Develop The Skills And Character For a High Performance Career
Employers increasingly demand proof of skills and results in entry-level candidates. At the FLC, you develop skills, a results portfolio, and the confidence to win in a job market that is being rapidly upended by AI.
1 Year
5 Countries
18-23
Duration
Location
Ages
30th July
Deadline
Format
Full-Time
Starts
Sept 2026
The Foundational Leadership Course (FLC) is an acceleration year for your high performance career. High performance is only possible when you master a specific set of general cognitive, psychological, and interpersonal skills. The FLC is intentionally designed to help you acquire these skills. Traditional education focuses on the transfer of knowledge making any skills development that happens incidental.
Many successful people feel they learned more in their first few months of work, than they did in their entire college career. The FLC draws heavily from key aspects of high performance workplaces to create the most powerful and relevant development path for you.
When you graduate from the FLC you will notice a marked increase in your maturity, confidence, focus, and self leadership. You will feel more comfortable with complexity, ambiguity, novelty, difficulty, and other challenges in your work and life. These traits will allow you to outperform in college and your career.
At the end of the FLC, you will have:
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Unmatched development in the high-performance skills that determine the trajectory of your career.
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A clear direction for what work you want to do, what motivates you, and where your passions lie.
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A high-impact internship with the opportunity to build a brilliant portfolio.
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A rare maturity for your age.
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A network forged in the trenches.
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A renewed appreciation of taking time to relax and have fun.
What Happens When You Spend Significant Time At Futures Forge?
Hear from the university students and graduates who have spent between 7 to 12 weeks in high-intensity course work with Futures Forge. They share stories of how they have become more powerful, how they see the world differently, and how their career trajectories are forever accelerated.
The 12 Skills That Drive Performance
A small set of cognitive, psychological, and interpersonal skills explains most of the difference in performance between equally intelligent people. These High Performance Skills are backed by science, transferable to any career area and demanded by industry leaders. At the Foundational Leadership Course, you’ll develop these skills faster and more effectively than via traditional educational paths, giving you a lasting advantage in any field.
Develop The Proof Employers Want
You can graduate from the FLC with concrete evidence of your ability to deliver results in high-stakes environments, which pairs with the knowledge and credentialing you’ll gain through your college degree to position you for success.
You will be prepared to deliver amazing results during your Futures Forge Internship, creating a powerful reference and portfolio, and opening doors to premium internships throughout college. You can then graduate college with multiple summers of proven performance while your peers are still trying to land their first meaningful opportunity.
Through complex team challenges, you create compelling problem-solving stories and actual work products that showcase your abilities. You will have unique stories of creatively overcoming obstacles that make interviews memorable and demonstrate your resilience under pressure.
You understand how businesses add value and can contribute meaningfully from day one. You show employers you can already use AI to boost productivity and hit the ground running in any role.
Through diverse challenges and your internship experience, you discover what work truly motivates you and can articulate this clearly to employers. You will enter college with a plan to graduate in 3 years, signaling exceptional focus and capability.
You will acquire knowledge and certifications that are highly tailored to your desired role. This gives you specific, job-relevant skills that you apply immediately in your internship. The internship is more powerful for requiring these skills, improving its signaling power and demonstrating to employers that you can rapidly acquire skills and knowledge just-in-time.
The Structure of the FLC
The Foundational Leadership Course (FLC) is comprised of five distinct modules:
A 12-week boot camp focused on developing foundational cognitive, psychological, and interpersonal high-performance skills. 11 of these weeks are on site in Costa Rica, Paraguay, and Argentina.
This 10-week, in-person unit shifts focus to applying skills in work-like settings. 60% of the effort is spent tackling increasingly realistic challenges (30% furthering PGA goals and 30% on career preparation). The CDA also dedicates 30% to the Career Skill Acquisition (CSA) and 10% to developing a winning mindset for work performance. The CDA runs in Vietnam and Laos.
In this module you acquire specific skills, knowledge, and certification in a career pathway, serving as your "major". This is supported by facilitators, some of it in person during the CDA, and some remote while on break.
This is a curated, supported 12-20 week in-person work experience. You will contribute to a meaningful project that will have an impact on the organization that hosts the internship. You are expected to outperform new college graduates, demonstrating your ability to contribute and execute. You will build references and form professional relationships that you can leverage throughout your career.
