On June 30th and July 1st, FutureLearn exhibited and presented at The Evening Standard’s Step Up Expo. This was an event designed to help school and college students explore their education and career options – and an opportunity for us to speak to pre-university age students, along with their parents and teachers.

At the event, students found guidance on university, employment, training and gap year opportunities as well as GCSE options and college choices.

Why we attended

The event gave us an opportunity to introduce FutureLearn to a new generation of learners and position the brand as the go-to website for online learning. Specifically, we also wanted to achieve the following goals:

• Introduce the non-traditional approach to higher education via online degrees and stackable microcredentials
• Highlight how FutureLearn could be the perfect partner to kickstart their career via continuous learning
• Introduce the concept of using short courses to help students identify the right path to take
• Raise awareness of and drive traffic to Accenture’s free digital skills courses

Event highlights

The Step Up Expo had a total of 7,241 visitors, including 5,677 students, 1,366 parents, 198 teachers, and 100 exhibitors. At the FutureLearn stand, a professional barista served over 300 hot drinks in our ‘Your future is brewing’ coffee cups with FutureLearn branding. We spoke to many students and parents about the future of higher education and online learning opportunities.

We held two talks over the weekend. Harminder Matharu, Director of Government Partnerships at FutureLearn, was our first speaker, and her talk was centred around different post-school pathways. 

She explained how online courses could help students decide which career to pursue or give tasters of different subjects when trying to decide on a degree or university choice. She also discussed the benefits of taking an online degree as an alternative to traditional campus-based HE.

Our collaboration with Accenture

The second talk we held was in collaboration with Accenture. Loveena Chopra, Accenture’s Digital Learning Consultant, spoke to students about the top 10 trending jobs right now, highlighting in-demand industries, job satisfaction and average salaries. 

Loveena also promoted Accenture’s digital skills courses during the talk and explained how upskilling online could help students land careers in the future.

Additionally, we created a co-branded flyer with Accenture, containing a QR code linking to their digital skills courses. We handed the flyer out to those attending the talk.

Survey findings

We conducted a short survey using a large touchscreen at our event stand. The survey was completed by 142 teenagers aged 16-18, providing valuable data that shed light on the following key aspects.

Post-school plans and the future

When we asked teens about their future plans, more than 46% of respondents were not considering going to university straight away. Although 55% of respondents did express their intention to pursue university straight after school, 29% were uncertain, and 17% planned to enter the workforce immediately.

Online course experience and awareness of FutureLearn

A significant number of students (33%) had taken an online course before, but the majority (67%) had not yet explored this mode of learning. This highlights the need for more awareness around online learning.

Awareness of online degrees

The survey results revealed that 46% of respondents were aware of the possibility of pursuing a degree online, while the remaining 54% were unaware of this alternative. 

Benefits of online degrees

When asked about the most appealing aspects of online degrees, 39% of students emphasised the flexibility of learning anywhere, at any time.

Looking at the other benefits of online degrees, 31% of students highlighted the cost-effectiveness, and 30% saw it as an opportunity to kickstart their careers while learning. 

Drawbacks of online degrees

The results indicated that 32% of respondents were concerned about the lack of access to learning and social facilities, followed closely by 31% expressing concerns about the lack of social connection. 

Additionally, 20% cited the inability to join social or sports clubs, while 17% were worried about not experiencing traditional campus learning.

Preferred online learning platforms

Notably, 61% of respondents reported using YouTube as their primary source for online learning, followed by TikTok at 25%. 

It’s not altogether surprising that social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok are most commonly used for education within this age group – insights such as this may be a useful consideration for us when creating online courses aimed at school or college-aged students in the future.

Event learnings and outcomes

Overall the event was a success. We spoke to lots of students, teachers and parents – many of which were very interested in what we had to say and the idea of utilising online learning. 

Over the weekend, we saw an increase in organic search in London to the homepage. We also saw an increase in organic search to course pages when compared with the previous weekend – this indicates success from a brand awareness standpoint.

Key takeaways:

• The idea of university taster courses to help students figure out which degree to take was a popular discussion point and shows real demand for online learning as a feeder into traditional on-campus education
• Parents were very interested in the cost savings involved with taking an online degree compared to a traditional degree
• Stacking microcredentials was something few knew about but many were very interested in.

We will be attending the Step Up Expo next year to continue spreading the word about online education and FutureLearn courses to learners of all ages.