Mental wealth
What is professional fitness and mental wealth
We know the world of work is changing. The rise of artificial intelligence and increased automation mean that it is the uniquely human skills that will set future graduates apart in the job market. These include soft skills, such as critical thinking, emotional intelligence and resilience, alongside practical skills, such as digital proficiency and industry connections.
What we've done is put these skills at the heart of every one of our degrees, counting towards students' final qualifications. As evidence of these achievements, we give our students a career passport that'll open doors.
We call this our Professional Fitness & Mental Wealth programme: the fast track to future success.
Developing the key psychological and physical determinants of human performance are increasingly critical for successful graduate-level employment, entrepreneurship and career progression in the 4th industrial revolution.
Amanda Broderick
Vice-Chancellor and President, University of East London
What our students say
Emphasis on personal development
"What's especially good about Mental Wealth is the varying topics and the emphasis on personal development, practical skills and skills for the workplace."
Brilliant
"The teaching of the module is brilliant, the lecturers really make the content enjoyable and creative."
A benefit to me
"At first I didn’t really understand but as time went on I felt it all came together and made sense and has been a benefit to me on my journey."
Coal powered yesterday. Communication technology powers today.
The first great breakthrough for changing the nature of work came in the 18th century. Steam power produced by coal and mechanisation enabled huge advances in human productivity. This is known as the First Industrial Revolution. It impacted almost every aspect of daily life from housing to travel.
The next leap forward came in the 19th century through the application of electricity and assembly line production. This was followed in the 1970s by the Third Industrial Revolution: partial automation using memory-programmable controls and computers.
We are now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as 'Industry 4.0' and characterised by the application of communication and information technologies to industry. This leads to 'cyber-physical production systems' and smart, nearly autonomous factories. The growth of artificial intelligence, the internet of things, cloud computing and cognitive computing will all also have a huge impact on the world of work.
Jobs that can be better done by machines will decline - in Industry 4.0 you need to be more human than ever to thrive. Today critical thinking, emotional intelligence and resilience are king.
At the University of East London we've embedded these future-proofed tools at the heart of every one of our degrees – from accounting to tourism – counting towards the final qualification. We call this our Professional Fitness & Mental Wealth programme. It's part of our vision to be pioneers of future careers and sustainable innovation for a changing world.
Whether you're a future graduate or a prospective employer, Mental Wealth will enable you to reimagine your tomorrow today.
Are you confident about the future? We are!
Whatever you chose to study with us – be it accounting, fashion, healthcare or psychology – we'll make sure that you leave equipped with both the subject knowledge and workplace skills that are essential to securing a job.
Our Professional Fitness & Mental Wealth programme sits at the heart of every course we offer and gives you a set of skills for life. That's why what we offer is no ordinary degree. Watch our video now.
Each year during your studies you will take one Mental Wealth module. The module composition is tailored to your degree and consists of a suite of competencies. These include cognitive intelligence, developing cultural, emotional and social intelligence, and digital proficiency.
These are the skills that will equip you for the future – whatever you decide to do after graduation.
Mental Wealth has already been endorsed by the likes of Amazon Web Services. We signed a ground-breaking collaboration with AWS in July 2019. As a result every student has free access to AWSEducate, which provides self-paced learning in cloud computing, plus exclusive access to fast-track interview opportunities for jobs and internships.
To set you on the way to realising your potential we'll also give you a career passport that'll open doors.
The future of work is with us already. Artificial intelligence and robotics mean great opportunities for those businesses equipped to thrive, with 60 million more jobs being created than destroyed by 2022. The World Economic Forum recognises this and so do we.
Thanks to our unique Professional Fitness & Mental Wealth programme, our graduates are equipped to thrive in your business of tomorrow.
Each student will have a career passport where you can see their achievements for yourself.
Our graduates aren't just ordinary degree holders. They're innovative, savvy and adaptable - and ready for the challenges you face.
Our Mental Wealth programme benefits you:
- Get our students to participate and provide you with a new perspective on your projects
- Identify future potential today and recruit from a diverse pool of local talent
- Engage and work directly with our students
- Become a co-creator of our employability and employment curriculum
- Raise your profile with our student talent by registering on Employment Hub
The world of work is a big, diverse place and each company has its own entry requirements. Therefore, just like in the real world where your passport lets you through national borders, all our graduates receive a career passport that opens doors.
This digital repository is the output from our Professional Fitness & Mental Wealth programme, proof of students' level of mastery in each skill. Some of these skills will be validated externally, by the likes of Amazon and Microsoft, earning students an online badge, while others will be monitored and managed internally through our Employment Hub.
The career passport goes above and beyond the traditional CV, making learning more transparent and transferable across sectors.
- For students. You'll gain tangible skills that employers require on our Mental Wealth programme. For free. Your career passport opens doors to the future world of work: be it an internship, work placement or that dream job.
- For employers. Certainly you can find plenty of recruits with the hard skills you need - be it an engineer, nurse or project planner. But thanks to our career passport you can be sure to find someone who has the soft skills you need as well.
We cannot teach our kids to compete with machines. We have to teach something unique. These are the soft skills to make sure humans are different from machines.
Jack Ma
Co-Founder of Alibaba
Resources
Here's a selection of research on the future of work and how it will impact all of us.
- Creating future professionals
- Solving future skills challenges (Universities UK)
- The future of jobs report (2020) - World Economic Forum
- Digital skills for tomorrow's world
- Which occupations are at highest risk of being automated? (ONS)
- Will robots really steal our jobs? (PWC)
- The factory of the future? (KPMG)