March 2024 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

Recently, I've had the privilege of attending board meetings across our network, including a fantastic session with the JA Europe Board in Spain. I've met several new board members eager to delve deeper into the inner workings of JA. It's clear from past surveys of JA staff and boards that training and onboarding have been overlooked areas, but we're determined to change that. The JA Global Orientation (JA GO) program that was introduced in 2023 is now being supplemented with a Board Orientation program that we are designing for board members from across the JA network. Don’t worry—we won’t be naming it JA BO!

We need your help to develop and design this new Board Orientation. Not only do we need a name that is better than JA BO, we also need your input on how to make it engaging, useful, informative, and compelling for busy board members. For example, what topics should be cover? Which should we avoid? Should we create asynchronous videos on topics related to JA’s mission and values, or should we create synchronous online gatherings as we have done for JA Global Orientation, since these sessions deepen bonds and build community across the staff network? Or both? If we offer regular opportunities for board members to join online gatherings to build community, should these be offered just to new board members who are onboarding or for all board members? Should these be annual, quarterly, monthly?

To help answer these questions and collect feedback, we have been fortunate to work with a team from McKinsey & Company. If you would like to have your voice heard on this topic of designing Board Orientation, please reach out to me, and I will ensure that McKinsey adds you to their process for stakeholder consultation and data gathering. Rest assured, we intend to respect the autonomy and independence of the 340+ legal entities and thousands of board members in the JA network by designing the Board Orientation to be fixed, flexible, and freestyle—with a few fixed elements from JA Worldwide (such as an overview of our network and risk management guidelines), and many flexible and freestyle elements that allow for customization of the experience with regional and national content.

Our goal is to pilot the new Board Orientation program later this year, aiming for the same success we saw with JA Global Orientation, which received rave reviews from our first cohort of new staff members.

Until next time,
Asheesh

February 2024 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

JA Worldwide has always collected data from member locations on an annual basis, collaborating closely with our regional operating centers (ROCs) in the tabulation and quality control of data. Four years ago, we transitioned to JADE (JA Data Experience), which uses Microsoft Azure and PowerBI for data analysis and visualization. The transition has been a team effort, with countries and ROCs undergoing JADE training as they also develop policies for collecting and categorizing the data.

During FY23, JA increased our reach across multiple segments of student learning experiences.

We are at the mid-point of our strategic plan, and it is heartening to see that our collective aspiration to reach 20 million student learning experiences by FY25 is well within reach. We have a strong culture of growth across all six regions which is spurring these numbers. The JA network delivered 17.3 million student learning experiences in FY23, increasing from 15.1 million in FY22. The increase was in all three impact segments: Inspire, Prepare, and Succeed. The IPS breakdown for all regions is shown in Figure 1.

The growth in total student learning experiences represented an increase of 14% from FY22 to FY23. We attribute the growth to investments in digital capabilities to reach students directly and via partnerships with Ministries of Education. We estimate that 9% of total student learning experiences are now delivered directly to students (direct channel) rather than via schools or universities (indirect channel), which represents channel diversification for JA that was a necessity during the pandemic. Our strategic plan aspiration is to have a 25%-75% balance between the direct channel and indirect channel in order for JA’s regions to build resilience. We also estimate that JA member locations in over 80 countries have formal relationships with government agencies such as Ministries of Education or Workforce Development that provides access to students and youth in a scalable manner.

The Global Leadership Conference, which took place in November 2023, gave us an opportunity to recognize and showcase some of the best examples of new initiatives coming from the network in order to increase our impact, especially to underserved communities and youth. INJAZ Al-Arab (JA MENA) was celebrated for the innovative INJAZ Campus which blends local and regional content and uses modern LMS technology. JA Brazil is reaching remote communities thanks to a partnership with a social investment firm using low-tech solutions due to their poor access to internet in some areas. Likewise, JA Africa continues to deliver financial education for kids using mass-media with the highly popular Cha-Ching Money Show on television.

JA Worldwide uses the Inspire-Prepare-Succeed (IPS) framework to provide a segmentation tool for the JA network. It categorizes learning experiences by depth of impact. Introduced in 2021, the IPS framework provides greater visibility and transparency for all stakeholders with the following categories:

• Inspire experiences are introductory learning experiences that pique a student’s interest. Examples include student interactions, such as joining an online challenge or a session with a motivational speaker. Another example is an exploratory session about careers using a digital app.

• Prepare experiences make a deeper impact, with stated and measurable learning objectives and a curriculum. Student learning is assessed, and course completion is tracked. Examples include the JA Company Program for high-school students and JA Economics for Success for middle-school students.

• Succeed experiences demonstrate mastery of competences in real-world situations. Typically, these are experiences that are built on JA learning experiences —for example, earning the Entrepreneurial Skills Pass (ESP) micro-credential after completing the JA Company Program, benefitting from the 3DE curriculum in selected US schools, participating in a culminating competition, or launching a start-up. Succeed learning experiences also include JA Alumni returning to mentor student companies or serve as speakers at job fairs or trade shows.

JA Worldwide introduced the Impact Score as a KPI to help ensure that growth is impact-focused for member locations.

The ongoing dialogue among board members and among JA staff teams on how to balance learning-experience quantity and quality—and how to measure impact for diverse types of student learning experiences—is not unusual among not-for-profit organizations. At JA Worldwide, this challenge is exacerbated by our operating in over 100 countries with different regional/national/local needs and methodologies for delivering programs. For example, YouTube is considered entertainment in some countries and a primary source of educational content in other countries. Reaching underserved youth is also defined quite differently in the United States, Zimbabwe, or Yemen.

To help address these complex matters of measurement, JA Worldwide introduced the Impact Score last year after piloting it during our last strategic plan. The Impact Score has fixed, flexible, and freestyle elements that align to strategic priorities and shared impact measurement beliefs. A cross-functional team from all six ROCs collaborated on determining the specific scoring elements of the Impact Score.

