Future Leadership Academy rounds up first batch of Young Leaders

The Future Leadership Academy (FLA) today completed its inaugural session of its LeadStar™ bootcamp focused on children aged between 10 to 13 years. This was the first session being run under the exclusive partnership announced earlier this month with KidLead, the world’s first leadership training organization for children.

Dr. Alan E Nelson, Founder and CEO of Kidlead, said: “I am so impressed with the leadership aptitude that was shown by this group of young leaders. With the amazing reaction we have seen from them, we are even more excited about the possibilities of developing ethical leaders when they are moldable.”

The LeadStar™ program is an executive caliber training program for pre-teens and early teens, focusing on a life stage when young leaders are still pliable in their character, but mature enough to be taught sophisticated social skills required for leading. It is based on a platform that teaches the 16 most desirable leadership qualities, and is taught by certified trainers using media, experiential activities and real-to-life projects. The program also includes parent and mentor training.

Commenting on the roll-out plans, Aman Merchant, Founder and Chief Emagination Officer, FLA, said, “With the launch of the pilot program, we have bought to this region the world’s 1st executive caliber pre-teens leadership skills development program. Our facilitators and coaches teach socratically, by asking strategic questions, in order to help students think like leaders themselves, not just follow directions from adults. The children have found this to be a refreshing change to what they are accustomed to in school – in fact, one of the participants commented that he learned more in four days with us than he had in five months at school. Clearly, for most children, this was the first time their leadership talent was being recognized and nurtured.”

The first public sessions for LeadStar™ will start in late December, followed by the teens program LeadSmart™ that will debut next year.

The Future Leadership Academy (FLA) is a leadership and learning open-source platform that will also serve as a school of thinking and a youth social-innovation incubator working as a positive change agent. It will be a greenhouse for preparing future world leaders, who will be confident in tackling their country’s and their region’s most pressing corporate, social, economic and political challenges.