IQ Academy 2020

Following a successful pilot program in 2019, the University of Western Australia invited us to deliver the IQ Academy program for two further cohorts of keen students in 2020. Developed as an opportunity for students across a wide range of degrees and specialisations to learn collaboratively and develop their entrepreneurial and creative problem-solving skills, the program ran as a series of four workshops over four weeks.

As the COVID-19 situation developed in early 2020, we rapidly and successfully adapted the IQ Academy program from an in-person engagement to an online learning opportunity for our cohort of 100 students, while preserving the interactive and social nature of the workshops. Students worked together to explore the 4 C’s of 21st-century skills: Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Creativity, and Communication. After integrating our learnings and feedback from Semester 1, we delivered a further improved online program in Semester 2 for over 150 students.

Student feedback across both semesters was strongly positive, with participants describing the program as “highly insightful and useful” and “absolutely inspiring!”. In addition to key skills for the future of work, many students reported an increase in their confidence and readiness for the workplace. As one student put it, “after the four-week IQ Academy program, I am now confident to promote myself in the professional world”.