Meeting the skills gap:

Lessons from the private sector

Best practices of WBCSD members in emerging markets

Overview presentation, January 2015

Challenge: Meeting the skills gap

• Skills mismatches: one of the major constraints for the

private sector to create more and better jobs

• 45+ million job seekers entering the labor force each

year

• By 2020:

Global surplus of 90-95 million low-skilled workers

Global shortage of 83-85 million high- & mid-skilled

workers

Challenge: Meeting the skills gap

• Situation particularly delicate for companies

operating in emerging markets

• Triple challenge:

Rapidly find a large number of employees with the right

set of skills

Insufficient quality and quantity of goods and services

provided by their suppliers

Very often high rates of unemployment and informal

jobs in the surrounding communities, particularly among

youth

Business case for skills & employment

• High levels of unemployment and vulnerable employment

Drive social exclusion and inequity

Prevent potential workers from productively engaging in the economy

Depress consumption

Generate social tensions (and often anti-business sentiment)

Create additional drain on national economies with consequences for

government policy, social welfare provision costs, taxation etc.

• Shortages of appropriately skilled people

Reduce the employability of the unemployed

Create problems in terms of cost, quality and delays for companies

Slow business growth and innovation

Case study collection

Workforce

development

Value chain

developmentCommunity

development

Increasing skills & employability through:

Case study structure

1. Company background

2. Skills gap addressed

3. Company solution

4. Results

5. Challenges

6. Key success factors

ITC case studies

• Vocational training program to increase

employability in rural areas in India

2,500 youth trained for manufacturing

services sectors since end of 2013 (25% girls)

Aim: 10,000 / year

• ITC Hospitality Management Institute

Meeting India’s tourism industry growth with skilled

manpower

60 managers graduating each year

SABMiller case study

• 4e Camino al Progreso enterprise development

program

Working across its chain of small retailers

(tenderos) in Latin America

Business skills, mentoring, networking to enhance

sales growth, retailer loyalty, reduce costs & risks

Targeting 40’000 tenderos across 6 Latin American

countries by 2018 – and 190,000 by 2020

Vale case studies

• Valer training program – workforce development in

northern Brazil

820 engineers and geologists trained in 5 years in partnership

with universities

11,700 young students trained 2008-2011, about 2/3 hired by

the company

• Inove local content development

Support the development of local SMEs and provide

their managers with relevant skills (finance, strategic

planning) to meet Vale’s procurement needs

500 SMEs supported, more than 4,000 people trained

Expansion beyond Brazil (Mozambique)

Road ahead

• Collect & analyze data focused on the actual impact

(incl. ROI for the company) of investing in education,

training, and skills development programs

• Second phase of WBCSD-Let’s Work collaboration to

focus on gathering information related to costs,

benefits, and overall value created through individual

company initiatives

• WBCSD to continue skills & employment

agenda within its Action2020 platform

More information

Download the brief at

www.wbcsd.org/social-impact.aspx

Filippo Veglio

Director, Social Impact

WBCSD

veglio@wbcsd.org