Three core performance areas are built into the Impact Score (scored out of 100 points):

• Learning Experiences Mix (scored out of 50 points)

• Reach and Impact (scored out of 30 points)

• Implementation (scored out of 20 points)

The intent is to encourage JA offices to continuously reflect on what drives impact and ensure that they are doing whatever they can to improve impact outcomes from year to year. For example, under Learning Experience Mix, we reward deeper student experiences as measured by the Prepare and Succeed categories; under Reach and Impact, we reward alumni tracking and evidence of impact monitoring and evaluation assessments; and under Implementation, we reward sustainable growth through robust partnerships with the educational ecosystem, as well as effective use of digital delivery channels. See Figure 2.

We fully expect to update and modify the methodology for calculating the Impact Score as we learn more. Our intention is to align the Impact Score update cycle to the three-year strategic-planning cycle, so we have a mechanism for using KPIs and measurement to implement strategic priorities. For example, if our strategic objective were to shift focus on, say, internships and job placement for youth, our metrics in the Impact Score could be modified to provide more points for these types of learning experiences.

Figure 3 provides a snapshot of the proportion of countries in each region that were able to increase impact or remain at the same level. Last year, there was a significant increase in Impact Scores which we attribute to greater awareness across the network and more attention to the metrics. The Impact Score was first launched in 2021. We are not surprised that we are not seeing the same ‘jump’ in individual scores this year now that the tool has settled in. As we see in Figure 4, the overall average Impact Score by region has increased slightly, from 65 last year to 67 this year.

Last year, 67% of members maintained or increased their Impact Score, while this year it is 57%. The decrease for the majority of the members in Africa and Asia-Pacific is due to a decrease in Succeed experiences. Europe’s context is more complex with several factors at play: for example, there was a general decline in blended experiences, seven members reported decreases in contact hours, and four members had Inspire experiences that exceeded 35% of their total. In MENA, six members saw lower Impact Scores, also stemming from a combination of factors: less than 2% growth in Prepare and Succeed and fewer contact hours than the year before.

Consistent with our Strategic Plan priorities for 2023–2025, we have started to measure the percentage of student learning experiences for underserved youth populations, despite its complexity.

One of our four strategic priorities is to empower the underserved. As the saying goes, “what gets measured, gets done,” – so we have embarked on the complex process of measuring the percentage of JA’s student learning experiences reaching underserved youth. We have implemented a fixed, flexible, freestyle approach to bring the network along with us with the following definitions.

• The fixed element, developed in collaboration with Accenture Development Partners as part of our strategic-planning exercise and presented to the Board of Governors, includes the following elements: (1) World Bank data to categorize nations, which is updated annually and accepted as a global standard; (2) for the World Bank’s “high income nations” (e.g. US, Bahrain, France) and “upper middle-income nations” (e.g. Mexico, Turkey, Botswana), we define underserved as those with below-median levels of access and outcomes for education and livelihoods; and (3) we include youth living in the World Bank’s “lower middle income nations” (e.g. Nigeria, El Salvador, Pakistan)  and “low-income nations” (e.g., Yemen, DRC) as underserved.

• The flexible elements and freestyle elements allow the regions and members to determine which students fall into these categories. For example, in Canada, federal data shows that the indigenous population has experienced below-median outcomes for educational opportunities and livelihoods. As a result, JA Canada may elect to include programs targeting indigenous youth in its definition of underserved.

As this framework was introduced only last year, it will take time for the JA network to receive training and achieve full adoption. At this time, we estimate that approximately 37% of the FY23 total number of student learning experiences reach, reported by the members, underserved youth, or 6 million total student learning experiences. This estimate is based on three data elements: (1) 86% of our members have indicated that they have specifically targeted underserved groups and described the types of learning experiences they are providing, adding up to approximately 5.2 million student learning experiences (e.g., JA USA estimates that 49.5% of student learning experiences are in Title I schools in the US); (2) 21 countries in which JA operates are classified by the World Bank as “low income nations” or “lower middle income nations”; and (3) for the few members from “high income nations” and “upper middle income nations” that have not provided estimates of reaching underserved youth, we make a conservative estimate that approximately 20% (or 0.35 million) of their student learning experiences are to underserved youth using our definitions noted above. In future years, we expect to refine and improve this methodology and continue to build data analytics capabilities for the JA network.  

For most regions, growth was broad-based rather than concentrated in a few nations. The large majority of JA members experienced growth rather than decline in student learning experiences from FY22 to FY23.

During FY23, JA’s growth was broad-based in most regions. Figure 5 shows the percentage of member nations in each region which experienced growth rather than decline in total learning experiences (excluding any learning experiences allocated to the activities of the ROC). With the exception of MENA, all regions had the majority of members experiencing growth in student learning experiences from FY22 to FY23, averaging 65% globally for the JA network. For context, this proportion is usually 50% to 70%.

During FY23, JA’s learning experiences delivered in elementary schools recovered to the levels that we had seen before the pandemic.

In 2021, as a result of school closures and limited vaccine rollout for younger students, reaching youth in elementary schools proved more difficult than reaching youth over the age of 13. However, since the pandemic, the proportion of JA’s total learning experience delivered in elementary schools has recovered from 27% to 43%, which is the same proportion of JA’s total it was in FY17. Figure 6 summarizes the regional trend data over 7 years, comparing FY23 data on “Prepare” student experiences to FY17 program distribution on student enrollments. In past years, we had expected that JA’s distribution would shift to older students and youth. However, in 2023, we noticed that JA’s funders, partners, and staff – particularly in Asia-Pacific and the United States, re-introduced student learning experiences in elementary schools.

During FY23, JA’s cost per student learning experience continued to decrease.

As JA has now developed deeper expertise in delivering educational content in digital formats and in lower-cost channels and geographies, JA’s cost per student experience has decreased. On a fully loaded basis (including total expenses of the member countries, ROCs, and JA Worldwide), the total cost per student dropped from $24 in FY21 to $21 in FY22 to $19 in FY23 (see Figure 7). In FY23, this decrease in total cost per student came alongside a substantial increase in total revenue collected by the JA network of 9% and an increase in total expenses of 6% from FY21 to FY22. Since recovering from the pandemic, the total revenue collected by the JA network has increased from $332 million in FY21 to $373 million to $407 million in FY23—collectively over $1.1 billion over the last three years.

