What has been your experience like in entrepreneurship and skill-building space and how can we really scale in an effective way in the emerging economies?
Our mission is to empower as many families globally with at least one individual in the family with the family wage. So, we do two things. One is we create family wage jobs on one side and then on the other side, we upskill people to demand these family wage jobs.
And every country we operate in, we want to operate at a national scale because whether it’s India or Indonesia or Brazil or Mexico, the need is humongous.
There is a lot of growing youth population in these countries. So, to be able to get to that level of scale at a population level, there are three key levers that we engage with. Firstly, we engage with technology. Secondly, we engage with state and central governments in every country we operate in. And thirdly we are not the only ones that are involved in doing this. There are other organisations, other partners and large organisations that we try to engage with.
How can India realise the potential of its demographic dividend through entrepreneurship and also skill building?
I think the primary asset for India is the human capital. Now, if we can take this human capital and upgrade them to the latest in whatever is required or whatever the industry needs, you can have a phenomenal impact on the economic growth of the country and potentially, you know, one to two percent impact on the GDP.
How can we align skill building initiatives with sustainable livelihoods?
I think one big thing that is missing that needs to be done across every country is to work within a local ecosystem, especially when you talk about, you know, a large population of youth being employed, and many of them will get employed in mid-skill jobs. And for mid-skill jobs, you may not need a four-year academic degree.
So, if we build our skilling programmes that are aligned with local needs, start with the local demand, then work with training institutes to skill to local demand, and then make a concerted effort to connect the two through technology.
Finally, how can we transform quickly into a developed country?
You know, the way to transform nations, to build economic activity and to serve the nation is to serve the youth of the country. You know, the aspiration of every youth, even if he or she is super rich, is to earn the first pay cheque, which is very empowering: I have earned from my own, you know, abilities. So, leveraging that, upskilling is the need of the day. So, first, create a whole bunch of supply of jobs. And then to upskill people to command those jobs is going to be very transformational not only from the economic development point of view, but from the population’s feelings about the nation, their sense of productivity, their sense of achievement, and even for their happiness index.
Online Source:
Sustainability Karma
