The non-profit trying to fix our broken education system

Something appears to be badly wrong with our education system. In fact, something seems to be badly wrong with everyone’s education system. A recent Manpower Group survey of employers around the world found that 69 per cent are experiencing talent shortages and difficulty recruiting.

This shortage is happening at a time of persistently high youth unemployment with rates of 14.5 per cent in the UK and nearly 16 per cent in the EU. There are millions of posts available and millions without work so why is the square peg no longer fitting into the square hole?

While there are a multitude of contributing factors, Salvatore Nigro, CEO at JA Europe (Young Enterprise in the UK), a non-profit organisation dedicated to preparing youth for employment and entrepreneurialism, believes there is one key reason for this bizarre situation.

“Traditional education systems are not keeping up with the change that the world is experiencing. The structure is strong, but they need to take a different approach as there is a poverty of education,” he says.

A recent survey of the organisation’s 14,000 teachers and educators found that 67 per cent of students were falling behind in mainstream education and 76 per cent were suffering from social development and communication issues.

This shows, according to Nigro, that traditional education is leaving millions of students unprepared for the future of work and starts to explain why companies are having such a hard time finding people with the skills that they need.

“On one side you have astonishing youth unemployment and on the other, companies are saying they are struggling to hire talent. This shows that people have not been prepared for the world of work,” says Nigro.

“JA Europe believes in the development of soft and digital skills but also the learning experience and how you change that by bringing companies into the schools, or young people into companies to see what the world of work is like.”

JA Europe (and JA Worldwide) traces its roots back to 1919 fostering collaboration between companies and school systems across the globe to deliver education in entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy. In the last year, JA Europe claims to have reached almost four million young people in 40 countries with the support of 100,000 business volunteers.

There is a strong focus on entrepreneurialism and while Nigro concedes that not everyone has the urge or the will to run their own business, the skills gained are applicable to all forms of employment.

“The entrepreneurial mindset and skills learned will serve you in life whether you set up your own company of work for others,” he says.

“When it comes to developing soft skills, that mindset helps you whether you are working or creating your own business.”

And it is these soft or more practical skills that Nigro believes are sorely lacking in those emerging into the workforce for the simple reason that they have never been trained to develop them.

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“What are companies looking for? There are soft skills you need such as how to present yourself, how to work in a team, tolerate frustration or how to look at solving a problem rather than memorising a few concepts. This is what makes the difference,” he says.

“We study for decades but nobody teaches us how to write a CV or do an interview. How is that possible? It is not only what you know. It is how you come across and how you use the skills that you have.”

Born in Calabria, Italy (which has the highest youth unemployment rate In Europe) in the 70s, Nigro was raised by his young (and at the time, unemployed parents) to think big, not to take no for an answer and to give back.

“I made it because I got a scholarship to a prestigious university,” he says.

“I was in the vineyards with my father before the exam and said to him that if I didn’t get into the top 10, I couldn’t go into the university. But he said no matter what, we’ll find a way, we’ll get a loan so you can pursue your ambition.

“In the end, I got the scholarship and that has allowed me to move on and our organisation is giving that opportunity to more and more young people wherever they study. We have a special focus on youth employment opportunities and getting them out of the system. They deserve more investment and we are ready to do it.”

While Nigro believes that JA Europe is a key part of the solution to this, he knows they can’t do it alone. It requires more than one non-profit to rescue the younger generation from a systemic educational failure.

“There needs to be an intervention but it’s not just about the schools. It’s the families and the communities and the private sector. Everyone has to share that responsibility,” he says.

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And another key player in this intervention, whatever the country, is the government.

“We are in the orange zone in terms of the educational crisis, but some governments still believe we are in the green zone. But if they don’t take action, entering into the red zone is very easy,” he says.

And he believes that self-imposed government targets to reduce youth unemployment are a necessity to ensure that action and can be and is taken.

“We are urging governments to include national targets for specifically reducing youth unemployment, measures they are accountable for that will reduce the levels of unemployment,” he says.

“There are nine million NEETS [individuals not in education, employment or training] in Europe and we just don’t know what’s happening after that.”

And the pressure of that unknown has been increased by the pandemic: “If the economy is going to recover, who is going to pay the debt? The next generation. If we are telling them they need to pay for this recovery, we need to give them the tools to do that.”

If we, the current generation, don’t do that, it could be our greatest failure. Because Nigro is certain that the generation coming through now are no less creative, determined and resourceful than any that has come become before it. In fact, they may be even more so but they are not being properly equipped to do what is being asked of them.

“I am optimistic by nature, but I’m amazed when I meet these young people,” he says.

“We have helped 375,000 young entrepreneurs across Europe, and they are trying to tackle societal problems through hugely innovative business ideas and we want to provide an entrepreneurial experience to every single kid across Europe.

“Some people refer to it as a lost generation, but I see them as tomorrow’s heroes instead – they are incredibly resilient.”