CIERP Internships: Spurring youth employment by enabling green skills

By Urvashi Chopra

Urvashi Chopra, MALD ‘23

 Over the summer, I had the opportunity to work with the Solutions for Youth Employment team under the World Bank’s Jobs Group of the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice. Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) is a global partnership platform convened to address the growing skills and livelihood challenges faced by youth. Over the next 10 years, more than a billion young people will enter the job market. There will be a need for 5 million jobs per month to accommodate this influx and maintain current employment levels in low- and lower middle-income countries. In this context, S4YE brings together donors, governments, private sector companies, NGOs and youth to support innovation, scale-up catalytic interventions and develop market-based solutions to increase young people’s engagement in productive work. The platform works across the thematic areas of skills and jobs in the circular economy, green jobs, the gig economy and digital employment, agri-preneurship and jobs for youth with disabilities, amongst others.

From Urvashi’s visit to the World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC

Within the first week of my internship, I participated in a bi-annual Steering Committee – where a high-level agenda for partnerships was forged against shared commitments for the year. Given the focus on collaboration and co-creation, the discussion was spearheaded by Microsoft Philanthropies. It was inspiring to witness the foundational discussions for several forthcoming public-private partnerships to spur youth employment. Powerhouse partners who joined the discussion included Accenture, Google, Youth Business International, the International Labor Organization, RAND Corporation, the UN Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, GIZ, the Economic Research Forum, Overseas Development Institute as well as representatives from the Governments of Norway, Germany, Canada and Austria. The possibility to scale up innovative technology-based tools which enable employment linkages for the blue-collar workforce and need to update the current skills taxonomy or classification to include emerging skills and occupations pertaining to the green, circular and digital economy was discussed as length, from the perspectives of industry as well as academia, donors as well as implementors.

Green, digital and care work emerged as central themes to build socio-economic resilience back better. On this inspiring note, my internship was off to a flying start. My responsibilities included initiating a workstream around and identifying trends in the healthcare workforce for youth, spotlighting the importance of digital healthcare skills and the labor force demand-supply gap in the care economy; as well as researching effective models of public-private partnerships for green jobs, for additional investment.

Addressing climate change often involves the study of green infrastructure, greenhouse gas emissions and fostering international cooperation to achieve commitments outlined in the Paris Agreement: to limit global warming to no more than 1.5°C by 2100; and additionally, reach net zero by 2050. Highlighting the importance of green skills and jobs in enabling the green transition, however, is not common. This was what was particularly thrilling about my project – that I was able to explore a series of novel solutions to one of the most critical global challenges the world is faced with today.

 In recent times, there has been a growing consensus around the role of skill development for inclusive green growth, in particular for youth. Despite rapid development in green sectors such as renewable energy and green infrastructure, amongst others, green growth has been hampered by a shortage of an appropriately and technically skilled workforce. It is, therefore, critical to understand how stakeholders may collaborate across various operating and financial models, to spur green innovation; anticipate expected changes in skills need and use these for the adaptation or reform of vocational training systems, courses and employment opportunities. Through the World Bank’s Digital Data for Development Partnership with LinkedIn, I was able to access and present data on green skills which confirmed the global green skills shortage. It was interesting to note the immense opportunity for economic recovery and growth provided by developing green jobs in brown industries as well as brown jobs in green industries. Analysis conducted by IFC and Guidehouse Insights across 21 major emerging markets representing 62 percent of world’s population and half of global GHG emissions – showed that green investments in identified sectors between 2020-2030 would generate $10.2 trillion in investment opportunities, 213.4 million cumulative new direct jobs and lead to a reduction of 4 billion tons of CO2e thus, laying out a clear business case for green growth strategies at the national level; however, I also analyzed the challenges associated with addressing the green skills and jobs gap. Further, the research note I worked on explores the various financing and operating models to develop public-private partnership models for green skills. It further outlines a workplan for S4YE and its partners to invest in impactful models spurring green skills and jobs, across low- and lower middle-income countries.

Additionally, I had the opportunity to participate in and inform meetings with S4YE’s partners on their yearly commitments. This provided me with further impetus to work even harder to identify novel solutions aimed at ameliorating education and employment outcomes for youth. The conversations I was privy to, and research I carried out re-affirmed my commitment to establishing shared value amongst stakeholders with common goals. I look forward to continuing my work with Solutions for Youth Employment and advancing the conversation around the future of work for young people. ∎

Urvashi Chopra is a MALD candidate at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.