Over 30 years of making a difference in the world!
The Kaospilot school was founded in Aarhus in 1991 by Uffe Elbæk. It is based on a cultural and social youth organisation called the Frontrunners (DA: Frontløberne), as a response to the emerging need for a new type of education. With roots in activism culture and with inspiration from the Danish folk high school and the Danish co-operative movement, the Bauhaus School in Berlin and the Beatnik movement in San Francisco, the school helps young people navigate the changing reality of today’s society.
The intention was to create an education for action-oriented people who seek out and utilize new knowledge. And for those who understand changing needs and shift systems to fit changing cultural, social and economic realities. It was also about creating a learning environment where students could learn, lead and be enterprising – essential skills that would enable students to work towards an unknown future. This education went on to become the flagship 3-year program: The Kaospilot Education, formerly Enterprising Leadership.
we need people who are not merely able to embrace the complexity, but who are also able to act and create within it. If not a Kaospilot, then who?
– Uffe Elbæk, Founder
Being a student at Kaospilot is about being a learner, a creator and leading oneself and others. This unique approach and logic resulted in the 3-year program becoming the inspiration for new educational formats. The program became a pioneer in the fields of learning and education; shifting from being an inspirational source to becoming a provider for designing learning and education programs. This has resulted in Kaospilot opening up schools across Europe, including Rotterdam, Bern, Oslo, and Malmö, inspiring a new global audience of change-makers.
The present and beyond
Today, KAOSPILOT is a world-renowned school for creative leadership and meaningful entrepreneurship located in the bustling and creative Filmbyen in Aarhus. We specialize in designing and delivering impact-driven education and professional programs that aren’t just designed to shape emergent leaders for the future, but to help them create it. We focus on people’s potential to develop and to achieve – to use their creativity and set direction, and create the setting which allows them to navigate the uncertainty that follows.
Our offerings range our 3-year Enterprising Leadership Program, a diverse range of professional programs, bespoke consulting services for businesses and organisations globally, and our co-working space Kaospilot HIVE. In 2007, we were acknowledged as one of the best design schools globally by Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek. In 2011, Fast Company named us one of the 10 best schools for the fast-evolving start-up economy.
Since 1991, over 1200 people have graduated from the Enterprising Leadership Program and become Kaospilots, who create impact and positive change in communities, organisations and societies across the globe.
Our shorter professional programs are high on impact and experiential by design. These include Creative Leadership, Design for Sustainability, Designing & Facilitating Learning Spaces and Experience Design. Together, these professional programs have surpassed 5000 alumni, from Europe to Australia, Japan, South Africa, Brazil to Canada.
