JA Travels to Davos for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
May 28, 2022
Each year, top leaders from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), social-good organizations (SGOs), and other civil society stakeholders attend the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and use it as an opportunity to collaborate with government, academics, and business leaders to find and advocate for solutions to global challenges. JA Worldwide has one of the coveted slots for nonprofits that eliminates the registration fee. Out CEO, Asheesh Advani, has attended since 2015, is a regular contributor to the WEF Forum blog, and serves on the advisory committee for selected initiatives related to the future of education, work, and civil society.
JA Worldwide is also a partner in the WEF Education 4.0 alliance, with its emphasis on ensuring that governments and the private sector collaborate in reforming education to be responsive to the skills gap. According to WEF, “Investing in the development of holistic skills in primary and secondary education will be critical in addressing the root causes of the global skills gap, preparing the next generation of talent to engage in lifelong learning, and ensuring that future efforts in reskilling and upskilling pay off for individuals, businesses and governments. “ Read more about Education 4.0, which just launched publicly in Davos after several months of stakeholder consultation.
During this year’s Annual Meeting, JA Worldwide was given the opportunity for Asheesh to join a panel livestreamed to the public on the "Future of Workplace Learning", held at the Issue Briefing Center for the media in Davos. He joined Sally Buzbee, Executive Editor of The Washington Post; Ebru Özdemir, Chairperson of the Board of Limak Holding; and Judith Wiese, Chief People and Sustainability Officer and Member of the Managing Board at Siemens to discuss investing in workplace learning, the skillsets young people need to succeed in the workplace, and the growth mindset that leads to lifelong learning. Watch at the link below.
“At Siemens, we’ve take the German qualification programs and done them for people who haven’t been to school for 20 or 30 years. And there has been a clear business case—in terms of numbers—behind that: how much that would cost us versus recruiting and laying off people who don’t have a relevant skill set anymore.”
“One of the biggest challenges is that young people have a totally different attitude than the older generation. They need to do projects together, but the way they look at life and the job is totally different. We are creating programs to help these two generations work together.”
“When we surveyed young people about what they want in their jobs, we found that young people want creative control, which is difficult to deliver in corporations. How do you designs organizations to retain people who want to have some degree of agency in their lives? You can create that agency as long as you respect it and make it part of your value system.”
In addition, Asheesh participated in a World Economic Forum podcast interviewed by Lady Mariéme Jamme, Founder and Chief Sustainability Officer at iamtheCODE, an innovative nonprofit that helps girls in marginalized communities in Africa to learn to code. As the JA network deepens our impact for underserved communities in every geography, this podcast interview highlights how our organization and the JA brand continues to evolve. We will post the link to the podcast once it’s released.
The war in Ukraine was never far from anyone’s thoughts at the event. President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed attendees via video conference and received a standing ovation. Asheesh met with a group of youth from Ukraine, who had been invited to Davos as part of the Global Shapers program, which includes several JA alumni collaborating in Global Shaper hubs around the world. Asheesh shared information with them about JA’s Ukraine relief fund and helped them amplify their message to raise relief funds and hear their stories of survival.
Subsequently, JA moderated a panel on how young leaders are shaping the future of work, especially around greater trust and transparency in supply chains for companies and institutions. Joining Asheesh was Zach Katz, Chief of Staff—Office of the Global Advisory Lead (Avanade); Caroline Mosimann, Sustainability Strategy Development (Wood Plc); and Cheryl Dorsey, President (Echoing Green). View the session, below.
“When you’re a kid, you think, “I could be a pop star, I could be an astronaut, I could be an entrepreneur, I could own my own business.” Then you’re taught “this is the way you go through,” you get on a ladder. But this generation is more open to trying new things.”
“Growth mindset, being comfortable with failing. That’s huge! We need entrepreneurs who are testing the boundaries.”
“I believe deeply in the power of next-generation leadership to disrupt and reset.”
“We are on a collective mission to bring more young voices to Davos.”