Jobs Reset Summit Day 3: Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning

I'm really hoping this pandemic has helped to raise a profile of teachers where the ones who are creating the futures of any country. Welcome to the great reset, a podcast from the World Economic Forum that looks at how we can build a cleaner, fairer smarter world after Covid-19. It's October 22nd. Day three at the Jobs Reset Summit, where experts from around the globe are discussing education, skills and lifelong learning. Creativity should be embedded in absolutely every aspect of our curriculums. As Covid-19 disrupts the education of children all over the world, we'll hear from an award-winning teacher on how to equip the next generation for a world of work in constant flux. The beauty of teaching creativity is that what you're actually doing is enabling your learners to have transferable skills and if we're not doing that, then we're just failing them. And we'll have highlights from day two at the Summit to which looked at work, wages and job creation. The jobs that drives sustainable living will be at the centre of the 21st century. 19th century was marked by the industrial economy. 20th century is marked by the knowledge economy. The 21st century will be marked by the sustainable economy. You can follow the Jobs Reset Summit Live at weforum.org and across social media using the #jobsreset. Subscribe to the great reset wherever you get your podcasts and please take a moment to like, rate and review us. I'm Robin Pomeroy, digital editor at the World Economic Forum and with daily coverage of the Jobs Reset Summit, this is the great reset. Later in the episode we'll hear from an award-winning teacher about the one skill she says will future-proof our children as they head into an increasingly unpredictable jobs market. But first, my colleague Linda LaCena picked out some of the highlights of day two of the Jobs Reset Summit. The theme was work, wages and job creation, speaking on that and on the impact of the pandemic, Guy Rider, Director General of the International Labour Organization. I think it's absolutely vital that we have this discussion about jobs not after we've solved the health emergency but right now because we're going to have to build forward from a very very dark place. That's Guy Rider, Director General of the International Labour Organization, speaking on day two of the Jobs Reset Summit, he and other leaders discussed the urgent need to face work challenges head on, especially in a year that's seen hundreds of thousands of global job losses. Day two's theme was work, wages and job creation and leaders spoke to how the world of work could be reinvented to meet new needs after the pandemic. Geraldine Matchett, Co-CEO of Royal DSM, for instance, envisions a holistic world of work, one that values contributions both in and out of the office. There has been an increasing separation between the value of work and the value of everything else that we do in our lives. And if you think about it, it's been very much that either you ain't or you're out. You know, either you're completely focused on work, but then you normally have issues taking care of the family, of society, of communities, etc. or you're out of work. And it's been extremely polarized. Now, if we think of a change of mindset in what is work actually about, it's also about valuing the contribution that humans bring not only when they work, but the family contribution, the community contribution, even the environmental contribution. And therefore, they need to be a different mindset around what do humans actually bring and where do they bring it in society? This holistic human approach means a greater focus on people and also on the planet. CVJ Akumar, chief executive officer of HCL Technologies, sees sustainable work as the work of the future. The jobs that drive sustainable living will be at the center of the 21st century. I do believe this segment will grow enormously. Like 19th century was marked by the industrial economy. 20th century is marked by the knowledge economy. And I firmly believe the 21st century will be marked by what I call as a sustainable economy. And technology and tech companies have a huge role to play to create these new jobs in the intersection of climate change and public services, as well as in consumer products. Key to bringing humanity and sustainability in the workplace, however, means providing protections for female workers who often double as both employees and full-time caretakers. Saudi Azahidi, managing director of the World Economic Forum, spoke the particular stresses women face returning to the workforce. Even though women are in the workforce in much larger numbers than ever before, in both advanced and emerging markets, they happen to be the ones that take on most of the burden of care responsibilities. Providing more flexibility and care for workers, particularly women, along with re-skilling and up-skilling, the labor force is crucial to the recovery process. Saudi, I explain more. There needs to be focus on the people that are hurting the most. There needs to be more conditionality built in so that it's not simply support for wages, but there is a game plan in place to re-skill and up-skill workers. And then third, this is the moment for investing in the markets and jobs of tomorrow. This is the moment to start building out the investments that we need for those 97 million new jobs to come through. Now, that's