« It’s not where you start, it’s how you finish ».
Which are the 21st century skills?
Well, a month ago, I was invited to attend the 4th edition of the Bright Future Event organised by Be.face.
Be.Face is a non-profit organisation, a network of companies working together on projects around their corporate social responsibilities. Their main goal is deploy activities focusing on social and professional inclusion of people from less privileged groups in society.
One of the project run by Be.face and targeting college students from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds. This project’s baseline is « successful transition from academic to employment« . In short, Bright Future is a mentoring program that connects talented, motivated students with mentors from different professional sectors. The goal is to help students to get a grasp of corporate Brussels / Belgium, develop their network, hopefully advance their career.
Here is the page and pictures about the 4th edition of the Bright Future Event:
http://www.beface.be/fr/nos-activites/bright/bright-event
That evening offered a few interesting moments… Firstly, presentations via keynote speakers.
A presentation by a representative of IBM for instance introduced me to the notion of « New Collar Jobs » or « valuable jobs where 21st century skills matter more than having specific degrees« .
Still from that presentation, a reminder that in some European countries, the youth unemployment rate is high and some employers struggle to fill vacancies. Technology is creating transformation so rapid and « generating a need for new skills », something that societies are struggling to fulfill.
Also « which are the most important requirements for success in the workforce? And the most significant shortfalls of students? »
Then, a representative of Teach For Belgium caught my attention… « straight-to-the-point ». I appreciated her style and the data she dropped on the public.
Teach For Belgium
Secondly, after the presentations, the networking part… I recall that students’ main questions were « Which orientation did you take during your studies? In which business sector are you working in? Did your studies lead you to your current job? »
I enjoyed the brief chat with Ange (the representant of Tech For Belgium). She even invited me to join a « Speed Sharing » event that she was organising three days later. Speed sharing?
A session bringing together 40 pupils (in high school) and 20 professionals. Together with another professional (also active in « project management »), we had two or three minutes to answer questions and did it moving around 13 or 14 tables. The girls were mainly studying to become nurses. Here, questions were more like « What did you study? From which school? What is your job? What does « project management » mean? » and one directly asked me « how much do you earn? » 🙂 It was fun, always a nice moment I feel to give back to youth answering their questions and trying to open their mind.
Back to the Bright Future Event. Yes. Which are the 21st century skills?
While talking to the last students, nearly on my way out, a gentleman joined the little circle and we started a short conversation about corporate Brussels and racial discrimination. He is the CEO of a well-established brand in Belgium. I felt that he was the first CEO that I met, who was aware of the situation on the labour market and who did something about it. He agreed to a meeting to further exchange.
A month later, that meeting took place, lasted nearly 1 hour and half. I will write more about it soon.
To be continued…
« It’s not where you start, it’s how you finish ».
Best,
G.
@Talhnr
—
Born in Congo, I am committed to developing more inclusive workplaces. My passion is to open the job market to talents with no opportunity.
About eight years ago, a friend told me something like « in my company, they consider me as a high potential. I participated to the annual event of our industry, 500 people – la crème de la crème – and I was the only non-white in the room. A journalist even came to me and discreetly asked « what about upward mobility »? The problem is that in our industry, the majority of the workers at the bottom of the pyramid are non-whites. The higher you go in the hierarchy, the whiter it becomes. »
How to increase racial diversity at the top of corporate Brussels?
What can you do to try to make your workforce more diverse and inclusive?
