Preparing Young People with 21st Century Skills for a 21st Century Economy

Preparing Young People with 21st Century Skills
 for a 21st Century Economy

Proceedings Report 5 November, 2019

Session Detail The current genera,on of young people is the largest in history – they represent tremendous opportuni,es and challenges. Equipping this young genera,on with the skills and opportuni,es to contribute to developing their socie,es and the economy of their countries is one of the defining challenges of current ,mes. According to current global trends, by 2030, more than half of all young people will be unprepared for the skills needed for the future of work.

In light of these cri,cal challenges, the Genera,on Unlimited ini,a,ve was created as a global partnership to prepare young people to become produc,ve and engaged ci,zens - bringing young people together with the private sector, government, interna,onal and local organiza,ons to tackle urgent global challenges. It aims to ensure that every young person (aged 10-24) is in some form of school, learning, training or age-appropriate employment by 2030.

This session brought together diverse, high-level global leaders from the business community, government, UN and civil society – alongside young people – to deliberate on innova,ve solu,ons, new investments, and partnerships. It highlighted and delved upon the state of the young people today and moved on to mark the session as a cri,cal milestone in the journey of Genera,on Unlimited - empowering every young person to thrive in the world of work.

Key Presenter: HenriePa H. Fore Execu,ve Director, UNICEF Speakers:

Elisabeth Von Capeller Her Excellency Ambassador of Switzerland to Nepal

Sumana Shrestha Head of Global Opera,ons and Strategy, Fuse Machines

Umesh Chandra Rai CEO, Ye, Airlines Moderated By: Sujeev Shakya Chair, Nepal Economic Forum

HenrieKa H. Fore


ExecuOve Director, UNICEF On behalf of UNICEF, Execu,ve Director HenreiPa H. Fore expressed commitment towards working to help the youth get acquainted with the 21st century skills. The youth can gain 21st century skills and be prepared for the 21st century economy if they are supported with educa,on, skills, training, and employment. She began the session expressing her delight with the undertaking of this important subject.

Placing Nepal’s future in the spotlight, she emphasized that the investment in the future of the children and young people is the best investment as they are the ones who will be responsible for building the country tomorrow. Having said that, young people face a combina,on of challenges. Poverty, inequality, and exclusion have come across as serious problems sweeping away the opportuni,es that the younger genera,on could have had. Insis,ng on the need for a change, HenriePa stressed on the need for educa,on and skills along with voca,onal training and internships that can give youths a hands-on experience.

Moving forward, she men,oned that the lack of good employment opportuni,es was one of the major reasons due to which the youths were being pressurized to go abroad in search of opportuni,es. She highlighted the need for entrepreneurial guidance for the youth to help tackle this problem. In other words, with entrepreneurial guidance and skills, youths will be able to find and create bePer employment opportuni,es for themselves.

In the present context, South Asia has a predominance of an informal economy. Entrepreneurship and the informal sector represent vast employment opportuni,es. On the contrary, she stated that enough jobs were not being created at the moment as around 10 million jobs needed to be created a month for people aged 10 to 24. Therefore, there is a need to create an environment where people can feel safe to invest and do business. Along with this, she drew special aPen,on to the need to create an investment-friendly environment for women. Moreover, she men,oned that it is everyone’s responsibility to help create avenues to support young people.

Concluding her remarks, she endorsed the idea for a collabora,ve effort to support the future of young people. Moreover, she stressed that businesses need to put extra efforts to provide opportuni,es for young people to enter the job market.

UNICEF has planned to work along the same wavelength and concentrate its effort towards helping young people get bePer opportuni,es and prepare them for the 21st century economy.

Elisabeth Von Capeller
 Her Excellency Ambassador of Switzerland to Nepal Given the context where the share of young people entering the job market is in an increasing trend, Elisabeth Von Capeller largely communicated the need to align these young people with the private sector, the government sector, and academics in order to move forward in the 21st century.

Elabora,ng on this need, she acknowledged that the willingness of the Nepali private sector to be involved with young people is unlike any other country, and contributes to being a success factor in this century.

However, the major problem preven,ng the private sector from hiring the right people at the right place is the kind of school system that they graduate from. She emphasized that the formal educa,on system of the country does not dieren,ate between TVET (Technical and Voca,onal Educa,on and Training) and skills, and the counseling given to students is also not appropriate. The students are not taught self-competence and social skills. In order to learn these social skills, they should also be encouraged and allowed to spend 4-5 days in an enterprise. This will enable them to bePer understand and internalize the actual business prac,ces. Likewise, the counseling should also be given in terms of what they want, where their energy lies and where the opportunity is.