just the views of the heads of HR and heads of strategy that are responding to us. But there's much more to be done that can be part of government incentives for creating that better future. Creating a better future also means making sure developing countries aren't left out of the conversation. Hans Paul Berkner, chairman of Boston Consulting Group, said developing countries face particular challenges when it comes to up-skilling and re-skilling their workforces and their needs have to be taken into account. You know, in South Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, 70, 80, 90 percent of the jobs are in form of, you know, and even more, you know, than are in small and mid-sized companies. And so I think, you know, we have, on the one hand, you know, a very, very extreme effort in investing in people and investing in security and learning and so forth. And the other hand, we have enormous amount of insecurity. And I think, unfortunately, you know, in our discussion about, you know, home offers and, you know, how things going to be different after the pandemic, we focus too much on the developed world and on the top companies and what they can offer to top talent. But we need to really see how we can really help. And that's also a job, of course, of the larger companies in the developing countries in South Asia, in Africa, Latin America, and so forth, to really create more jobs, to make sure that more people are getting training. And that more people are really getting into formal jobs that allow them also step-by-step to build good living and more security. The future of work can also mean new opportunities. Current projections estimate that the job market could absorb 150 million new tech jobs just in the next five years. Stephen Cotton, the General Secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation, urges leaders and workers to see tech as an ally and not a foe. It has to be that confidence that rescaling the investment in people to create opportunities, opportunities that will ensure that it's a long-term life of work. Of course, we recognise that technology is going to change the culture of work and what task we do today will change over time, and it's good that technology can help us. But if technology is seen as a threat and we start in a conflict, then we won't be able to deal with the issue. Stephen Cotton of the International Transport Workers' Federation, ending that roundup of highlights from the jobs reset summit, compiled by Linda LaCena, who has this news of her own podcast. The World Economic Forum has a brand new podcast, Meet the Leader, where the world's top leaders share how they're tackling the world's toughest challenges. This week's leader, Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, he helped spearhead a set of new metrics that help companies measure how they're doing well for society. We were able to put together with the big four accounting firms, a set of metrics that define how to make progress on stakeholder campus. What we're trying to do is to help basically implement solve these great problems of world-based. He'll explain why they're important and how he tackles any long-term goals. You have to create good energy and good action, not energy and action. He'll also share why creativity is critical for leaders and how leaders should act in a crisis. All that and more on this week's Meet the Leader available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your favorite podcast. Thanks for that, Linda, and you can get information on all our podcasts at www.ref.ch/podcast. Now to today's interview. Andrea Zaffireko is a teacher in the North London borough of Brent. That's one of the poorer parts of the English capital, and one that is extremely multicultural with an estimated 130 languages spoken there. In 2018, she won the Million Dollar Global Teacher Prize, which is awarded by the Varky Foundation every year, seeking to improve the standards of education for underprivileged children. She spoke to the World Economic Forum ahead of the summit. Here's Linda again. Linda, what did Andrea Zaffireko have to say? First, Andrea talked about how the pandemic has worsened and deepened the global digital divide. We now know exactly what's taking place, exactly what our young people have at home. Students who have got access can engage and receive an education, but those who can't and don't have access for whatever reason, financial reason, or parental engagement and support, they will not benefit at all. And sometimes it's really shocking to know that there is nothing. That's been the hardest thing, the inequality is so evident now, it's apparent, it's raw, and it hurts. When I say they have access, what I mean is that they have either devices or they have opportunities to engage in resources, to ed tech resources, or they have the infrastructure, so maybe broadband. You know, many, many schools think, okay, that family's got a laptop, well actually that family's got a laptop, and it's a very old laptop, and it doesn't support the software which the school is using, or maybe there's lots of siblings there who are using the same laptop. Despite these gaps, Andrea has reason to be optimistic, seeing the chance to revisit curriculums, upskill at different life stages, and even find a new appreciation for educators. I think that, indeed, there is something that's going to be good coming out of this. I think that good opportunities and creative opportunities