Given that data metrics are reported by member locations and ROCs using different school year and fiscal year timeframes, and then aggregated globally, it is challenging to disentangle all instances of intra-network transfers for passthrough funding and fees. Therefore, this cost per student learning experience metric should be regarded as an estimate.

One key takeaway is that these data metrics continue a long-term decreasing trend in cost per student due to the competitive environment for funding, more digital delivery mechanisms, and a desire for scale in philanthropy, particularly in emerging markets and less developed countries where the youth population is growing.

As we did last year, JA Worldwide and the entire JA network should take a moment to appreciate that we are fortunate to have both increased total revenue and improved cost per student, coming out of the pandemic period.

In FY23, the JA network increased total staff, volunteers, and teachers partially recovering from pandemic-related reductions.

Overall, the network has seen a staff increase of 15% (slightly higher than the increase we saw last year). Operations appear to be steadily recovering though we still see decreases in Africa due to the termination of our relationship in Gabon and a staff reduction in Nigeria. See Figure 8. Where there have been increases, it is largely due to schools re-opening and new grant-funded opportunities.

Direct-to-student delivery options—led at the regional level, rather than just at the national level—are on the rise and an important entry to underserved geographies where we do not have member operations. As a result, most ROCs experienced a modest increase in staff count and/or a restructuring of skills needed for key positions.

JA offices have been deepening their relationships with ministries of education and other educational authorities in their communities. These collaborations are continuing to recover and stabilize post-pandemic. The number of volunteers engaged increased 30% from FY22 to FY23 for a total of 375,817. The number of educators held steady at 1% increase to 301,948 in FY23. See Figure 9.

Looking forward

With the introduction of “Empower the Underserved” as one of our four strategic priorities for 2023–2025, the assets and capabilities that we have been investing in over the last several years including JADE and the Impact Score will become even more valuable. Better data will lead to better outcomes and will help us deliver on the fundamental unifying impact objective of the JA network: to prepare youth for employment and entrepreneurship.

Until next time,
Asheesh

January 2024 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

As you may remember from previous years, I head to Davos, Switzerland, every January for the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), joining leaders from business, government, and other nonprofits. This year’s focus for the Annual Meeting was “Rebuilding Trust," and the meeting brought together over 1,000 WEF partners, 100+ government leaders, nearly all major international organizations, civil society leaders, social entrepreneurs, youth representatives, content experts, and media.

I wrote a daily blog from Davos, using it as an opportunity to share and elevate youth voices, connections during the week with JA board and staff members, highlights of the numerous panels I watched and a reskilling panel I served on, and the excitement that came from meetings with many of our largest funders. If you haven't had a chance to read those posts, click here. 

Until next time,
Asheesh

December 2023 CEO Letter

The final days of 2023 are a perfect time to reflect on the many accomplishments of the JA network over the course of the last 12 months. Our team at JA Worldwide is grateful for the staff, volunteers, board members, teachers, and, of course, students who inspire us every day. This year, in particular, we have much to be thankful for.  

In the first quarter of 2023, JA’s Entrepreneurial Skills Pass was selected as one of the “Education 4.0 Lighthouses” by the World Economic Forum, for offering one of the first globally recognized microcredentials for high school students. We’re proud of the hard work from JA Europe, JA Worldwide, and the 50+ JA member locations that are measuring the impact of JA Company Program systematically and empowering JA Company Program graduates to earn this microcredential. During the first quarter of the year, we also selected the 2023 class of JA Fellows for high-potential staff seeking personal development, honored a student team from JA Zimbabwe (Hekima, Inc.) as the winners of the De La Vega Global Entrepreneurial Award, released Shattering Glass 2.0 on International Women’s Day, and announced that JA Worldwide was once again nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. A great start to the year!

In the second quarter of 2023, we released an updated JA Impact Report that showcases data-rich studies from across the JA network about student and alumni outcomes from JA learning experiences. In addition, we announced the names of newly inducted laureates in the Global Business Hall of Fame, adding greater diversity to the pantheon of role models for the world’s youth who are honored each year. We also recognized students from Malta as the winners of the Global FinCap Challenge, raised awareness of the importance of financial capability by speaking at World Education Summit, and were recognized again as one the top 200 social good organizations (SGOs) in the world, climbing from #6 to #5 in the annual rankings. We don’t measure our success by rankings, but it is nice to bring attention to our mission of serving youth and garner the respect of our peers, given that the ranking is based on impact, innovation, and good governance.

In the third quarter of 2023, JA’s brand was lifted by the success of JA Africa CEO Simi Nwogugu, who was selected as the winner of the Africa Education Medal. It was wonderful to see Simi’s hard work recognized, given the enormous opportunities and challenges of bringing JA to the youth of Sub-Saharan Africa. JA Europe, under the leadership of Salvatore Nigro, hosted Gen-E in Istanbul, Türkiye, bringing students together from over 40 countries for Europe’s largest entrepreneurship festival in a marathon multi-day event with over 800 participants. FedEx and JA Asia Pacific, led by CEO Maziar Sabet, hosted the International Trade Challenge for nearly 5,000 youth representing ten countries from across the Asia Pacific region, and do so in just three intense days. Under the leadership of Noël Zemborain, JA Americas hosted NauFest 2023, bringing students together both online and in physical locations in five countries across the Americas—including 6,000 students who met in a stadium in Brazil for an inspirational day. Junior Achievement USA, under the leadership of Jack Kosakowski, was selected the winner of the 2023 Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence; JA Inspire also received a bronze ribbon in the Learning Delivery Platform category of the 2023 International E-Learning Awards, given by the International E-Learning Association.

