Our thesis
New Horizons is not a course finder. It is not a job board. Both exist here — but neither is the point. The work experience is the point. Real work, for real employers, verified and permanent. The challenge is how we deliver it. The Industry Passport is the proof it happened. The course search brings students to the work experience. The jobs board shows where the work experience leads. Without the work experience in the middle, both are just another search box.
The four-layer ecosystem
Handshake connects students to jobs. LinkedIn connects everyone to noise. New Horizons is the first ecosystem to make students, courses, live business challenges and graduate jobs legible to one another, in real time — with the Foundation funded by every connection made.
A student tells us in their own words what they want: a subject, a city, the grades they're tracking, how they like to learn. They're connected to every course they qualify for by genuine fit — not by who paid most for placement.
Universities, colleges and learning institutions list their courses once. They're connected only to students who meet the entry criteria.
Companies post live problems — a market study, a prototype, a research question. We route each brief to courses with the right skill set and put motivated students on it as a live challenge, project or hackathon.
Employers list live graduate roles in the same ecosystem. Students see jobs aligned to their subject, skills and proven work — closing the loop from study to first role.
Why four layers matter
"A two-sided marketplace tells you where to study. A connected ecosystem tells you why — and what's next."
How the fit score works
Every course you see is scored against your inputs in real time. We show you the score, the band it sits in, and — crucially — the human-readable reasons it landed there. No mystery weighting, no pay-to-play boost.
Score bands
Your free-text query is compared against course titles, subject taxonomy and the full course description. The more of your intent the course covers, the higher the score.
0–45 pts · proportional to keyword coverage
We compare your predicted grade average to the course's published entry requirement. Meeting it scores full marks; within half a grade scores a near-fit; within a full grade earns a 'stretch' badge.
0–25 pts · 25 met · 18 within 0.5 · 8 within 1.0
If the course's delivery mode (in-person, online, hybrid) matches your stated preference, it scores in full. No penalty if you've left mode open — we just don't bias you towards one.
0–15 pts · compared against your filters
We calculate the great-circle distance from your city to the university using the Haversine formula. Online courses always score full marks. In-person courses degrade smoothly within your max-distance band.
0–15 pts · distance-decayed within radius
Worked example
A learner in Lagos searches "sustainability in the UK."A BSc Sustainable Business at a UK university accepts their WAEC results (25), delivers the subject they asked for (45), runs in-person as preferred (15), and has a live challenge with a multinational built into year one (≈14).Fit score: 99 / 100.
Operating principles
Universities cannot buy a higher fit score. Sponsorship, where it exists, is labelled and ranked separately.
Every result shows the reasons it appeared. No opaque models, no hidden filters.
We measure success by the learner's destination 12 months out, not by enrolment numbers.
Whether you're applying from Birmingham or Bangalore, the platform works with your qualifications, your grading system, and your entry requirements — not against them.
The Industry Passport is not a UK credential. It is a globally recognised, employer-verified record of capability that works anywhere in the world. The opportunity follows the talent — not the other way around.
New Horizons only works if every party — students, universities, employers — is held to the same bar. The passport is only worth having if it means something. We protect that.
Run a search, post a brief, or list a course. The model is best understood by using it.