and moments will take place. Schools will have to think about what curriculums they have. Schools will have to think about how their teachers teach and what they are teaching, or whether it's now relevant for the new world that we now have come, and it's come straight as a brick wall in front of us now. And what is really important is that we don't go back to how it was before, that we use this time, this reset time to really look, review, change, and have a really good understanding of what we want our futures to be like in our countries. It's quite fascinating now to really look at which jobs, which vocations are considered as now being important, or have really helped to save lives. So the nurses on the front line, the delivery workers, the people who actually we can't live without. I think there will be now conversations that will take place where people will have to force and to be held accountable to what actually is a good job, and how much we should really pay particular employees and particular areas. If anything, I'm really hoping that this pandemic has helped to raise a profile of teachers, helped countries and ministries of education to acknowledge how hard we work, and how we are committed to our young people. I mean, teachers, we are the ones who are really inspiring the futures. We're the ones who are creating the futures of any country. They're in our classrooms. We are there. We are committed to our young people. We're committed to environments, and I'm really hoping that there are a lot of learning has happened. Entrepreneurship is going to grow because people are now finding ways of upskilling themselves and changing what they're doing, changing what they know, learning new things so that they can find a place in this new society, so that they can find a way forward to live, to function, to feed their own families. According to Andrea, to prepare students for the real future they'll be facing, a creative curriculum should be integrated into every single school subject. Here's why. Creativity should be embedded in absolutely every aspect of our curriculums at all ages. The beauty of having creative curriculums and teaching creativity is that what you're actually doing is enabling your learners to have transferable skills, and that means that we're giving them the opportunity to succeed. If we're not doing that, then we're just failing them. Again, it's those skills that we're talking about, resilience, mastery, collaboration. This is what they need in order to thrive in absolutely any profession which they choose. Creativity is all about finding opportunities to collaborate, so we're engaging with conversations, sharing ideas, sharing products. Lots of opportunities to question. There's also the aspect of discipline. Discipline is all about mastering a technique, trying again, just not letting them give up and making sure that they commit to this journey, and that they see it through. For young people, that's the hardest. Persistence is absolutely hard, but once you crack that, you're on a winner. What we have learnt from existing in this COVID world is that the people who will succeed are the ones who are creative. The ones who are thinking up new ideas, the ones who are questioning the status quo, the ones who are really solution focused, and the ones who are resilient, and that is why we need these skills in our workforces. She leads us with a special message for leaders and policy makers. If I was to have a magic wand, I would make sure that I would encourage everyone in powerful positions just to stop, review, think about where they want their countries to go, how successful they want their young people to be, how skilled you want them to be, and the only way we can do that is just by pausing, because we've really got now a great opportunity to review, to rethink, and I don't see as a negative, I see this as a positive. Now, as a tunnel, we can prepare things for our future in a really robust, strategic way, and, you know, let's be brave, let's be bold, and let's just do it. That was Andrea Zafaraku, a global teacher prize winner. Come back tomorrow. As we talk to new and women executive director who's even in Longbukuka, as she talks about how the COVID-19 pandemic has pulled women out of the labor market. The majority of the people who have lost jobs are women. The ILO estimates that two deaths of the jobs that will be lost and not recovered are women's jobs. She reminds us that if key steps aren't taken, some women might never return to the office, and when it comes to opportunity, a woman's place might only be in the home. And we say that women can also work from home. We must not find a situation where it's only women will end up working from home, because they have to do home work as well as the office work in the home. So let's say offices that can just be in another locker room. The place is where men only go. From Zilin Malambo and Guka, the head of UN Women, Linda will be back with that interview and the latest highlights tomorrow, the fourth and final day of the jobs reset summit. You can follow the action live at www.weform.org and across social media, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and on Twitter using the handle @wf and the hashtag #jobsreset. Thanks to Linda Lassina, to Kiera Kelly, Sybil Pennera, and to Gareth Nolan for help making these daily podcasts. Thanks to you for listening. For now, from me, Robin Pomeroy, at the World Economic Forum. Goodbye.