Another member of the JA Worldwide Senior Leadership Team (SLT), Leo Martellotto, showed his endurance by competing in the 2023 Ironman World Championships, just a few months after he tested his endurance skills in another way by agreeing to move from JA Americas to JA Worldwide as Chief Development Officer! The SLT also transformed with the addition of Chief Financial Officer Adnan Bokhari and General Counsel & Head of Risk Saloni Choudhry. JA schools were also shortlisted for the 2023 World’s Best School Prizes during the quarter, marking the second year in a row in which JA schools were recognized in this manner.

In the last quarter of 2023, the JA Worldwide team was focused on offering two GLCs for the JA network. First, virtual GLC in October attracted staff from over 100 countries, joining workshops on organizational resilience, people development and alumni, brand, and learning experiences and technology. Next, GLC in Bangkok, with incredible support from JA Asia Pacific and JA Thailand, attracted staff from over 50 countries, gathering in person for leadership training by McKinsey.org, workshops on topics ranging from AI to performance management, and our biennial Awards Gala that recognizes the top initiatives across the JA network. We’re grateful to GLC sponsors and partners that allowed us to deliver a great experience to JA staff for an affordable (and subsidized) cost, including Delta, Z Zurich Foundation, McKinsey.org, PMIEF, Microsoft, Accenture Development Partners, and Sparks Willson, P.C..

After GLC, we ended the year with more good news with recognition from the European Institute of Technology for JA Europe’s work to integrate AI into the JA Company Program so that young people can get exposure to the latest AI tools while starting their entrepreneurship journey. In December, I spoke at the World Scouts Education Summit as part of an effort between the World Organization of the Scout Movement and JA Worldwide to collaborate on developing badges for entrepreneurship and other relevant skills for the future of work. A few days later, JA was well represented at the COP28 RewirED Summit in Dubai, with staff, partners, and alumni showcasing how young entrepreneurs are playing an increasingly significant role in addressing climate change.

Many of JA’s programs aspire to teach youth how to turn scarcity into abundance through an entrepreneurial mindset. In listing our accomplishments over the last four quarters, I’m reminded of how my colleagues already have this superpower, creating abundance from scarcity in the service of others. I’m so grateful to work with such resourceful and hard-working colleagues.

Best wishes to you and your family for a happy, healthy, peaceful, and prosperous 2024.

Asheesh

November 2023 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

Inspiration and human connection. These are the words that come to mind when I reflect on the Global Leadership Conference (GLC) that just wrapped up in Thailand. Last month, we held GLC Virtual, attracting participants from over 100 countries across the JA network, who joined online sessions spanning four days. This month, we held our in-person GLC in Bangkok, with leaders from more than 60 countries and an array of speakers leading workshops, adding their voices to plenary panels, and delivering a content-rich experience.

This was the first time in JA’s history that the Global Leadership Conference was held outside Europe and North America, providing a symbol of the substantial growth of JA programs across the Asia Pacific region over the last few years. In 2023, JA Asia Pacific reached over 3.7 million youth, making it the fastest growing region of JA over the last decade, thanks to the efforts of JA staff, board members, volunteers, teachers, and alumni.

For me, GLC Bangkok offered several highlights, centered on learning, connecting, and advancing our collective goal to reach more students and magnify our impact in communities across the world. For example:

• McKinsey.org provided leadership training for all participants, introducing us to key leadership best practices—and reminding us to serve as conscious leaders who stay “above the line” (I would encourage you to watch this video from Conscious Leadership Group for an introduction to the concept of “above the line” and “below the line” mindsets). Some additional good news announced at GLC: McKinsey.org will continue to partner with JA Worldwide to provide additional training for staff from the JA network in 2024.

• We hosted two discussions for the JA network on AI, one focused on practical, staff-facing activities that help us become more effective in our roles, and another focused on how AI is impacting student learning experiences and JA programs. These sessions included leaders from Accenture and Microsoft, plus innovative JA alumni Howard Leong and Christian Erfurt.

• We heard from Ayse Birsel, an industrial designer and TED speaker, who helped us deepen our understanding of JA and our lives in the context of design principles. There were many take-aways from her keynote speech (which received a well-deserved standing ovation), but my favorite was when we all realized that identifying our heroes helps us understand our own values . . . and these values connect to JA’s values, which were visually suspended on banners from the rafters in the conference room. It was an “aha!” moment for me and many of us in the room.

• The JA Worldwide Fellows from 2021–22 and 2022–23 were passionate about gelling as a team with colleagues from around the JA network. These small teams of high-performing JA staff not only learned critical leadership skills but also became lifelong friends.

• We announced the expansion of Youth Voices, our partnership with MIT Center for Constructive Communication and Cortico, which enters a third phase, whereby JA is the official founding partner for Fora, a new app that expands the Youth Voices project and makes it accessible on-the-go. Watch the announcement from Deb Roy, Director, MIT Center for Constructive Communication and Cortico co-Founder.

• We led a wide-ranging discussion about how JA can do more to create a peaceful world. For me, one of the takeaways is to encourage more JA locations to include modules about “global citizenship” in our programs. JA India/tGELF has developed a teacher-led curriculum that includes these modules and offered to share it at no cost with anyone in the JA network.

• We gave GLC participants a preview of the book, Modern Achievement, which I’m writing with Marshall Goldsmith and which we’ll release in spring of 2024, with all proceeds donated to JA.

• We honored finalists and winners of the much-coveted GLC Awards, in nine different categories.

Finally, three long-term leaders within the JA network—Akef Aqrabawi, Rob Gardner, and Jack Kosakowski—received 25-year, 30-year, and 50-year service awards, respectively. Akef has enabled INJAZ Al-Arab and the entire MENA network to flourish, first by leading operations, and then as CEO for the last eight years, helping the region reach its aspirational goal of serving one million students this year. Rob has served the JA network with distinction as the leader of Prestasi Junior Indonesia (JA Indonesia) and was awarded the JA Lifetime Achievement Award by his peers, a well-deserved recognition. Jack has been a transformational leader for Junior Achievement USA and has personally showcased many of the values that have defined JA’s culture for several years. I had the pleasure of making the speech to honor Jack’s contributions to JA, which is a memory that I will treasure. Akef, Rob, and Jack were emotional in receiving this recognition from the JA network at GLC and their inspiring remarks touched us all.

