In 2020, the global workforce lost an equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs, an estimated $3.7 trillion in wages and 4.4% of global GDP, a staggering toll on lives and livelihoods. While vaccine rollout has begun and the growth outlook is predicted to improve, an even socio-economic recovery is far from certain.
The choices made by policymakers, business leaders, workers and learners today will shape societies for years to come. At this critical crossroads, leaders must consciously, proactively and urgently lay the foundations of a new social contract, rebuilding our economies so they provide opportunity for all.
In this context, the Forum remains committed to working with the public- and private sectors to provide better skills, jobs and education to 1 billion people by 2030 through initiatives to close the skills gap and prepare for the ongoing technological transformation of the future of work.
Health and Healthcare Systems
This is how Lego braille bricks are helping vision-impaired children to read, learn and play
1 billion people have preventable vision impairment. Now Lego is selling bricks coded with braille to help vision-impaired children read and learn.
Emerging Technologies
Generative AI has disrupted education. Here’s how it can be used for good – UNESCO
Schools and colleges are having to rapidly adjust to generative AI. Now UNESCO has produced the first-ever global guidance ensuring the tech helps rather than hinders education.
Jobs and the Future of Work
Why AI makes traditional education models obsolete – and what to do about it
AI highlights the shortcomings of traditional lecture-and-exam models. A new education model that prepares students to effectively and critically use AI is needed.
Education and Skills
5 leaders on how universities can adapt to the future of learning and work
The workplace of the future must adapt to a changing labour market. Recruiters highlight how universities can help promote digital and soft skills.
Forum Institutional
Blind father learns braille to read bedtime stories to his kids
Jobs and the Future of Work
New report calls for reforms to improve technical and vocational training in developing countries
A new report by the World Bank, ILO, and UNESCO finds that technical and vocational education and training systems in low- and middle-income countries do not match skills and labour marke...
Forum Institutional
3 ways to improve how climate change is taught in schools
While countries recognize the importance of climate education, we are yet to see the holistic transformation of global education systems needed to drive meaningful action.
Forum Institutional
3 ways employers can better access talent and skills
Ways employers could improve access to needed skills/talent include seeking out diverse talent pools, adopting skills-based hiring and increasing childcare.
Education and Skills
Bilingual speakers remember things more accurately in their second language, study shows
Using a second language is known to reduce the risk of dementia, but a new study finds it can also help people identify false memories more accurately.
Youth Perspectives
This is what the world’s youth say they need for a secure future
A global survey – ‘What Young People Want’ – reveals that education skills and employment are crucial for the future security of youth, globally.
Jobs and the Future of Work
Jobs and skills: 3 essential talent traits for tumultuous times
Unpredictable business conditions are creating a need for more versatile “athletes” to complement specialized “role players” across organizations.
Youth Perspectives
How Africa's youth will drive global growth
Africa’s fast-growing youth population has the potential to drive global growth in the same way as China’s young workers once powered the global economy.