BUS604: Innovation and Sustainability

Education and training helps individuals to enter and succeed in labor markets everywhere. Moreover, the Commission's research shows that progress on Global Goal 4, Quality Education, is linked to improvement on more of the goals than any other (see Section 2.3). Yet 263 million children and young people around the world are out of school. Millions more are in school but not learning; UN figures show that at least a quarter of a billion children cannot read or count despite having spent four years in school. In 32 countries – including many of the countries with the highest birth rates – fewer than 80 percent of 15-24 year olds can read. Girls get a particularly bad deal: they are more likely than boys to be out of primary or secondary school in 63 developing countries. Nor is underachievement confined to low-income countries: in the US, for instance, 38 percent of 17-18 year old students were assessed as "below basic" in mathematics. 

Citizens look first to governments to provide education. But business leaders can be crucial to strengthening education systems by supporting policy shifts that address underlying systemic weaknesses. They can also make a more direct contribution by providing skills and vocational training to their workers. That means nurturing specific technical expertise as well as broader skills like problem solving and communication, fostering entrepreneurship, and building opportunities with traditionally marginalized or disadvantaged groups. The new Education Commission (formally the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity) launched in September 2015 will be exploring how over the next 15 years better education financing could lead to the Global Goals of greater economic growth, better health outcomes, and improved global security.

Public-private partnerships offer important possibilities too. Vocational education works well in countries like Germany, Singapore, and Sweden partly because companies and worker representatives are closely engaged in curriculum design and training delivery, and partly because the education system is set up to help pupils cross the academic/vocational divide. (See Box 12: Learning to train better).

Box 12: Learning to train better

Generation is an international organization that has developed new ways to build skills and job readiness among unemployed and underemployed 18-29 year olds. It has identified healthcare, technology, retail and skilled trades as sectors with high demand for entry-level jobs and puts students through intensive "boot camps" covering technical and behavioral skills matched to those industries, with regular feedback and mentoring. Generation has a 91 percent job placement rate and graduates can expect to increase their incomes by two to six times immediately. Crucial to this success is its direct engagement with employers from the outset, securing commitments to provide graduates of the programme with jobs on completion. 

Launched just two years ago, Generation – run by non-profit group McKinsey Social Initiative – is already one of the world's largest youth training organizations, with programmes across 15 professions in five countries. By the end of 2016, it will have trained more than 10,000 young men and women and significantly boosted their chances of securing a decent living. 

The 400+ employers involved have been impressed too: 83 percent say Generation graduates outperform their peers, and 98 percent that they would hire from the scheme again. This is even with operating costs that are 20-50 percent lower than comparable programmes, Generation says. It currently relies on donors, including McKinsey & Company and Walmart, for the bulk of its funding. But the programme plans to be self-financing by 2018, through fees charged to employers, students and governments convinced of the merits of its approach. By 2020, Generation aims to reach 1 million young people, and to have fine-tuned a model that could reach tens of millions more.