On a similar note, she claimed that the lack of skills and training serves as a visible driving factor behind out-migra,on from Nepal, but issues rela,ng to social pressure, social status and the culture of the country are o`en missed out. Young people demand pride and recogni,on but instances like preferring to go to the gulf for labor-intensive jobs rather than doing the same in Kathmandu prove that a higher status associated with migra,on leaves them with no other choice than moving away. This has also got to do with escaping the societal expecta,ons and wan,ng personal space in society. Due to these impediments, young people are held back and are unable to move ahead in the globalized world.

Delving deeper into the topic, she discussed the importance of linking young people’s demands with the private sector. The strategies developed by the private sector where they demand the right proďŹ le and right training ins,tu,ons have to be constantly communicated to the young people and supported by the government.

Considering this background and the recent shi` to federaliza,on, she vouched for the need for a common approach towards developing a na,onal standard system where each province is commiPed to delivering TVET and skills training as well as real,me learning while also being equally compe,,ve with each other. A booklet has already been circulated in this regard but proper implementa,on, where the role of provinces, educa,on, private, government, and development sector is highlighted and linked with each other, is s,ll required. If and when the groups are brought together, a new direc,on towards 21st century is going to be set. For this, certain steps have to be taken. Such as, instead of sending students to school to formally learn about subjects, they have to be imparted with real-,me learning by allowing them to visit businesses and industries which adopt innova,ve prac,ces. This will also ensure that students are updated with new market requirements in a fastchanging context. Thus, much work has to be done on the policy front as well. This is to say that the private sector and the government’s educa,on system have to come together to work on the policies to enable Nepal to be more innova,onfriendly. All of this coupled with the right kind of educa,on system can enable a youth-centric century full of possibili,es.

Sumana Shrestha Head of Global OperaOons and Strategy, Fuse Machines Sumana Shrestha spoke at great lengths about the changing landscape of the job market amidst burgeoning innova,on. She started the session by men,oning that it is very important to have people from different sectors come together to try and tackle issues regarding skills, innova,on and the changing job market. Convinced that the tech sector is going to bring the change in Nepal’s context, she believes that, with technology, Nepal can climb up the economic ladder by moving to the service sector.

On a similar note, she insisted that people need to be willing to learn about innova,on and technology and incorporate it into their daily lives to help them do their tasks bePer. Currently working for Fusemachines, a company that offers AI solu,ons to other organiza,ons, she men,oned that all industries are going to be impacted by ar,ficial intelligence. She further men,oned Fusemachines was working to build a workforce that is ready for the AI revolu,on. However, lack of awareness and understanding in people with regards to AI is prevalent. Addi,onally, there have been concerns about the risk of AI displacing jobs. The labor migra,on report of 2017 hinted that most of the work that Nepalese do abroad is at risk of being automated. In response to this, she stressed that humans need to focus on the things that machines are not good at. Humans have crea,vity, nego,a,on skills and problem-solving abili,es, which

stands out as their advantage. Along with this, skills like cri,cal thinking and people management can be an added benefit for them. However, there s,ll exists ques,ons on whether young people are being prepared to be cri,cal thinkers and whether we are accep,ng that automa,on will take away a lot of menial jobs.

Having established a baseline about the possibility of AI in different areas, Sumana men,oned that there is s,ll a big gap in the implementa,on of AI globally. Nepal also has its own problems with the implementa,on. She indicated that discussions on AI o`en miss out on the crucial points on the processes of its adop,on. Nevertheless, she stated that there is a good opportunity for a country like Nepal to learn, educate and mone,ze on it. While innova,on might disrupt the current job market displacing a lot of exis,ng jobs, it will also create new opportuni,es in the job market. The only way that people can stay relevant is by con,nuously upda,ng themselves through research. Along with this, she also men,oned that it is important to be realis,c about Nepal’s scenario as Nepal has a very small market which makes it important for ideas to be scalable.

As a part of her concluding remarks, she underlined that the adapta,on to innova,on needs to start from home. The course of adap,ng towards new and innova,ve technology might be difficult, however, it becomes essen,al to stay relevant in this fast-paced world. Along with this, innova,on needs to be looked upon as an enabler to achieve greater feats. One just needs to embrace it while being willing to learn about it. Suppor,ng her statements, she brought into light a PricewaterhouseCoopers report which said that around $15.7 trillion was going to be created by AI by 2030.

Lastly, she highlighted the importance of forming a support network to help one another during all transi,ons to adapt with the changing scenarios. As an ins,tu,on, she men,oned that Fusemachines also supports various organiza,ons that they believe can bring posi,ve changes in Nepal.

Umesh Chandra Rai CEO, Yeti Airlines

For Umesh Chandra Rai, who has long been associated with the human resource department in Ye, airlines, the procedure of inculca,ng 21st century skills to the younger genera,on is very important. He primarily contextualized his discussion around the rela,onship between the willingness of Nepali youth to work and the exis,ng employment opportuni,es in the labor market. Youths in Nepal are largely groomed for jobs, technologies, and problems that do not even exist. So, in many ways, he feels that the younger genera,ons are being guided in the wrong direc,on. Students of the 21st century need skills that are at par with the same centenary as this equips them with a compe,,ve edge as compared to their peers. However, in Nepal, youths fall short in their adaptability skills and hence do not perform well when challenged with new obstacles.

