Archer Career’s Innovation Unframed Program Named 2025’s “e-Learning Innovation of the Year” By EdTech Breakthrough
CHICAGO, – June 4, 2025 – Archer Career, an early career confidence builder, today announced that Innovation Unframed has been recognized with the “e-Learning Innovation of the Year” award in the 7th annual EdTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by EdTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies and solutions in the global educational technology market.
Archer Career has partnered with a top medical school, The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, to develop an innovative career readiness program for PhD trainees. The result is a high-impact retreat focused on innovation and entrepreneurship that moves beyond traditional scientific skill-building. Branded “Innovation Unframed,” the novel approach blends art and innovation to foster entrepreneurial thinking, and the flipped-classroom experience combines eLearning modules with an immersive retreat.
Prior to the retreat, trainees complete online modules covering core innovation and entrepreneurship concepts. The trainees then come together at an art gallery where guided, team-based activities link each piece of art to a specific skill. The experience and its variety of instructional methods create a multi-sensory learning journey. Through visuals, audio, and tactile props like Legos, students gain greater clarity on how to apply innovative thinking in scientific contexts. Students draw insights from art that enhance their research, ideas, education, and thinking. In addition, by engaging in team-driven activities and collaboration, participants refine and expand innovation frameworks.
Building on the success of Innovation Unframed, Archer Career plans to launch this program as a new product offering in 2025 in Chicago. The initiative includes pre-course work to build entrepreneurial skills, admission to The Art Institute, the full digital course during the on-site program, and a badge and certificate for LinkedIn.
“Archer Career is combining traditional skill building with an immersive experience, using art to spur insights and innovation. Innovation and entrepreneurship are critical skills for today’s workforce and yet beyond those in corporate or start-up roles, they are underemphasized competencies for academia and scientists,” said Steve Johansson, managing director, EdTech Breakthrough. “By intertwining art, collaboration, and cutting-edge skill-building, Archer Career has redefined how future scientists prepare for the demands of an ever-evolving professional landscape. Archer Career Camp is truly showcasing the power of innovation in education.”
The mission of the EdTech Breakthrough Awards is to honor excellence and recognize the innovation, hard work and success in a range of educational technology categories, including Student Engagement, School Administration, Adaptive Learning, STEM Education, Remote Learning, Career Preparation and many more. This year’s program attracted thousands of nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.
“The goal was really to accelerate mindset shifts. So we designed a program that melded our online offerings with a hands-on retreat to deliver learning and skill-building through art and individual, partner, and team activities. The result is that it’s digital, it’s active, and it’s certainly not boring,” said Pam Schilling, co-Founder and CEO of Archer Career. “Thank you to EdTech Breakthrough for the ‘e-Learning Innovation of the Year’ award! This is just the beginning as we’ll continue to refine the course and these experiences to help students prioritize innovation, no matter their role, and focus on inspiring ideas for next best career steps.”
About Archer Career
Archer Career is a Chicago-based CareerTech company transforming how students and early-career professionals navigate career readiness, build skills, and launch meaningful careers. Built in partnership with leading universities, Archer delivers AI-powered tools and microlearning experiences that make career education accessible, actionable, and engaging. By combining data-driven insights with human-centered design, Archer helps learners gain clarity, confidence, and career momentum—empowering institutions to scale career readiness and individuals to land jobs they love.
Check us out at archercareer.com and on LinkedIn. Curious about our software? Ask for a demo—we love showing it off. If we don’t reply right away, we’re probably mid-launch—be patient, be creative, and keep reaching out.
About EdTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the EdTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in educational technology products, companies and people. The EdTech Breakthrough Awards provide a platform for public recognition around the achievements of breakthrough educational technology in categories including e-learning, student engagement, school administration, career preparation, language learning, STEM and more. For more information, visit EdTechBreakthrough.com.
Tech Breakthrough LLC does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our recognition programs, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with award designations. Tech Breakthrough LLC recognition consists of the opinions of the Tech Breakthrough LLC organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Tech Breakthrough LLC disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this recognition program, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.