FutureWork™ School - College Edition

FutureWork™ School – College Edition is a strategic workforce capability and institutional innovation model designed to help colleges and universities prepare for the Age of AI.

The model supports institutional leaders, faculty, staff, workforce development teams, continuing education units, alumni offices, and employer-facing programs through the FutureWork™ ecosystem.

NJIT’s Learning and Development Initiative (LDI) partners with colleges, universities, community colleges, workforce organizations, and educational systems to help institutional leaders, faculty, staff, and adult learners prepare for the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence, automation, and digital transformation. As NJIT’s hub for professional education and workforce development, the LDI delivers scalable non-credit learning opportunities through its proprietary FutureWork™ ecosystem.

Higher education is entering a period of continuous disruption. Artificial intelligence, automation, demographic shifts, and changing workforce expectations continue to reshape higher education. Colleges and universities increasingly face pressure to modernize learning models, strengthen workforce alignment, support institutional agility, and respond more rapidly to evolving employer and learner demands.

Institutions that invest in future-focused capability development position themselves to remain competitive, adaptive, and relevant in a rapidly changing educational landscape.

FutureWork™ helps institutions strengthen AI literacy, digital capability, workforce alignment, organizational adaptability, and professional development while also supporting new approaches to non-credit education and lifelong learning.

FutureWork™ School – College Edition is designed for adults and institutional units across higher education, including:

• Presidents, provosts, deans, and senior administrators
• Faculty and academic leaders
• Staff and operational teams
• Continuing education and professional education units
• Workforce development offices
• Career services and student success teams
• Alumni engagement offices
• Employer partnership and corporate training teams

Faculty members, administrators, student support professionals, operational teams, and institutional leaders increasingly require stronger AI literacy, digital capability, agile thinking, and change navigation skills to effectively lead and operate in the Age of AI.

FutureWork™ Schools help institutions strengthen these capabilities while supporting leadership development, workforce readiness, organizational effectiveness, and institutional resilience.

Faculty can build skills connected to AI Literacy, Data Literacy, Digital Literacy, Agile Thinking, Change Navigation, and Resource Optimization through learning experiences grounded in the FutureWork™ Framework.

Staff and operational teams play a critical role in institutional effectiveness, student success, employer engagement, technology adoption, and organizational change. FutureWork™ helps staff strengthen digital confidence, adaptability, resource optimization, change navigation, and workforce-aligned skills through flexible learning opportunities in the FutureWork™ Portfolio.

The FutureWork™ ecosystem consists of three foundational components:

• FutureWork™ Framework — A research-backed workforce readiness model for the Age of AI.
• FutureWork™ Inventory — A self-diagnostic assessment that helps individuals and institutions understand readiness across key skill domains.
• FutureWork™ Portfolio — A collection of non-credit courses, microcredentials, custom training, and workforce development solutions.

The FutureWork™ Framework is a research-backed, workforce-aligned, learner-centered, future-focused, and demand-driven model designed to help individuals and organizations prepare for the Age of AI.

The Framework identifies six critical capability areas:

• AI Literacy
• Data Literacy
• Digital Literacy
• Agile Thinking
• Change Navigation
• Resource Optimization

The FutureWork™ Inventory is a self-diagnostic assessment grounded in the FutureWork™ Framework. It helps faculty, staff, administrators, adult learners, and workforce partners assess readiness across six critical capability domains.

The inventory helps individuals assess readiness across six critical workforce skill domains while identifying strengths, development opportunities, and personalized learning pathways.

Each learner receives a detailed and customized readiness report. At the institutional level, aggregate insights can help leaders better understand organizational capability trends, workforce readiness gaps, professional development priorities, future planning needs, institutional strengths, and capability gaps.

Key advantages include assessing readiness across six critical workforce skill domains, identifying institutional strengths and capability gaps, generating personalized development insights, supporting leadership and workforce development initiatives, and providing institution-level workforce readiness analytics.

The FutureWork™ Portfolio delivers affordable, scalable, and workforce-aligned online learning opportunities designed specifically for the Age of AI.

