Dubai: Majid Jafar, the CEO of Crescent Petroleum, is urging companies and business leaders to take the lead in preparing young people for a new world of work in the wake of COVID-19 and its associated economic impacts. The global pandemic has made the existing challenge of creating work opportunities for young people even more difficult, putting pressure on governments and presenting numerous challenges for society.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s “Jobs Reset Summit” today, Majid Jafar will emphasise that companies and business leaders must play a role in helping young people learn the new skills necessary to succeed in this emerging new world.
“The world is changing, and the world of work has changed with it. But there is a whole generation of young people who will bear the brunt of the economic fallout. Successful companies and business leaders should present real and immediate solutions to help retool and retrain these young people to harness their talents and pave a new path forward. We must all collaborate to ensure these efforts succeed and grow, for the sake of the next generation and the region and the world’s future growth,” says Mr. Jafar, who is also a signatory to the World Economic Forum’s Principles of Stakeholder Capitalism for the Middle East and North Africa.
Mr Jafar is speaking on the panel session “Global Skills Outlook 2021: Scenarios for a Learning Reset”, hosted and broadcast by the BBC, and offering an outlook for education, skills and learning. He is joined on the panel by Zulfikar Bukhairi, Minister of State and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Andreas Schleicher, Director of the Directorate of Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and Kumg Phoak, the Deputy-Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The World Economic Forum Jobs Reset Summit is being held online from 20-23 October, convening leaders from business, government, civil society, media and the broader public around the world to create a new vision, new standards and new partnerships to mobilize the best of human capabilities, technologies, innovative policies and market forces in service of a new vision to we can proactively shape more inclusive, fair and sustainable economies, organizations, societies and workplaces.