Moving forward, he highlighted the importance of recognizing one’s skills. Be it technical or non-technical, specializa,on in one’s exper,se opens up new avenues for self-development and improvement. Pugng forth his own experiences, he said that Nepal’s cultural and societal values seldom restricts young students from pursuing what they are really passionate about. This leaves them with very liPle op,ons regarding their future career. Presently in the private sector, youth’s enthusiasm regarding their

work is almost negligible as they are forced to perform out of their own interest. This is hampering their labor produc,vity and is bringing in low marginal returns in their endeavors. Thus, it is impera,ve to dis,nguish one’s passion for one’s source of income.

In the same background, he also talked about how even with all the micro-challenges they face, the private sector is always ready to welcome new and emerging talents. Divulging deeper into this, he spoke about how ‘skills gap’ was one of the major issues hindering the effec,ve recrui,ng process of the private sector. The disparity in the nature of workers available in the labor market and the ones desired by a firm impedes the laPer’s performance. Similarly, the need to define an individual's ‘status’ in his job is further trapping people into a circle of corporate chains, wherein, seeking for a higher designa,on is more relevant than the given opportunity. Likewise, the ever-increasing compe,,on between the laborers, in terms of their educa,on degree, their skills or past experiences is reducing the availability of decent work opportuni,es. Hence, more than fi`y percent of the capable workforce in Nepal is forced to exit the labor market.

Moving on, he also talked about the importance of engaging youth in sustainable economic ac,vi,es, in the 21st century. In this regard, he emphasized on the combined ini,a,ve undertaken by Ye, Airlines and Blue-to-Waste, to fly out waste and garbage from the Everest Base Camp region. This partnership has ensured garbage collec,on along with its proper disposal/ recycling; by genera,ng benefits to all those involved.

Lastly, he contemplated on the fact as to how there is a dire need to change the societal mindset in Nepal. An individual’s dream and ambi,on are quite different from what the society dreams of. If this is not acknowledged, the person would always be in search of opportuni,es in the wrong place. This reduces employment opportuni,es for other individuals who are bePer suited for the job. Moreover, it also ins,lls a feeling of dissa,sfac,on in the former one; ul,mately driving him/her into voluntary unemployment.

Sujeev Shakya
 Nepal Economic Forum Job crea,on in the 21st century is not only the responsibility of the government but also of the private sector. What we are seeing right now in the labor market is a highly capable and healthy workforce that is ready to commit to any construc,ve challenges. However, due to supply-side constraints, available jobs are too meager as compared to their demand. Thus, the genera,on of mass employment or mass entrepreneurial opportuni,es by development agencies is immensely vital in impar,ng the 21st century skills to the younger genera,on.

In this context, Sujeev Shakya, moderator of the session, revolved the discussion around the importance of an individual’s ability to cri,cally think, contextualize, analyze and ques,on his surroundings. He also emphasized on the need to understand the social impact that high-scale migra,on of laborers creates in the domes,c economy. Seldom, people migrate abroad for bePer educa,on and employment opportuni,es and also to escape their societal obliga,ons.

Thus, human resources and skills, which otherwise could have been used internally, get exploited abroad. Likewise, rapidly

changing innova,on and techniques change an individual’s no,on of sustainability. In this regard, the genera,onal gap, too, plays a significant role in defining how one perceives Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Hence, the movement towards genera,on unlimited is crucial in ensuring uniformity in skills distribu,on along with assuring resource enhancement.

Lastly, he contextualized the discussion on how we could accelerate the process of skill building in the current centenary.

Industrial and technological revolu,on does provide the needed boost among individuals to tackle new challenges. However, what the 21st-century skill needs to teach us is to be more prac,cal and more adaptable. In addi,on to this, skills that can be transferred over ,me and space and across various genera,ons are a fundamental tool that can be used for a long period of ,me. Thus, only by acquiring indigenous knowledge and passing it to the younger genera,on, can Nepal unleash its strength.

Key Highlights: • The discourse to bring together a diverse set of young people in the 21st century has just begun. However, for its proper execu,on, support from the private, public and development sectors is crucial.

• A shi` from the current formal educa,on taught in schools to the kind of learning where students get trained about skills that can be transferred over ,me and space such as cri,cal thinking, problem-solving, ini,a,vetaking, social-upli`ment and self-competence is needed.

• When there is a genera,onal gap, how one perceives innova,on and skills differ. Given this, the movement towards genera,on unlimited is a must in ensuring uniformity in skills distribu,on along with assuring resource enhancement.