Through flexible non-credit courses, microcredentials, and workforce development programs, institutions can expand access to high-impact learning experiences for faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, workforce partners, and adult learners.

Learning opportunities focus on six critical capability areas: AI Literacy, Data Literacy, Digital Literacy, Agile Thinking, Change Navigation, and Resource Optimization.

Key advantages include flexible online and self-paced learning opportunities, workforce-aligned microcredentials and digital badges, scalable professional development initiatives, accessible learning opportunities for faculty, staff, and adult learners, support for institutional adaptability and workforce readiness, and expandable workforce development and continuing education offerings.

Potential institutional opportunities may include:

• Workforce readiness microcredential programs
• Continuing education and professional development offerings
• Alumni workforce development initiatives
• Employer-sponsored workforce training programs
• Community and municipal workforce partnerships
• Faculty and staff professional development pathways
• AI Literacy and Digital Literacy workforce programs

Key advantages include potential new non-credit revenue streams, scalable workforce development offerings, expanded continuing education opportunities, reduced internal course development burden, faster entry into workforce-aligned programming markets, and stronger employer and workforce ecosystem partnerships.

FutureWork™ gives colleges and universities a scalable way to expand non-credit workforce-aligned learning opportunities for adult learners, alumni, employers, community partners, and regional workforce ecosystems.

Institutions can use the FutureWork™ Portfolio to offer courses, microcredentials, professional development pathways, and workforce readiness programs without having to build every course internally.

FutureWork™ can help colleges and universities provide alumni with access to future-focused professional learning opportunities in areas such as AI Literacy, Digital Literacy, Data Literacy, Agile Thinking, Change Navigation, and Resource Optimization.

Alumni-focused learning pathways can strengthen lifelong engagement while creating new opportunities for non-credit programming and professional development.

Institutions can also use FutureWork™ to strengthen relationships with employers by offering workforce-aligned learning experiences that address current and emerging capability needs. FutureWork™ can support employer-sponsored training, regional workforce initiatives, customized professional development, and continuing education partnerships.

A FutureWork™ School helps colleges and universities:

• Strengthen workforce readiness across the institution
• Expand AI and digital capability among faculty, staff, and leadership
• Improve organizational adaptability and change readiness
• Support professional development and workforce capability growth
• Create new workforce-aligned non-credit programming opportunities
• Expand continuing education and professional learning initiatives
• Develop potential new revenue streams through workforce partnerships and course reselling
• Build scalable future-focused learning ecosystems designed for long-term institutional success

NJIT’s Learning and Development Initiative combines the strengths of a nationally recognized public polytechnic university with a future-focused workforce capability ecosystem designed specifically for the Age of AI.

Organizational strengths include:

• Workforce and educational partnerships across public, private, and nonprofit sectors
• Research-backed FutureWork™ Framework featured in the 2025 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report
• Through the FutureWork™ Inventory, the LDI provides learners with a detailed and customized readiness report based on their assessment responses
• A rigorous learning design process helps ensure each course maintains high academic and workforce-aligned quality standards
• The LDI remains learner-centered, future-focused, and demand-driven in its approach to capability development
• Learners who successfully complete a course receive an NJIT verifiable digital badge demonstrating workforce-ready skills and competencies
• Flexible partnership models that support institutional workforce development and non-credit revenue generation

FutureWork™ Schools position colleges and universities to strengthen institutional capability, support faculty and staff readiness, expand workforce-aligned learning opportunities, and create new models for long-term growth and sustainability.

By combining the FutureWork™ Framework, FutureWork™ Inventory, and FutureWork™ Portfolio into a unified ecosystem, institutions can strengthen workforce capability, support organizational adaptability, and build scalable pathways for success in the Age of AI.

• FutureWork™: ldi.njit.edu/futurework
• FutureWork™ Framework: ldi.njit.edu/fwframework
• FutureWork™ Inventory: ldi.njit.edu/fwinventory
• FutureWork™ Portfolio: ldi.njit.edu/fwportfolio

To contact NJIT’s Learning and Development Initiative, email ldisupport@njit.edu.