Harnessing the Power of Youth: Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit

Teenagers everywhere have attitude.

This was the initial thought that crossed my mind as I approached this year’s Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit, the tenth annual conference presented by Making Cents International. However, these thoughts were quickly replaced by the acknowledgement that youth are more than the promise of the future. They are powerful individuals. Indeed, they are a force, and it is our collective challenge to ensure that they are a force for good.

I walked away with the insight that four things are required to guide that youthful energy and vigor towards concrete opportunities: hard skills, soft skills, a vision for the future, and leaders prepared to guide and coach.

We have a tendency to start with ‘hard-skills,’ those related to science, technology, engineering, and math—the so-called STEM skills—to equip today’s youth with the technical capabilities for today’s opportunities, as well as for those to come in the future. This is a universal need, as evidenced by the demands on the public, private, and social sectors to invest in these important areas. ‘The Workforce of the Future’ is practically synonymous with Fortune 500 companies’ sustainability goals and reports. Everywhere you look, there are significant resources being channeled toward increasing the capabilities of youth in these fields, yet these are often piecemeal efforts and not particularly well integrated into the systems that would actually employ them.

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