The Forage Talent Resource Center

Together, Forage’s corporate partners hosted 82 virtual experience programs in 2020. Those program’s attracted more than 1 million  students from 154 countries around the world! For context, we started the year with only 100,000 students and 13 programs.

The most popular programs by enrollment were:

1. Big Data and Analytics from KPMG
2. Strategy Consulting from BCG
3. Software Engineering from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

‍

The most highly rated programs were:

1. M&A / Corporate Law from White & Case
2. Engineering from Microsoft
3. Commercial Law from Ashurst

‍

The programs with the highest completion rates were:

1. Innovation from Accenture
2. Institutional Banking from Citi
3. Law from Baker McKenzie

Wondering what a virtual experience program is?

It is a deeply immersive and rich open-access learning experience that provides candidates from all backgrounds with career discovery, skills, and the confidence to land jobs. Learn more here.

There was a small cohort of auto-didact students who made great use of their time during the pandemic and discovered a plethora of career options, including:

1. Lauren Marshall, 20 programs, UK, University of Cambridge
2. Michelle Lee, 16 programs, Australia, University of New South Wales
3. Nilesh Mukherji, 14 programs, USA, NYU Class of 23 
4. Jerald Koh, 10 programs, Singapore, National University of Singapore

Let’s not forget our amazing university partners. We work with universities in three ways:

• Provide career centers to virtual experience to share with students
• Assist professors in integrating VEPs into their curriculums
• Collaborate with deans and department on substantial work-integrated learning initiatives

Our top three work-integrated learning partners are:

• The University of North Texas. Thanks to Marissa Zorola and Dan Naegeli for your partnership!
• The University of Westminster. Thank you, Ben Powell!
• Macquarie University. Thank you, Eric Knight and Paul Somer, for being great collaborators!

Wondering how course work integration works? 

Leading universities worldwide are integrating Forage virtual experience programs directly into coursework, bringing employability into the curriculum. Students undertake virtual experience programs as part of their subjects, and write a reflection about the experience, building the vital skills they need to succeed in the workplace.

At the end of 2020, we are proud to announce we have more than 200 university partners. Pretty impressive, considering we started with a single partner at the end of 2019.

Thanks to all of our university and corporate partners for making 2020 a banner year for Forage! We believe that we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to virtual work experience and that 2021 will be even more successful!

If you are interested in entering the brave new world of early talent and joining the virtual work experience movement, don’t hesitate to get in touch!