Until next time,

Asheesh

October 2023 CEO Letter

[This letter was originally drafted on October 13. It was updated on October 20 to reflect new information from the JA network. This monthly letter is intended to provide factual updates on matters related to JA, and is not intended to provide statements on behalf of our organization.]

Dear colleagues,

On October 6, jailed Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, bringing attention to the struggle for women’s rights in Iran. We are grateful that JA Worldwide was nominated in 2023, alongside other impactful organizations and individuals striving to build a more peaceful world.

In the days since, we’ve been in close touch with our operations in both Israel and Palestine. We were first able to ascertain that staff members in Israel are safe, thank goodness. The news from Gaza, however, is that the INJAZ Palestine–Gaza office was destroyed and a staff member was injured and suffered enormous personal loss, which is heartbreaking to me personally. We will continue to monitor and support operations in these war-torn areas, as we do in in Ukraine (where JA has a presence), Yemen (where we have been operating for many years), and Sudan (where we continue to serve students), as well as many other locations that don’t get mentioned in global news. As you know, JA Worldwide is a non-political organization serving youth in six regions and over 100 countries, but whenever terrorism, warfare, forced displacement, and natural disasters keep us from our primary mission to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy, I use this monthly newsletter to keep the JA network informed of developments that impact our teams.

JA has never been more important. As part of the growing diversity of student learning experiences in JA’s locations around the world, we aim to inculcate youth with the skills to listen and communicate; problem-solve creatively so that all participants benefit; take responsibility for themselves and their communities, approach their work and relationships with passion, honesty, and integrity; and fully believe—thanks to an abundance of mentorship, failures, successes, and learning opportunities—that they will succeed in their long-term goals.

Increasingly, their goals are aimed at building a peaceful, equitable, sustainable world, making JA one of the world’s largest training grounds for economic empowerment, prosperity, and peace. Through JA’s global network, young people can also experience the fellowship and cross-border collaboration, which enables them—through international friendships, mentorships, and travel—to better understand the nuance and complexity of geopolitics.

Global Leadership Conference 2023

Our staff, boards, and JA Global Council also benefit from the global fellowship and cooperation that’s at the heart of JA, which is why we host our Global Leadership Conference (GLC) every two years. At this year’s virtual event, we’ll have a special, invitation-only, free session that I’m personally asking you to attend. "Resilience at JA: The Important Role of Boards and Board Members" is designed to raise awareness of the JA global strategy (and understand how it adds value to your JA location), build community and develop new connections with board members across the globe, and support your engagement at all levels of the organization. Register here.

The world may seem like an unsettling, inhospitable, frightening place right now, but I believe in the boundless potential of young people and our network of teams, who are determined to make their communities—and the entire world—a place of camaraderie, equality, and peace.

Until next time,
Asheesh

September 2023 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

For only the second time in JA Worldwide history, our biennial Global Leadership Conference (GLC) includes an invitation-only session designed to support and celebrate board engagement and development at all levels of the organization. “Resilience at JA: The Important Role of Boards and Board Members” is an opportunity for board members to develop new connections and relationships across the globe, learn how other regions and nations are bringing JA’s strategy to life, and to be inspired by JA’s strategic aspirations and vision.

As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, GLC is our most pivotal staff development opportunity, and it’s held only once every two years. For the last eight years, I’ve seen how the truly global nature of our network comes to life during GLC, with staff members meeting colleagues who are working toward the same mission, with the same values, the same challenges, and intertwined goals. The energy surrounding each GLC is palpable, as JA teams network with each other and share innovation within the JA network.

Our first-ever GLC board session, two years ago, yielded the same energy, as attendees shared their motivations for giving back to JA; their goals and challenges; and what is and isn’t working in each local area, country, and region. This session shares another similarity to two years ago (one for which I apologize in advance): It starts just a bit early if you’re on the more western side of the world in order to include our colleagues from Asia-Pacific: 7amEDT/1pmCEST/7pmHKT on October 24.

But I can promise you it’ll be worth the extra coffee: we’ll focus on magnifying JA’s work in each of the four priorities of our strategic plan: accelerating digital, empowering the underserved, cultivating partnerships, and strengthening OneJA. We’ll outline the road map to serving 100 million by 2050 through the Inspire-Prepare-Succeed methodology. And given our recent Nobel Peace Prize nominations, we’ll also discuss what it will take to build a more peaceful world and how your JA location is part of achieving that peace.

In the coming weeks, we will be sending reminders and invitations to board members (and JA leaders from around the world. If you serve on a JA board or JA Global Council, please register now, and we’ll send a calendar invite to your inbox. I can’t wait to see you there.

Until next time,
Asheesh

July–August 2023 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

Traveling to meet with JA colleagues from around the world brings me so much energy and fills me with hope for our future. Through my travels over the last few weeks, I’ve spent time in three of our six JA regions, including JA Europe’s Gen-E event in Istanbul, Türkiye (an event that includes Company of the Year finals for high-school students, Start-Up finals for college-age students, alumni events, and sessions for teachers); the Junior Achievement USA National Leadership Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, USA; and the JA Americas Board Meeting and Leadership Summit in Miami, Florida, USA.

The OneJA spirit permeated these events, with JA staff from over 40 countries coming together at Gen-E in Istanbul, JA staff from the US region winning awards to travel to global events, and JA staff in the Americas region traveling to Miami from over 15 countries to learn from each other. At each event, there was a sense that we are all part of one global community of JA associates with shared values and a willingness to work across boundaries to help young people realize their full potential. 

In less than three months, we’ll all be coming together for our Global Leadership Conference, which is designed for staff but also offers opportunities for alumni, board members, and more. GLC Virtual is our free, four-day conference focusing on functional training, including one day each for learning experiences and technology, organizational resiliency, alumni and people development, and amplifying our global brand, with risk-management and governance mixed into sessions each of the four days. Although we started GLC Virtual in 2021 to address the global pandemic, we saw the strong benefits for the network of continuing this event, namely saving on travel costs, reducing our carbon footprint, and creating a more flexible GLC. Once again, we’ll be offering one or more credentials (badges), in which staff can build skills in a particular area or track.

