Mona Mourshed - CEO of Generation - Tackling Global Youth Unemployment

Worldwide, more than 75 million young people are unemployed, despite the fact that many employers can’t find people with the skills they need for entry-level jobs. Today, we learn how Mona Mourshed and her team at Generation help youth (and recently, older, displaced workers) to gain these skills in countries from Kenya, to Brazil, to the United States.

The causes of unemployment around the world share similar causes. Mona helps us to understand these causes, and explains the breakthrough ideas needed to address them.

On the 12th episode of the Skill Podcast, Micah shares a conversation with Mona Mourshed, President and CEO of Generation, a non-profit incubated and spun-out of global management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. In addition to her role at Generation, Mona leads McKinsey’s global social responsibility agenda and the non-profit McKinsey.org.

Throughout this conversation, Mona and Micah cover the following topics:

A shared connection over Egypt and the Middle East
The powerful personal story that connects Mona to the education sector
The failed connection between students, employers, and educators
The “80% are above average” problem in higher education
How to connect industry to education (hint: it’s not industry advisory councils!)
The genesis of Generation
The 7 factors standing in the way of connecting students, educators, and employers
The Generation Way
The difference between "skills" and "activities"
How mastering activities leads to qualified workers
The importance of employer involvement
The amazing student outcomes that Generation has achieved in the last 5 years
How Mona envisions Generation scaling in the future
How Generation handles affordability and student access
What’s next for Generation?
2 Key Performance Indicators that anyone in higher ed can use to make better decisions for students

Articles and Organizations mentioned on this podcast:

You can connect with Mona at mona "at" generation.org OR on Twitter @Mona_Mourshed

You can connect with Micah at micah "at" meritmark.co OR on Twitter @micahmerrick

Thanks for listening!