ILLUMINATE EDUCATION AUSTRALIA EDUCATION EXPERIENCES
illuminateX | DIY Innovation Experience
illuminateX is a flexible, term-long innovation experience designed to bring the power of the illuminate Challenge directly into classrooms and homes.
Tailored for Primary (Years 5 – 6), Secondary (Years 7 – 12), and Tertiary students, illuminateX guides learners through a six-stage innovation process – from identifying real-world problems to designing, prototyping, and pitching sustainable solutions.
Delivered by educators with full support from the illuminate team, students gain access to rich resources, expert mentorship, and inspiring guest speakers. The program is mapped to the Australian Curriculum and includes activity cards, content videos, and professional development for teachers, making it easy to implement and impactful for all.
Whether solving community challenges or exploring entrepreneurial ideas, illuminateX builds creativity, collaboration, and confidence in every student. It’s more than a classroom activity – it’s a launchpad for future-ready thinkers and changemakers.
Ready to transform your learning environment? illuminateX brings innovation to life, one idea at a time.



Features of illuminateX
While illuminateX is a self-paced, educator-led program in the classroom or home-school environment, the illuminate Education Australia team are here to support your students and the learning community in the school to leverage our experience and knowledge for your context.
Core Resources of illuminateX
Across the different versions of illuminateX, illuminate Education Australia provides the following resources, content and information, including;
- illuminateX Educator PD Workshop, which introduces the program, the materials on offer, innovation stages and prepares educators to implement the challenge in their classrooms.
- Activity Cards, which provide resources for educators to guide their students through the learning process including activities, toolkits and optional bonus tasks to overcome hurdles that teams can face along the way.
- Printable Resources, which not only includes resources that students can use throughout the program, but also resources that can be displayed in class to reinforce key information and track student progress.
- Learn, which is our online learning portal behind everything we do at illuminate Education Australia. This resource allows students to digitally access templates and learning materials, submit work that educators can see as well as the team of illuminate Education Australia, and help students extend themselves through accessing the additional resources.
What Else Does illuminate Education Australia Provide?
Outside of these materials to support the learning environment, illuminate Education Australia provides;
- Opportunities for educators to debrief and connect with our team to check in on student progress, share about challenges and have our team support your learning environment.
- Feedback opportunities for all student work, as our team will look over work uploaded to the Learn online learning portal and provide feedback that teams can access and implement. This access is shared with teachers to review the student work, assess it internally and provide similar feedback and support.
- Mentoring of Students, by meeting with teams twice through the illuminateX program, to help refine initial ideas and challenges that groups want to address, and later in the program to help underpin the strategies they are taking forward with industry insights and experience.
- Industry Based Judging, where the student work is reviewed by our team alongside industry collaborators, bringing their industry and workplace experience to look over the student work presented. This brings a different perspective to the process, and could be used to announce judged winners of ideas as part of a school assembly or celebration event.
What Do You Need to do to Prepare?
With all of the above laid out, our focus is on making the experience in school one that you enjoy delivering and get a chance to work alongside your students in a new way. To help make this a great learning opportunity, schools need to;
- Register early with the program type, so that we can make sure you have the physical resources available for the first lesson, as well as going through the Educator PD Workshop. We have a range of program types based on the time available over the page, based on the time available.
- Prepare when to run it in the school year, as we’ll make sure there is access open for your students and educators at this time.
- Then deliver illuminateX, remembering throughout that our team is here to support you in making it an fantastic learning opportunity that your educators can lead in the learning environment.
What Others Say…
FROM COMMUNITY PARTNERS & COLLABORATORS
FROM THE STUDENTS THEMSELVES
The illuminate Innovation Process
In all illuminate Education Australia experiences, we have mapped out a structure underneath the innovative process students step through as shown below.
Across the illuminateX experience, as it is self-paced, the sessions are mapped out in alignment to each of these stages, providing enough time to complete the activities contained within each alongside the opportunity to go as deep as possible in the idea process to create meaningful ideas and lasting educational impact.

Stage 1) Foundations.
Teams begin by forming strong collaboration habits and exploring issues that matter to them. They identify challenges in their school, community, or world, building empathy and awareness. This stage sets the tone for teamwork, purpose, and engagement, helping students connect personally to the problems they’ll work to solve.

Stage 2) Ideation.
Students brainstorm creative, impactful solutions to the challenges they’ve identified. Using design thinking, they explore possibilities and prioritise ideas that balance innovation, empathy, and sustainability. This stage encourages bold thinking and helps teams focus on ideas that matter and can make a real difference.

Stage 3) Developing.
Teams shape their chosen idea into a viable concept. They build financial forecasts, marketing strategies, and operational plans. This stage introduces practical enterprise skills and helps students understand how to turn a creative idea into something that can work in the real world.

Stage 4) Presenting.
Students shift focus to communicating their ideas clearly and persuasively. They develop pitches, presentations, and visual materials to engage stakeholders and seek support. This stage builds confidence in public speaking and storytelling, helping students share their vision with impact.

Stage 5) Testing.
Teams test and refine their ideas through prototyping and feedback. They explore how their solution performs, identify challenges, and adapt based on user input. This stage builds resilience and problem-solving skills, helping students strengthen their ideas through real-world testing.

Stage 6) Implementation.
Implementation happens after the illuminate Challenge ends, when students take their ideas into the real world. Whether launching a school initiative, community project, or continuing development, this stage is about turning concepts into action. While it’s beyond the formal program, illuminate Education Australia offers ongoing support to all teams—helping them refine next steps, connect with partners, and keep momentum going. It’s where ideas grow into lasting impact, with guidance still available.
Capacities to Drive Change
At illuminate Education Australia, we believe young people must be equipped with essential, transferable skills to lead change now—not just in the future. Our skill framework was developed through extensive consultation with industry partners and educational research to ensure relevance and impact. It underpins every program we deliver, helping students become confident, creative, and capable. These skills are embedded in real-world challenges, allowing students to apply them immediately and build lifelong capacity. Whether in entrepreneurship, community engagement, or innovation, this framework ensures students grow in ways that matter—personally, academically, and professionally.
Communication
Understanding
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Solving Problems
Working Smart
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What Drives Us
Beneath our vision, purpose and skills we focus upon, illuminate Education Australia has six core passions that drive everything we do and helps set apart our approach.

Leaders for Now.
We do not prepare for the future – we need our young people to lead change right now! Everything we do is for now and to create impact right away, for the idea created in the experience or for the next impact idea.

Young People to Community Shift.
Our focus is to support young people to be confident, creative and capable, who agitate and drive change across families, communities and the generations.

Education is a Contact Sport.
Young people need to be stretched and tested in real world environments now, to push themselves, to develop their capacity and reflect on how they perform for future change.

Reaching All Communities.
We prioritise (and support with our own funds as a social enterprise) opportunities to reach regional, remote and disadvantaged communities, ensuring they do not miss out developing these core skills.

Educationally Relevant.
Although we deliver our programs with an authentic real world focus, we ensure everything we do is educationally relevant and aligned, underpinned with engaging pedagogy that allows students to learn authentically.

Results Driven.
We know that we measure what matters, and for us it is not about the quantity of the students, but the quality of the impact. We are focused on delivering results for all involved, and closely track data to measure the impact of our programs as well as the benefits for all stakeholders involved.