In addition, we’re bringing back in-person GLC, this time in Bangkok, Thailand, the first GLC in JA’s history that will be in Asia-Pacific, our largest region with the highest youth population in the world. This event for JA leadership will focus on magnifying JA’s work in the four areas of our strategic focus: accelerating digital, empowering the underserved, cultivating partnerships, and strengthening OneJA. Given our recent Nobel Peace Prize nomination, we will also come together as a global fellowship to discuss what it will take to build a more peaceful world and how each JA location can participate.

Of course, as in past GLCs, one of the main events will be the gala in which we present GLC awards honoring both the individuals who have contributed to the organization and JA offices that best exemplify innovation, collaboration, and resilience.

• The JA Bold Tech Award (previously the JA High-Tech Award) recognizes a JA location that has developed bold-tech learning experiences for students, including virtual or augmented reality, artificial intelligence, an interactive website and app, and other immersive and innovative uses of technology.

• The JA Access Award (previously the JA Low-Tech Award) recognizes JA locations that develop low-tech or no-tech learning experiences for students who don’t have reliable internet access.

• The JA Alumni Engagement Award recognizes a JA location that has developed robust alumni strategies, including tracking of, communication with, and engagement projects for JA alumni.

• The JA Activator Award recognizes the JA location that best activates learning experiences and ideas developed by others within JA.

• And the all-new JA Brand Amplification Awards recognize JA locations that have extended and amplified the JA brand most effectively, through a marketing campaign, social-media post, ad, video, booklet, report, speech, article, website, poster, or other marketing collateral.

• In addition, the JA Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a JA chief executive who has significantly contributed to the growth and impact of JA learning experiences in his or her country, while the Soraya Salti Award—named in memory of the extraordinary woman who founded INJAZ Al-Arab—recognizes a JA visionary who pushes boundaries to move JA forward and bring systematic change to a country or region.

I can’t wait to see share details about finalists and winners later this year.

Until next time,
Asheesh

June 2023 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

As the 2023 fiscal year draws to a close on June 30, this is a good time for reflection on what we have accomplished as a team over the last 12 months, the first year of the 2023–2025 “Boundless” Strategic Plan.

Here are just a few highlights and achievements:

• We were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second time, highlighting our credibility as a top NGO and one that can draw attention to the value of education and economic empowerment as a means for creating peaceful relations between nations.

• JA Worldwide remained among the ten most impactful social-good organizations in the world, moving up from #7 in 2019, 2020, and 2021 to #6 in 2022 and #5 this year.

• JA’s Entrepreneurial Skills Pass (ESP) was selected as one of 40 lighthouse initiatives within the Education 4.0 framework at the World Economic Forum. The ESP is the premier microcredential for teenage entrepreneurs and is offered in 52 countries and 28 languages. Our ambitious goal is to have 100,000 teenage entrepreneurs earn their ESP by 2025.

• Major partnerships that are helping us advance on multiple strategic priorities were secured in this year with PMIEF (modernizing learning experiences and deploying LMS capability), Z Zurich Foundation (accelerating digital learning opportunities in Africa), Patrick McGovern Foundation (supporting global data governance practices and SSO implementation), and Accenture (focused on sustainability content).

• JA Worldwide renewed the four year of our partnership with HSBC with a focus on building a financial capable generation.

• Students from Brazil, Greece, Uganda, Indonesia, Mexico, Vietnam, Hungary, and Nigeria participated in our first Virtual Global Exchange in partnership with BASF, a new supporter of JA Worldwide, which renewed the partnership and expanded to include students from Chile and Costa Rica for its second year.

• JA Worldwide was in New York City for UNGA week in September, when the United Nations put a spotlight on education.

• JA Worldwide was featured in Forbes with an interview about leadership and entrepreneurship.

• JA Worldwide was selected by Fast Company as one of the 100 Most Innovative Workplaces, ranking first among non-profit organizations.

• A JA Zimbabwe school was shortlisted for the World’s Best School Prize for Innovation and a JA Ireland school was shortlisted for the World’s Best School Prize in Supporting Healthy Lives.

• The winner of the third annual de la Vega Entrepreneurship Award went to a team from Zimbabwe, representing the first time that an African team has won this prestigious award.

• Our online alumni community, Gather, continued to grow to over 56,000 members, surpassing in size the online alumni communities of most major universities and business schools. JA’s alumni chapters saw significant expansion this year, growing from 87 chapters to 105 chapters, including growth in the United States, Canada, India, and several countries in MENA and Europe.

• We expanded our digital exhibit for the Global Business Hall of Fame to showcase diverse role models for youth, including four new inspiring Laureates in 2023.

• The JA Brand Project to modernize the JA brand identity moved from consensus-building to execution with amazing creativity from JA locations around the world that brings the new brand system to life. The JA Brand Guidelines are now available in 13 languages and exemplify the fixed-flexible-freestyle approach of empowering regional and local teams to amplify the JA brand around the world.

• We held JA Global Town Halls three times during the fiscal year, a practice that we started during the pandemic, and which has become a popular new tradition at JA, with participants from across the JA network covering topics such as strategy, brand, and innovation.

• Several JA Worldwide communities of practice have been launched so far (one of our key initiatives under our strategic objective to Strengthen OneJA). The LX-Tech Community has 430 members and the CARDS Community (Compliance-Accountability-Risk-Data Protection-Safeguarding) has 129 members. New communities for Writers and Designers are launching this summer. 

• We selected our fourth cohort of JA Fellows from applicants from all six regions of JA. For the first time, all eight Fellows were women!

• We kicked off our first-ever Global Orientation course (JA “GO”), designed for new staff joining JA from anywhere in the world, a positive step in the direction of building a cohesive global culture across JA’s entities. More than 50 individuals participated in the pilot edition over the course of five weeks and seven sessions. Training content on cybersecurity was specially created for this course. Our strategic goal is to ensure that 100% of new JA staff participate in this course.