During the FLC we help you build an understanding of what it takes to succeed in the business world. This is done through regular events that include town hall chats with business leaders, or debates on key topics to deepen understanding.
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You believe traditional college alone won’t prepare you for the collapsing entry-level job market
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You believe that general performance skills have a large force-multiplier effect on your work performance and career success, you want this advantage, and you know that college is not well-designed to develop these
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You have found that employers care more about evidence that you can deliver results than GPA or your college’s USNWR ranking, and you want to develop that
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You thrive learning in challenges, competition, and failure
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You are hungry for constructive feedback, finding your weaknesses, and attacking them
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You want to invest time and effort exploring and simulating different career paths to help you focus what you want to study in college
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You value independence and responsibility, are ready to live like an adult with other adults, and believe that college doesn’t provide you the degree of responsibility that you want
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You want to take on real stakes, and own real results, in your internship
Are You a Good Fit For The FLC?
How The FLC Accelerates Your Development
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Real-World Conditions – Every challenge mirrors the pace, ambiguity, and demands that you will face in the modern workplace.
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Rapid Iteration – You will receive immediate feedback coaching to accelerate your growth 10x faster than traditional education.
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AI Integration – You will learn to use AI as a productivity multiplier.
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Portfolio Power – You will build a portfolio of your successes and your failures that will provide tangible proof of your abilities.
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Maturity & Independence – You will be treated as an adult from day one, with the responsibility and freedom to match.
Locations
The FLC takes place in four vibrant international locations, each chosen for cultural immersion, economic interest, opportunities to get you out of your comfort zone, and because they are likely to be fun:
Costa Rica
Vietnam
Paraguay/Argentina
Laos
When To Attend The FLC
Maximize college, and your future, by starting with the FLC.
Best timing: before college begins.
Start with the FLC as a powerful gap year. You’ll enter college with clarity, skills, and real-world experience that give you a head start on internships, majors, and career paths.
Other options:
• Mid-college “study abroad” year
• After graduation as gap year
Deferrals are easy.
Top colleges regularly grant gap year deferrals, especially for programs like the FLC. That’s because the FLC offers the kind of distinctive, real-world growth experience you simply can’t get in college, making it exactly the kind of plan admissions offices want to approve.
Applying to the FLC
Pre-applications to the FLC are open via our portal. Interviews begin later in the fall.
Candidates are assessed in the following process:
To apply to Futures Forge, you must demonstrate strong cognitive ability. We have expanded our acceptable range as internal research has demonstrated strong benefits for a broader range of cognitive ability than our initial narrow focus allowed. We group students into teams using a number of factors, one of which is cognitive ability to ensure near peer status.
U.S. System
Minimum Requirements (score at or above the 70th percentile):
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PSAT (1050+ on PSAT NMSQT 11th grade, etc)
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ACT (23+)
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SAT (1150+)
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WISC
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or similar standardized cognitive ability exam, IQ test, etc
International System
Minimum Requirements:
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GCSE/IGCSE with a total score of 63+, or an average grade of 7+
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International Baccalaureate (IB) with a score of 35 or higher
Other qualifying options:
You may also apply by submitting your class rank, GPA, AP results or other nationally recognized exams. Share as many of these as you have available. If your results suggest you’re likely to be in the 70th percentile or higher, you can move forward to an official application. At that stage, you’ll need to take a cognitive test before proceeding with the full application. Prequalifying includes:
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Unweighted GPA of 3.7+ (submit a transcript)
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Class rank of top 20% or better
We administer a cognitive assessment for applications choosing this route for a fee of $75.
Dive Deep and Learn More
Each of the following papers describes key elements of the FLC.
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The Promises of the FLC - View
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An Introduction to the FLC - View
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Attending the FLC: Develop the Skills and Character to Outperform - View
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Attending the FLC: Demonstrate the Ability to Deliver Results - View
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Attending the FLC: Develop Personal Alignment With Your Work - View
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Attending the FLC: Where Traditional Education Falls Short - View
The FLC Modules:
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Personal Growth Accelerator - View
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Career Development Accelerator - View
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Business Insights in Success - View
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Career Skills Certifications - View
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Futures Forge Internships - View
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When to Attend the FLC - View
Program Dates & Details
The total cost of the FLC is $81,878. This is “bumper-to-bumper:” it includes all core learning activities, room and board, transit within the course, medical and evacuation insurance, and sponsored social events. It does not include flight to/from the course, individually-chosen online certifications costs, or spending money.