In 2023, our educational resources were downloaded over 13,200 times from our website, over 12,300 times from TES and over 13,300 times from Teachers Pay Teachers.
As well as publishing 16 animations (this year, our animations have received over 75,000 views on our YouTube channel) and 11 PowerPoints, 2023 saw us adding eight podcasts to our collection of free educational resources. These podcasts are a fantastic new addition to our classroom and careers resources, in which researchers talk candidly about their personal experiences, share inspiring stories of their career journeys, and provide practical advice for students.
For example, Dr Laurel Lynch discusses how childhood holidays in the Alaskan wilderness led her to a career in ecosystem ecology. Professor James Lupski was inspired to become a clinical genomicist because he wanted to understand his own genetic condition. Dr Cheryl Talley shares tips on how students can develop the skills and confidence they need to be successful. And Professor Anna Smallwood and Dr Thomas Budd discuss the important role that young people will play in the future of the aviation industry.
We have published 14 translated articles in Spanish, French, German, Mandarin and Serbian, allowing our educational resources to be accessed by students around the world and to be used as resources for teaching foreign https://futurumcareers.com/Simon_Liversedge_Chuanli%20Zanglanguages.
We are incredibly proud that Futurum Careers was among the finalists for the 2023 Open Education Global awards. This award recognises high-quality innovative open teaching and learning resources from around the world that have significantly impacted accessibility, learning and social change. It was an honour to be one of four global finalists in the ‘significant impact open educational resources’ category, highlighting the significant impact that our resources are having on education and learning.
We can’t wait to see what 2024 will bring!