• Giving from the Global Council increased in FY23, and the Chair of the Council and most dedicated donor, Bill Schawbel, committed to another major gift in FY24.

• JA Worldwide had our best year ever in raising contributions for operating revenue (excluding in-kind revenue) and passthrough funding, surpassing fiscal year FY22, which had been our previous best-year-ever.

This list of accomplishments would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of my colleagues at JA Worldwide, working collaboratively with the ROCs and with the JA members. The headquarters team at JA Worldwide is part of a global network of teams that collectively works across borders and boundaries to accomplish so much. I hope you are as thankful as I am to have the opportunity to work with such amazing people!

Until next time,
Asheesh

May 2023 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

Did you know that employers expect that 44% of our skills as workers and employees will be disrupted over the next five years? The advent of AI and other technologies is rapidly changing the skills landscape and will require us to adapt. This is why the 2023 Future of Jobs Report, just released by the World Economic Forum, and its conclusions are worth understanding. It provides JA with a roadmap for building many of the skills that employers seek now and in the years ahead.

Since 2016, the Future of Jobs Report, a biennial publication of the World Economic Forum (WEF), explores how jobs—and the skills required to do those jobs—will evolve over the next five years. The report bases its analysis on a survey of the world’s largest employers: 803 companies across 27 sectors in 45 economies that employ 11.3 million workers. These employers share data about expected job growth and job cutbacks and detail the skills they are seeking in both candidates and employees. The result is a global look at jobs and skills trends, as well as the forces creating the most disruption in the workplace.

The last report, issued in October 2020, was six months into the global pandemic. As you can imagine, that report focused on the growing trend of hybrid workplaces, the outsized role of technology on job skills and job growth, the challenges of youth education and employment, the impact of the pandemic on economic opportunity, and other ramifications of the pandemic.  

Global Findings for 2023–2028

The 2023 edition of the Future of Jobs Report, weighing in at nearly 300 pages (roughly double the length of the 2020 report), focuses on the headspinningly fast, profound effect of technology (particularly artificial intelligence) in the workplace, along with green energy transition opportunities, the persistent effect of COVID-19 on the supply chain, and political and geographic factors impacting the workplace. This report—far more than the three that preceded it—showcases the staggering transformation that AI and other technology is likely to have on the workplace.

WEF organizes the report into four main sections: what’s driving workforce transformation, the outlook for jobs, the outlook for skills, and how employers can both acquire and develop the talent they need. Although I urge you to read the report, 296 pages is a lot to get through, so here are a few high-level notes:

• Most countries are facing higher unemployment and lower real wages than before the pandemic. Well educated professionals in high-income countries still enjoy a tight labor market, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting inflation has impacted almost everyone else in the job market.

• The biggest job growth will come in the technology, agriculture, education, and e-commerce sectors, while the biggest job loss will be in administrative work, factory job, brick-and-mortar retail work, and data entry and record keeping.

• Technology adoption will radically transform business over the next five years, including the use of AI, big data, cloud computing, digital platforms and apps, ecommerce and digital trade, education and workforce technology, and robotics.

• Employers expect to automate 42% of business tasks in the next five years, up from 34% today. But the biggest disruptor will be in the type of business tasks that are able to be automated, due to the abilities of AI to reason and make decisions, versus the computing abilities of the past that were limited to processing data and information.

• Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is impacting the workplace and changing consumer expectations. In addition, the largest number of new jobs will come from green transition.

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs will prioritize hiring youth under age 25, women, and workers with disabilities, and will also focus on disadvantaged ethnic groups, older workers, low-income workers, and workers identifying as LGBTQI+.

• The pandemic shifted worker preferences, with workers far more open to changing employers than in the past. Workers are worried that their salaries won’t keep pace with inflation, but in addition to pay, the most-valued workplace offerings are flexibility (in work hours and job location), job security, work-life balance to avoid burnout, diversity and inclusion (especially in leadership), and training opportunities. ­

The Skills Gap

JA learning experiences, which not only teach critical skills to young people but also inculcate the value and means of continuously building skills, is going to be critical in the next five years, as employers estimate that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted. (That’s not 44% of workers having to learn new skills, but that 44% of everyone’s skills will need to change. That’s nearly half of the skills you have today being unnecessary in the next five years, and new skills needing to replace those.)

From the skills outlook section of the report, I can give you a summary of the trends that are disrupting the skills needed in today’s workplace, as well as skilling/reskilling priorities over the next five years. The most highly prized skills are AI and big data, leadership and social influence, complex problem-solving, creative thinking, and technology literacy, as well as self-efficacy, working with others, systems thinking, talent management, and service orientation. Organizations are also looking for social-emotional attitudes like curiosity, resilience, flexibility, agility, a desire for lifelong learning.

What’s on the decline? Reading, writing, math (the core curriculum of most schools), fine-motor and endurance skills related to assembly and manufacturing work, and more.

In my own travels to World Economic Forum events, educational conferences, meetings with Fortune 200 companies, and JA student events around the world, I have seen these trends up close. According to the Future of Jobs Report, companies plan to reskill and upskill existing employees, with 80% investing in business learning. However, companies also report that they are not able to find new workers with the skills they need. JA’s focus on addressing this skills gap by connecting the educational system, youth, and employers will continue to be critical in the years ahead. However, we will need to continue to innovate and adapt our programs and learning experiences to be responsive to the new reality. During the virtual and in-person 2023 JA Global Leadership Conference (GLC), we’ll have panel discussions and hands-on training on how we can manage the coming changes effectively.

Until next time,
Asheesh

April 2023 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

Suddenly, everyone is talking about artificial intelligence (AI), from ChatGPT’s ability to write first drafts to smart robots that are everywhere right now. But education is, perhaps, where AI’s impact is being most keenly felt.

Even the World Economic Forum’s Education 4.0 initiative—which reimagines education as an inclusive, lifelong experience that places the responsibility for skill-building on the learner, with teachers and mentors acting as facilitators and enablers—is embracing the impact of AI. This is because AI is rapidly (and radically) changing the future of work, and the Education 4.0 framework is built around the employment needs of the future.

