About us

Our Vision

our-vision

Forward College empowers the positive leaders we need to shape the world we hope for.

A fast changing world

Climate change, artificial intelligence, growing inequalities, wavering democracies and rising citizen engagement pose urgent challenges as much as they open new opportunities. We are at a crossroads.

In order to tackle such important challenges, we need to arm the next generation of students with new skills, new knowledge, and a new mindset, empowering them so they can shape these transitions in a positive way. Never before have our challenges required so much positive leadership.

In times of change, we need talents able to understand such complex challenges but also to reach out and engage people across different fields of expertise, organisations, cultures, and social barriers for a shared purpose. This is what we call positive leadership.

our-vision

What is positive leadership?

Hierarchies are eroding in the business world as they are in government, politics or community life: it is becoming more and more complex to lead. Positive leadership is about knowing how to trigger engagement, how to empower all contributors and voices for a shared purpose.

Fostering positive leadership is at the core of Forward College’s founding philosophy. Its development requires the mobilisation of 4 forms of human intelligence: cognitive, social, emotional and practical/digital .

Find out what recruiters, parents and students say about Forward College here.

The 5 intelligences behind positive leadership

our-vision

How do we assess human intelligences?

As part of our personal development programme, students will go through annual coaching sessions and work on their 360 profile. They will reflect on their strengths and development needs, define development priorities and strategise on their future career.          

*The graph represent the progress of a student skills development between the start and the end of Term 1. 

Teaching and learning positive leadership

We believe that teaching and learning should address all forms of human intelligence.

Whilst cognitive intelligence is developed within the academic study of the Bachelor’s and boosted by our active learning pedagogy, social, emotional and practical intelligences, as they are recognised to develop mainly through experience, demand another set of learning activities.

This is why we have designed a range of activities that fit this particular purpose:

  • Social intelligence is trained through daily teamwork, outreach to local communities and constant immersion in a multicultural community
  • Emotional intelligence is nurtured by our personal development programme and the friendships fostered in a caring community of fellow students
  • Practical intelligence is developed by our flagship Entrepreneurship programmes in which students design and implement real-life projects, as well as through teamwork and student clubs and activities.
  • Technological intelligence is developed through our Digital Entrepreneurship programme in which students design and implement a digital solution to a problem while they develop skills in no-code development, UX design and web marketing.

As a result, learning at Forward College does not only derive from readings, courses and exercises but also from a broad variety of activities and situations that constitute the material of the students’ experiences.

This is how they grow and become better experts in their field, better learners, better friends, better citizens… a better version of themselves.  

Meet our founders

Having worked in leadership positions in Government, major Tech companies, social business, and higher education, Boris, Céline, and Jeffrey have witnessed how positive leadership relies not solely on expertise and rational thinking but also on other forms of intelligence: social, emotional, practical, and technological.

At the heart of their vision lies a desire to develop a model for higher education that is more holistic and fit for the future of work and the challenges the 21st century will bring.

boris-walbaum

Boris Walbaum

Founder and President

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celine-boisson

Celine Boisson

Founding Partner and Head of Student recruitment, Marketing and Operations

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jeffrey-sampson

Jeffrey Sampson

Founding Partner and Chief Talent Officer

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