Youth Workforce Development – Business leaders and other stakeholders should address four primary challenges

Using input from youth, representatives throughout the business community, and nonprofits, think tanks, and academia, the report’s objective is to move past the narrow question of which skills are needed and pursue the broader issue of how the business community can prepare today’s youth for 4IR.

Business leaders and other stakeholders should address four primary challenges within the larger context of youth workforce development:

1. Reimagine 4IR as a unique opportunity to be welcomed, not a problem to be confronted
2. Reposition discrete and disconnected programs as a systemwide, unified set of approaches
3. Realign toward achieving both scale and impact, rather than framing solutions as scale versus impact
4. Reframe the possibilities for marginalized youth, including those who historically have been difficult to reach, with particular attention to women and girls

Complementary to these challenges, the report provides four recommendations for the business community to commit to:

1. Align stakeholders’ objectives and approaches: Work with the broader ecosystem to align goals and outcomes for impact.
2. Engage in public policy: Strategically engage in public policy through dialogue, advocacy, collaboration,
and influence.
3. Develop promising talent strategies: Analyze current talent strategies—particularly those focused on youth
or under-represented populations—and implement best practices to promote inclusivity and innovation, and drive economic return through differentiation.
4. Invest strategically in workforce training approaches: Evaluate, invest, and promoteworkforce training programs that align with your corporate social responsibility goals, talent practices, skill needs, and corporate culture.

The time to act is now. Preparing youth to excel in 4IR requires that the business community actively participates in an ecosystem aligned across education, workforce development programs, young people, and public policy. It must be a collective effort aimed at improving the potential employment outcomes for global youth.

We ask the business community to consider its unique position within a larger workforce ecosystem to determine where,how, and for whom they can make an impact today for the betterment of tomorrow.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story @ Preparing tomorrow’s workforce for the Fourth Industrial Revolution – For business: a framework for action Skills for Employment