Employing our youth
After our young people have learned skills, gained employment, we must empower them to prosper in new, digital world.
The writer is co-CEO of software maker SAP AG
As the world seeks economic recovery, the youth unemployment crisis is perhaps the most alarming problem that threatens to undermine the social fabric and long-term stability of hard-hit countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
In the European Union, for instance, there are 26 million unemployed citizens, including nearly six million young university graduates. Experts warn of the perils that could face a ‘lost generation’, a demographic wave of young, well-educated adults who may never have the opportunity to take up productive roles in the economy. It is increasingly common for three generations to rely on a single income or entitlement benefit, especially in southern Europe where the youth unemployment rate is nearly 60 per cent. This trend of reliance is also prevalent in poverty-stricken areas of Pakistan, where families rely on women to work on and off as the only source of income. Pakistan’s official rate of unemployment for youths under 24 is 7.7 per cent, although the actual rate could be up to twice as much.
Even though developing countries like Pakistan possess a plethora of unemployed people with bright and innovative minds, there is little emphasis on technology and innovation, and on vocational or technical training — a method which can allow three people to graduate for the cost of one. We must not only identify industries that will hire our youth and then give them the skills and confidence to succeed, we must also create a spirit of entrepreneurship and alternative education so people feel encouraged to create their own jobs based on their own ideas, as opposed to submitting to the norms of what can only be called a culture-fed habit. First, I would like to consider the root of the problem. Studies have pointed to weak educational systems and infrastructure. Some have blamed technological change.
Technological change is always difficult and is often blamed when the livelihood of workers seems threatened by a new, job-displacing technology. For example, during the second industrial revolution, legions of horse traders and carriage manufacturers were rendered obsolete by the advent of Henry Ford’s assembly line and the mass-produced automobile. More recently, the introduction of automated word processors and laser and inkjet printers decimated the office typing pool.
Today, some say we are entering a fourth industrial revolution — Industry 4.0 — marked by an increasingly networked world, in which machines communicate with one another. Now ‘cyber-physical’ production systems combine classic production techniques with information technology, enabling machine and product to communicate.
Forecasts estimate that Industry 4.0 will lead to productivity gains of around 30 per cent. Time and again, technological advances have created new jobs to replace those that have been made obsolete. New technology and increases in productivity do not reduce the demand for labour. Rather they expand the quantity of goods and services we can produce, while chipping away at the amount of drudgery needed to produce them. In the short term, of course, it is critical that we provide young people with the education they need to perform these new jobs. While many formerly viable career paths, both skilled and unskilled, have withered on the vine, the people who once expected to build their lives around them are too valuable a resource to sacrifice. Because many young job seekers lack adequate computer and technology skills, educational outreach is the first step. Training efforts must be forward-looking and tailored to the economy’s modern needs. As the internet transforms how businesses do work, more and more jobs are IT related. Understandably, hopelessness is pervasive among the unemployed who lack future skills. Thousands of young people are leaving their home country and seeking work elsewhere, often due to the oversaturated market in popular industries like medicine and law. This mass exodus — or brain drain — is making it more and more unlikely that affected countries in Europe and Asia will thrive as older generations retire in the years to come.
Some of the very best ideas on how to address youth unemployment will come from the young people who have far more at stake than any of us. And then, finally, after our young people have learned the skills and gained employment, we must empower them to prosper in the new, digital world.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2013.
In the European Union, for instance, there are 26 million unemployed citizens, including nearly six million young university graduates. Experts warn of the perils that could face a ‘lost generation’, a demographic wave of young, well-educated adults who may never have the opportunity to take up productive roles in the economy. It is increasingly common for three generations to rely on a single income or entitlement benefit, especially in southern Europe where the youth unemployment rate is nearly 60 per cent. This trend of reliance is also prevalent in poverty-stricken areas of Pakistan, where families rely on women to work on and off as the only source of income. Pakistan’s official rate of unemployment for youths under 24 is 7.7 per cent, although the actual rate could be up to twice as much.
Even though developing countries like Pakistan possess a plethora of unemployed people with bright and innovative minds, there is little emphasis on technology and innovation, and on vocational or technical training — a method which can allow three people to graduate for the cost of one. We must not only identify industries that will hire our youth and then give them the skills and confidence to succeed, we must also create a spirit of entrepreneurship and alternative education so people feel encouraged to create their own jobs based on their own ideas, as opposed to submitting to the norms of what can only be called a culture-fed habit. First, I would like to consider the root of the problem. Studies have pointed to weak educational systems and infrastructure. Some have blamed technological change.
Technological change is always difficult and is often blamed when the livelihood of workers seems threatened by a new, job-displacing technology. For example, during the second industrial revolution, legions of horse traders and carriage manufacturers were rendered obsolete by the advent of Henry Ford’s assembly line and the mass-produced automobile. More recently, the introduction of automated word processors and laser and inkjet printers decimated the office typing pool.
Today, some say we are entering a fourth industrial revolution — Industry 4.0 — marked by an increasingly networked world, in which machines communicate with one another. Now ‘cyber-physical’ production systems combine classic production techniques with information technology, enabling machine and product to communicate.
Forecasts estimate that Industry 4.0 will lead to productivity gains of around 30 per cent. Time and again, technological advances have created new jobs to replace those that have been made obsolete. New technology and increases in productivity do not reduce the demand for labour. Rather they expand the quantity of goods and services we can produce, while chipping away at the amount of drudgery needed to produce them. In the short term, of course, it is critical that we provide young people with the education they need to perform these new jobs. While many formerly viable career paths, both skilled and unskilled, have withered on the vine, the people who once expected to build their lives around them are too valuable a resource to sacrifice. Because many young job seekers lack adequate computer and technology skills, educational outreach is the first step. Training efforts must be forward-looking and tailored to the economy’s modern needs. As the internet transforms how businesses do work, more and more jobs are IT related. Understandably, hopelessness is pervasive among the unemployed who lack future skills. Thousands of young people are leaving their home country and seeking work elsewhere, often due to the oversaturated market in popular industries like medicine and law. This mass exodus — or brain drain — is making it more and more unlikely that affected countries in Europe and Asia will thrive as older generations retire in the years to come.
Some of the very best ideas on how to address youth unemployment will come from the young people who have far more at stake than any of us. And then, finally, after our young people have learned the skills and gained employment, we must empower them to prosper in the new, digital world.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2013.