This research is based on insights from the 2020 HSBC and Ashoka Future Skills Innovation Challenge, a global search for social innovators with solutions to develop the skills needed to succeed in the future economy, both financially and through meaningful employment.
What will our future economy look like? On one hand, we’re seeing a picture of rising unemployment and uncertainty, particularly as the fourth industrial revolution collides with a global pandemic. The WEF estimates that automation will displace 75 million jobs by 2022. But we’re also seeing promise for a more inclusive economy on the horizon, as growing tech and clean energy sectors offer more employment opportunities, especially for those on the margins.
As reality continues to radically and rapidly change, affecting different people and places in different ways, it’s clear that we need more than a single solution to equip everyone for the economy of tomorrow. Social entrepreneurs offer the diverse set of focused solutions we need.
Through the Future Skills Innovation Challenge, we identified over 200 entrepreneurs who are preparing people to participate in the future economy. We heard from changemakers across the globe — India, the U.S. and the Philippines topped the list, followed by Argentina, South Africa, Bangladesh, Mexico, Indonesia, and over 20 other countries. Over half of the entries came from innovators under age 35, and about 45 percent from women.
These entrepreneurs not only offer us a glimpse into the future but unveil strategies for ensuring everyone has the skills to succeed in it. Here are the trends we’re seeing.
1. Digital jobs are distributing opportunity
Over half of the initiatives we discovered are helping people adapt to the technologies of the future. Digital skills can help make the economy more inclusive, allowing those in marginalized communities — such as people who live outside metropolitan centers — gain access to high-value skills they can use almost anywhere.
We see many social entrepreneurs working with young people, migrants, and those who are disabled. In South Africa, challenge applicant Emergent Business and Coding Academy trains unemployed youth, particularly young women, with digital skills alongside job coaching. In the Philippines, challenge winner Virtualahan is working to ensure that people with disabilities can access equal opportunities in the new digital economy. In Turkey, challenge winner Konexio is opening the door to refugees and unemployed youth via training for digitally dependent jobs, along with work placements to help overcome systemic hiring bias.
2. Online training isn’t just for tech skills
Digital platforms provide powerful avenues for developing new skills and reskilling — including trades outside the tech industry. Challenge applicant Bridge for Billions, for example, is a digital platform that makes desirable entrepreneurship skills more accessible to everyone, increasing employability. Through Migrant Business School, One Forty Taiwan, a challenge winner, is using e-learning to help Southeast Asian migrants in Taiwan gain more transferrable skills, including Chinese language courses, which can open the door to more job opportunities.
In our pandemic reality, these platforms are becoming more critical, and many organizations are taking traditional trainings online, including two challenge winners. Beam, an organization based in the United Kingdom, connects people experiencing homelessness with skills training. In France, ActivAction is now supporting job-seekers through the screen. As we spoke with social entrepreneurs we heard a common refrain: we can do more virtually than we ever thought possible.
3. Empathy and emotional intelligence are essential
Many tech-skilling programs aren’t just focusing on the “hard skills” like coding, but “soft skills,” like communication and creativity, which are critical for the increasingly diverse workplace. In Greece, Damianos and Michael of Social Hackers Academy, a challenge winner, created a 7-month web development bootcamp that fosters both the digital skills and interpersonal soft skills needed to enter the tech job market. Refugees and Greeks learn together, building meaningful relationships and a professional network.
The ActivAction team is reframing the job search as a time that can be empowering: a chance to gain self-confidence and meet new people. The program focuses on the key soft skills to navigate a changing landscape — including active learning, creativity, teamwork, emotional intelligence, and working in diverse groups — which will only grow more essential in years to come.
4. Green jobs bring in multiple generations
While oil and coal industries are shrinking, the clean energy sector offers promise — both for longtime workers needing a transition and for young people entering the workforce. In the Appalachia region — known as “coal country” in the US — challenge winner Brandon Dennison is creating new opportunities for former coalminers, especially in solar energy. Meanwhile, in South Africa, challenge winner Use-It is training young people with skills to manufacture goods from waste, helping the country reach its “green job” goals. Given the opportunities that green jobs represent, we need more innovators connecting people with the skills needed to do these jobs.
5. Financial capability is critical for an inclusive economy.
The skills needed for the future go beyond job training — we need to ensure everyone is empowered to exercise financial decision-making. We received 57 entries related to financial capability. Here are a few:
In Argentina, challenge applicant Mujeres en Carrera is addressing the way women are often excluded from financial decisions through an online program that trains women and girls in finance, saving, and investment. In the U.S., challenge applicant Jose created the MyMAF app, a pocket-size financial coach that offers digital tools to America’s working poor families to build financial security. Challenge winner Comunidad4 Uno is helping Mexico’s domestic workers access formal banking products and loans through a digital platform that records transactions already happening between employees and employers. By allowing people to take more control of their financial decisions, these skills enable people to actively shape the economy to better serve everyone.
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Even in the face of uncertainty, social entrepreneurs understand that people aren’t powerless. These innovators are showing that creating a more equitable future economy, even amidst overwhelming change, is possible. Focusing on building the right future skills, we can build resiliency that allows the workforce to weather both change and crisis, and ultimately create the world we want to live in.
💡 About the Partnership
In 2019, Ashoka and HSBC established a partnership to recognise, support and nurture social entrepreneurs working towards a future where everyone has skills to succeed, financially and through meaningful employment. With this shared vision, the organizations launched the Future Skills Innovation Challenge, an international competition aimed at accelerating social impact ideas that move us towards a future that connects everyone to economic opportunity.
In 2020, 12 leading social entrepreneurs were named winners and began an online systems change learning journey to strengthen their ventures and learn from experts and business leaders at HSBC and Ashoka. Learn more about the partnership here.