If you haven’t tested ChatGPT yet and explored its implication for schools and education, I urge you to give a try. Not because the content it churns out is great writing (its isn’t yet) and not because it doesn’t make mistakes (it still does), but because ChatGPT is such an easy-to-understand example of AI. For example, you might type in a prompt like, “write a Shakespearean sonnet that describes the pungent odor of Durian fruit,” and a few seconds later, out comes this sonnet:

Oh foul and wretched fruit, Durian by name,
Whose stench can make the bravest man recoil,
A scent so strong, it puts all else to shame,
A fruit so vile, it must be sent to boil.

No nose can bear the pungent odor's might,
A putrid smell that lingers in the air,
It grips the senses with a hold so tight,
No perfume can compare or ever dare.

Some say its taste is worth the awful smell,
But I, alas, cannot abide the taste,
For all its flavor can't redeem its hell,
Nor make its fetid stink one jot more chaste.

Oh Durian, fruit of stench and foul renown,
May thy noxious scent ne'er wear a crown.

It’s not beautiful poetry, to be sure, and does not conjure comparisons to a summer’s day. It is not more lovely or more temperate, but it’s not terrible, either and Shakespeare himself might approve! And if you submitted the prompt again, it would create an entirely different sonnet, and would keep doing that again and again more efficiently than Shakespeare could, long after you tired of the game.

We’re using it at JA Worldwide to write simple first drafts of writing projects, and although we usually end up using only a single sentence—or none at all—from the answers it gives, having ChatGPT write a first draft keeps us from staring at the dreaded “blank screen” when we need to write new content.

But in the one example we shared above, you can see the challenge that educators may have with ChatGPT, right? If students are supposed to be learning to research and write, or are learning to write poetry, but instead are simply typing a prompt into ChatGPT and submitting the result, they might never develop the intended skills. For this reason, you may have heard of some universities and secondary schools banning its use or of teachers asking to see students’ ChatGPT usage history. There’s no doubt that ChatGPT introduces a host of challenges for educators and that plenty of debate lies ahead.

But, for all the worry about ChatGPT’s ability to bypass important learning, many teachers are embracing this latest example of AI in much the same way all technology innovation has been embraced: by learning all they can about it, asking students to lean into the technology, and helping students visualize what they can make of it.

In the last three months alone, the New York Times, Brookings Institution, International Society for Technology in Education, Scientific American, and Edutopia have all highlighted or recommended teachers’ embrace of ChatGPT:

• https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/chatgpt-schools-teachers.html

• https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2023/01/09/chatgpt-educational-friend-or-foe/

• https://www.iste.org/explore/classroom/chatgpt-educators

• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chatgpt-can-improve-education-not-threaten-it/

• https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-ways-chatgpt-save-teachers-time/

At JA Worldwide, our Theory of Change is tied directly to self-efficacy (an individual's belief in his or her ability to successfully perform a task or achieve an outcome), which means that part of our teaching approach is helping young people want to learn new things, have the confidence to learn new things, be surrounded by role models who are learning new things, and—over time—develop mastery of new things.

The latest new thing? AI. There is no doubt that it’s time to dive in and anticipate its implications. We look forward to hearing your ideas and input on opportunities in this brave new world.

Until next time,
Asheesh

p.s. I thought it might be fun to see how ChatGPT would do in writing this month’s CEO letter about the implications of AI for JA Worldwide. As you can see from the note copied below, it did a better job than I did!

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to you today to discuss an important topic that is impacting education and the future of JA Worldwide: the implications of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence.

As you may already know, ChatGPT is a large language model that has been trained by OpenAI. This AI technology is designed to understand and generate natural language text, and it has the potential to revolutionize the way we teach and learn.

One of the most significant implications of ChatGPT and AI on education is the ability to personalize learning experiences. With AI, we can gather data on individual students and use that information to tailor lessons and assignments to their unique needs and learning styles. This can lead to more effective and efficient learning, as students are better able to understand and engage with the material.

Another important implication is the potential for AI to automate certain aspects of teaching and learning, such as grading and assessment. This can free up teachers' time to focus on other important aspects of education, such as mentoring and guiding students.

However, it's important to note that AI is not a replacement for teachers or human interaction. While technology can enhance education, it cannot replace the human connection and empathy that is essential to effective teaching and learning.

As an organization dedicated to preparing young people for the future, it's important that JA Worldwide stays at the forefront of this technological revolution. By embracing AI and other emerging technologies, we can better prepare our students for the challenges and opportunities of the future.

Thank you for your continued dedication to education and the important work that you do.

Sincerely,
ChatGPT

March 2023 CEO Letter

Dear colleagues,

March 8 was UN International Women’s Day, a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic, or political divisions. Since 1977, International Women's Day has helped build the international women's movement, bolstered by four global United Nations women's conferences that build support for women's rights and participation, especially in the countries in which women are blocked from full participation.

Due entirely to the tireless work of our JA staff and leaders around the world, one of the aspects of JA that I’m proudest of is the nearly equal participation of girls and boys in our programs, as well as the high percent of women among our staff, volunteers, and board members in 119 countries. Given the practice of segregating schools or classrooms by gender in some parts of the world, I’ve met a number of all-girl JA Company Program teams who went on to win the top regional prizes. I’ve also had the pleasure of mentoring and staying connected to some of these dynamic entrepreneurs and future business leaders.  JA young women are a force to be reckoned with

We see this in our JA Impact Report, too. When seeking to feature alumni who excel in entrepreneurial ventures, the workplace, STEM and innovation, community engagement and more, we had hundreds of stories about female JA alumna open to us, as many or more as we had about male JA alumni. I’m excited for you to read those stories and see summaries of 40 impact reports at jaworldwide.org/impact.

We also released the second edition of Shattering Glass, in which 60+ JA staff members offer career advice to girls, ranging from how to find your purpose and harness your passion to setting boundaries and not letting your career alone define you. Take a look at jaworldwide.org/shattering-glass.

Until next time,
Asheesh