Welcome to the Ponder Program
The career education framework for innovative teachers
Easily integrate life-changing career education lessons into any school setting with the Career Development Framework (CDF)
Elevate your teaching, inspire their thinking
Let’s face it, students don’t really want to learn Trigonometry, Shakespeare, or Geography – they just want to be ready for the world of work.
But without the right skills and knowledge to choose a career they’ll love, they might become one of the 79% of adults across the world who feel ‘disconnected’ with the work they do each day*.
The Ponder Program solves that – with easy-to-use career education resources that inspires students to actively think about their future.
*Gallup State of the Global Workforce 2022 Report
Run it as your entire careers program, or use it to supplement your own
Ponder is perfect for schools where:
- No career education structure exists (a large proportion of schools)
- Your current program isn’t working, or,
- You need to boost your teaching materials with modern videos, lesson plans, and activities
With fresh new content updates each year, it’s a program your school can fully utilise across all upper-middle and secondary school levels to progressively build up your students’ career management skills.
Lessons are based on The Three Phase Inquiry Model
Learning career management skills requires more than just ‘rote memorisation’. Career education should be exciting and engaging, which is why we use a Three Phase Inquiry Model to structure each unit.
It’s simple, effective (and your students will always want more).
Discover
Students are introduced to the topic and given a chance to learn about the concept before going further
Discuss
Once students and teachers have watched the Discovery video, they can discuss their thoughts and ideas
Demonstrate
Encourage deep learning and reflection with the activities and thinking points which accompany each unit
Promote reflection and deep learning for all students with a model that gets them thinking.
Flexible delivery that suits any school or timetable
The program includes 40 weeks of career education resources for ages 12-18, but it doesn’t have to be delivered sequentially week-by-week for it to work.
- Have weekly timeslots available? Follow it week-by-week.
- Infrequent lessons or schedules? Combine multiple lessons together into one action-packed session.
- Particular focus area? Choose a lesson that suits your age cohort, career education topic, or timing.
Each lesson can be as little as 5 mins or extended to 30 mins depending on your available time and depth of discussion. But the length and mode of delivery remains entirely up to you.
It’s all about giving you the tools to start the right career conversations, at the right time.
Be creative
Easily add career education to any school curriculum
What educators love the most about Ponder is the ability to provide flexible, engaging career education, even if there’s no time allocated in the curriculum.
- Play the 1-3 minute weekly videos at school assembly
- Engage ‘home room’ teachers to show the videos and have a high-level discussion about the topic with our conversation starters
- Add it to Heath & Physical Education, Pastoral Care, Self-Development, Mentoring Programs, or even Wellbeing lessons each week
Design-Based Iteration
We thrive on constant improvement
Ponder has been developed by experienced Career Development Practitioners with years of experience working with young people and schools. But it wouldn’t be what it is today without the support, feedback, and collaboration of our member schools.
We work with educators to continually refine and iterate the program, and this culture of innovation means we can ensure that Ponder is as relevant, engaging, and easy to use as possible. The research into Career Education best practice is also evolving, and we stay on top of it and incorporate new evidence-based findings into the program to make it even better.
It’s a big task, but it gives you the confidence that the program you are using is up to your standards, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Commended for use by Schools
Ponder has been thoroughly reviewed by the Career Development Association of Australia in August 2022, and was “strongly recommended” for commendation by their independent assessor – meaning you can choose the Ponder Program for your school with reassurance that it’s a quality education program.
Aligned with the world's leading career education frameworks
Every country has great educational curriculums, but what if you could combine the best of each one into a single career curriculum?
Then, you’d have the Ponder Program. We’ve looked at best-practice from:
- Australia
- The UK
- USA
- Canada
- New Zealand
To create one holistic career education framework you can use to prepare students for a modern world of work.
Designed to be affordable
Great career education is critical to life in our developed world, so whether you’re at a well funded school, or one where just the basics are covered, you’ll be able to budget for Ponder.
You and your entire school will get:
- Access to the Ponder Career Education Framework (CDF) for a whole year
- 40 units of engaging lesson materials including videos, slides, worksheets, printable posters, conversation starters and more
- Framework PDFs designed to support your teaching and to help inform other educators how to address career conversations with students
- Rationale PDFs you can share with your school leaders, Dean of Curriculum/Head of Senior, so they know the ‘how & why’ of what is being taught
And all for one affordable price per year.
Start inspiring career conversations today with the Ponder Program
Ponder has transformed the careers programs of hundreds of high schools – to get started, simply click Apply today (or Talk to the team to find out more).
We’ll respond to you ASAP.