Focus on attitudes, ethics in skilling young workforce, says Prof Yunus at D8 Summit

Focus on attitudes, ethics in skilling young workforce, says Prof Yunus at D8 Summit
CAIRO, Dec 19: Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Thursday said they needed to think deeper as to how to skill millions of young adults in a workplace where right attitudes - values - ethics matter as much as hard skills.
"And, then we also confront the challenge to re-skill many millions at different vocational streams, on a continuous basis," he said while delivering his statement at the 11th D8 Summit, reports UNB.
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, heads of state and government, and D-8 secretary general were, among others, present.
Now that basic AI-based tools and applications are accessible, Prof Yunus said, "Let's think of a cooperative learning agenda that can complement our national undertakings."
As they adopted the Cairo Declaration and the Summit outcome reflecting their collective aspiration and shared commitment to addressing pressing issues, Prof Yunus called upon all to re-look at their collective agenda, afresh.
As a way forward, the Chief Adviser proposed two specific actions.
"One, let us build and deepen functional, impact-driven connections between our Universities and equivalent knowledge institutions, particularly focused on preparing boys and girls into entrepreneurship other than its sake," he said, adding that applied Science disciplines.
Dr Yunus said they have to bring the entrepreneurs and higher learning much closer than what is today.
"Our aim should be to generate knowledge output that can produce global secure business and industry from leaders of D8 countries' fiercely competitive global marketplace, with our niche. If this asks to re-look at the D-8 trade and investment frameworks afresh, we should do so," he said.
Transforming the business to impact on peoples' lives, not just an occupation to be their wealth, Dr Yunus said, adding that they will engage in social business to create a new civilisation.
"Second, for years, we tried to impart basic education and skills to millions in our countries through conventional in-person institutional architecture," he said.
"In a 1.2 billion people, so often that is an increasingly daunting task. To reach 'scale', we tried through distance learning, for instance," Dr Yunus said.
He said they are meeting at a time when the world is witnessing unprecedented challenges. "Yet, so many opportunities beckon us as well."
"The theme of the Summit, focusing on youth and the SMEs, aptly resonates with our shared aspirations," Dr Yunus said.
The D8 countries have a sizable youth population. Median age in Bangladesh, for instance, is just 27 years.
"Every year, around two and a half million young people enter the labour market. In a private sector driven economy, as we endeavour to get them fit for the market or, encourage them to emerge as agile entrepreneurs, we see how emergence of technologies is posing challenges and opportunities like never before," said the Chief Adviser.
Manufacturing landscape in our countries has millions of workers who generally have low skills.
"But, the manufacturing and service economy of tomorrow is fast transforming, largely riding on artificial intelligence, machine learning, data-driven tools and applications," Dr Yunus said.
In Bangladesh, where agriculture is still a critical mainstay for the society and economy, they see how children of the majority of small farmers are little interested to pursue back-breaking, risky and often uncertain farming-on-field the ways their parents took upon as a matter of tradition, he said.
"Travelling to rural Bangladesh, even across Asia, Africa and Arab world, I see how millions of today's youth are fast embracing technology and innovation, in everything around - either to turn around long-persistent challenges or, eke out newer opportunities that many thought impossible even few years before," Dr Yunus said.
Often, the younger folk show uncanny imagination in tacking intractable climatic stress on-the-field.
"I particularly underline this as our agriculture and food are changing about securing our economies, and creating wealth, within our own societies, with little outside inputs," Dr Yunus said.
This brings into their consideration the millions of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), he said.
Most of the SMEs thrive within the informal economy. They aspire to grow and connect to the global supply chain.
"Most often, they lack formal structure, access to institutional finance or support architecture and are unfamiliar with market norms-practices-standards. Yet, I see how amazingly capable and competitive the SMEs are," Prof Yunus said.
In the D-8 countries, collectively they possess enough wealth, even in private philanthropy, to stand by these scores of SMEs.
"With our modest support, we can shape a virtuous 'cycle of good', for them and for our people. We need to let money flow to them, through de-risking finance, for instance," Dr Yunus said.
"Beyond what we discuss, let we, the D-8 Governments, convene candid, result-oriented conversation involving communities of youth - startups - business - finance; and see if we can carve out a new platform amongst them. Bangladesh would be ready to take such an initiative forward; and convene a first multi-stakeholders meet in 2025," Prof Yunus said.
The way the 'world of work' is evolving fast as the world of youth entrepreneurship, the D-8 countries have to re-invent 'learning' to make room for their boys and girls to become leaders of the economy, he said.
"In our countries, we have great heritage, wisdom and accomplishments. We have to see how we can blend and build on those. We are yet to take fuller advantage of the digital revolution that has been with us for years," Dr Yunus said.
"Now that AI is here, let us think if we can leapfrog and catch up with the disruptions, to the advantage of our entrepreneurial boys and girls," he added.