Learning Ecosystems

One of the world’s elite management consultants said businesses should pay attention to lagging youth employment.

“One of the biggest issues we think that we are facing in our times is the issue about youth unemployment,” Dominic Barton, global managing director of McKinsey & Co., said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday.

“It’s something that business needs to be worried about. It’s not something that’s a side show,” Barton added. “If we don’t deal with it we’re not going to be able to operate in the way we need to. We need to own it more.”
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Dangote said that some modes of education were outdated, and graduates have seen their jobs supplanted by advances in technology. The solution, he said, is to increase vocational and technical training and entrepreneurship.
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Barton agreed that more training was important, especially short term programs.

 

From DSC:
A few thoughts on this one:

1. I was glad to see this call out to business to get more involved with helping equip our youth — a WIN-WIN situation for sure.
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2. Speaking of WIN-WIN situations…are there mutually-beneficial opportunities for business and higher ed here? (i.e., higher ed collaborating more aggressively with the corporate world in order to provide more of these short term programs?) I wonder if the need for these short term solutions is one of the reasons why we’re seeing more bootcamps and similar alternatives popping up?
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3. Those in the corporate/business world need to be more involved with — and pulse-checking trends involving — higher education. While those in higher education need to be more involved with — and pulse-checking trends involving — K-12.  As it is, we’re seeing gaps in the continuum on a number of different levels. Quoting from the McKinsey piece above, “Most people don’t know what jobs are available, and if they do, they’re out of date in terms of where they are,” Barton said. “There are big mismatches that are going on.”