It's All About the Jobs

Jamie McAuliffe, Jasmine Nahhas di Florio, and Pia Saunders It’s All About the Jobs How are social entrepreneurs ensuring that programs designed to help youth find employment go beyond training or coursework to actually ensure that young people obtain meaningful employment? In the complex global arena of youth unemployment, no one brilliant idea or innovation will solve the challenge of youth unemployment but flashes of insight that fundamentally change how we approach a problem can catalyze a solution. This article describes one such important cata- lyst in addressing the crisis of youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: reimagining education, not as an isolated endeavor but as one with points along the school-to-work continuum that are informed by a number of key stakeholders. This article discusses the experience of Education For Employment (EFE), an organization that a decade ago channeled a flash of insight to revamp the conventional “supply-driven” approach to youth education to become an approach to education for employment. THE CHALLENGE For a year after she graduated from university, 26-year-old Ilhem Zaghdoud from Tunisia could not secure a job. Despite having specialized in economics, her situation was, as she described it to EFE, “precarious” and her education “way too the- oretical and not related to the reality of the professional world.” Ilhem then spent four months in a training program where she learned goal-setting, teamwork, critical thinking, communication skills, and sales techniques. The program, delivered by EFE-Tunisie, also helped her land a job at a leading multinational that was expanding its operations in North Africa. More than six months later, Ilhem was still working, convinced that the training had given her a strong commitment to Jamie McAuliffe is President & CEO of Education For Employment, a Schwab Foundation Global Social Entrepreneur, and the Chair of the World Economic Forum Agenda Council on Youth Unemployment. Jasmine Nahhas di Florio is Vice President for Strategy and Partnerships of Education For Employment. Pia Saunders is Measuring and Evaluation Manager of Education For Employment and a member of the American Evaluation Association and the New York Consortium of Evaluators. © 2013 Jamie McAuliffe, Jasmine Nahhas di Florio, and Pia Saunders innovations / volume 8, number 1/2 203 Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/8/1-2/203/705051/inov_a_00174.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 Jamie McAuliffe, Jasmine Nahhas di Florio, and Pia Saunders her customers and her employer, and a foundation that continued to influence her performance. She felt the training had transformed her beyond her professional life as well, enabling her to contribute to her family’s income and building her confidence and her ability to adapt to challenges. But the most important aspect of her training, she said, was learning “how to plan my career and take ownership of my future.” For the first time since she left university, Ilhem is now excited about her future and about what she can do for others to “pay forward” the impact the EFE training has had on her life. The instability and frustration of Ilhem’s situation is familiar to many youth living in the MENA region. With the world’s highest percentage of youth—approx- imately 33 percent of the population—and the highest youth unemployment rate, one in four of the region’s 100 million young people is unemployed, and a young person is four times as likely as an adult to be unemployed.1 The issue has become an increasingly urgent priority for countries in the region and for the international community alike, as millions of Arab youth are in need of an economic future that can support human development and social cohesion.2 Counter-intuitively, the youth unemployment crisis coincides with a demand for skilled labor that is growing faster than supply. By 2020, McKinsey & Company estimates, developing countries could have 45 million jobs for workers with secondary education that will go unfilled.3 Young people’s frustration with the unemployment problem, as well as with corruption and a desire for political, social, and economic reforms, triggered the 2011 “Arab Spring,” which erupted in Tunisia and spread across the MENA region. Without better youth employment prospects, the risk of ongoing social turmoil remains high. Addressing the region’s youth employment challenge is not simple. The International Monetary Fund contends that poor education content and delivery are critical factors that are exacerbated by demographic pressures.4 Because education in the region does not equip youth with work skills, it also does not necessar- ily lead to employment. In fact, having an advanced education often increases a young person’s chance of being unemployed. In Tunisia, for example, 40 percent of university graduates like Ilhem are unemployed, compared to 24 percent of youth without university degrees.5 Moreover, there are virtually no mechanisms for con- necting underserved youth to a first job after they complete their education. Without that first job, a crucial stepping stone into the professional world, young people face a cycle of unsuccessful job interviews and a bleak future. The fact that more education does not result in better employment prospects underscores the need for a qualified labor supply in the region, which makes it dif- ficult for employers to find the right talent in the right quantity. Fewer than half the employers polled by McKinsey consider graduates adequately prepared for work,6 and 87 percent of CEOs polled in the Middle East believe that the limited supply of candidates with the right skills will present the biggest organizational challenge for business over the next three years.7 204 innovations / Youth and Economic Opportunities Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/8/1-2/203/705051/inov_a_00174.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 It’s All about the Jobs Figure 1. Types of skills considered important when recruiting graduates Source: Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and PricewaterhouseCoopers, “Arab Human Capital Challenge: The Voice of CEOs.” Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Authors, 2008. According to McKinsey’s report on the global youth unemployment crisis, titled “Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works,” “employers, education providers and youth live in parallel universes.”8 For example, they have different views about the job readiness of graduates: only 42 percent of employers and 45 percent of youth believe that new graduates are adequately prepared for entry-level jobs, whereas 72 percent of education providers hold that view. One- third of employers say they never communicate with education providers, and of those that do, fewer than 50 percent say the communication was effective. More than one-third of education providers report that they are unable to estimate the job-placement rates of their graduates, and fewer than 50 percent of youth say that they had a good understanding of the job market when they chose their course of study. 9 One example of the mismatch between youth and employers is the skills gap. According to a report by the Al Maktoum Foundation and Pricewaterhouse- Coopers, over 600 CEOs in the MENA region believe that young graduates have not been taught the kinds of “soft skills” that are in highest demand, including teamwork, leadership, critical thinking, communication, taking initiative, and flex- ibility (see figure 1).10 Intensifying this labor mismatch are social and gender divides. Private-sector employers often are reluctant to hire youth from marginalized socioeconomic backgrounds, and youth in turn do not trust that the system will give them a fair chance. Young women, despite attaining higher levels of education, are especially vulnerable. In some MENA countries the unemployment rate among university- educated women is three to eight times that of university-educated men.11 innovations / volume 8, number 1/2 205 Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/8/1-2/203/705051/inov_a_00174.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 Jamie McAuliffe, Jasmine Nahhas di Florio, and Pia Saunders RESPONSES TO THE CHALLENGE More than training is required to resolve this issue. Young people also need to believe that they can add significant value to the companies they work for. To secure and succeed in their first jobs, they also need the confidence brought by hands-on learning and on-the-job training. Civil society organizations can help these youth by working to change attitudes, creating training and work experi- ences, and providing youth with ongoing opportunities to develop social capital. According to McKinsey, it will be crucial to develop intervention models that specifically bridge the gap between education systems and employers’ needs in order to create systemic change. Their “Education to Employment” report refers to two features that are common to innovative and effective programs in existence worldwide. First, education providers and employers step into each other’s worlds: employers help design curricula and send employee volunteers to speak in class- rooms, while education providers have students spend time at job sites and help them secure hiring commitments.12 Second, employers and education providers work with young people early on in their training, and employers commit to hire young people before the students enroll in a training program. According to the report, the “education-to-employment journey is treated as a continuum in which employers commit to hire youth before they are enrolled in a program to build their skills.”13 Since the Arab Spring, governments across the region have increasingly come to view youth unemployment as a top national priority. Public awareness of the issue remains high, and business leaders are looking for tangible ways to contribute to a solution.

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