SAP, UNICEF, ‘Genu’ fortify ties for Filipino youths’ employability

YOUNG Filipinos have the chance to gain needed skills to make them employable, as SAP continues its partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in support of Generation Unlimited (Genu) for an additional three years in helping prepare the youths for the labor force.

While the population of young people ages 14 and 24 grew by over 30 percent to 1.2 billion in just two decades, their participation in the labor market went down by 12 percent. This figure is expected to decrease with time, according to a recent report by the International Labour Organization.

In addition, Genu, Pricewaterhousecoopers and UNICEF noted in their latest study that young people worldwide find it difficult to join the labor force because they cannot identify or acquire the required skills for today’s job market, thus contributing to a global skills gap and youth unemployment. Just less than a quarter of the young populace in lower-income countries are, likewise, estimated to be on-track to gain the necessary skills to thrive in school, work and life.

“Today’s young people are three times more likely than adults to be unemployed, which makes for a very uncertain future for all of us,” Genu CEO Kevin Frey said. “To keep up with the ever-changing demands of the labor market, young people need a full set of skills to compete locally and globally.”

“I am delighted that SAP and Genu are continuing our long-standing partnership,” Frey noted. “Together, we will support even more young people worldwide to unlock opportunities.”

With this in mind, SAP and UNICEF will leverage on Genu’s signature program “Youth Agency Marketplace” to start a new initiative that supports “learning to earning” pathways in the digital green economy for marginalized youths, helping them acquire new skills to flourish.

The Philippines is the only country in Asia Pacific and Japan Region selected for this endeavor, alongside Nigeria and South Africa. Set to start in early 2023, this new program aims to provide more than 500,000 young people with foundational and digital skills acquisition opportunities by the end of the first year to transform their life trajectories.

The partnership will also support SAP’S “educate to employ” undertaking to teach soft skills and imbibe the foundational knowledge to the youth. This initiative includes developing SAP skills using the student zone on the SAP Learning site, where students can learn about the latest SAP solutions for free via this site, which would help them gain the knowledge they can use to kick-start their careers.

SAP and UNICEF first joined forces to back up Genu in 2019, and since then have reached 3 million youth in India, Turkey and Vietnam with transformative education models.

“Education is one of the key priorities in the Philippines, especially regarding science, technology, engineering and mathematics [or STEM],” said Rudy Abrahams, SAP Phils. managing director. “With the plans laid by the current administration, especially as it strengthens its government digital transformation initiatives, we believe that upskilling talents, particularly their digital skills, is likewise integral.”

“In collaboration with UNICEF and Genu, this new program adds to SAP’S projects and initiatives, geared toward helping upskill Filipino talents, particularly among the youths,” he added.

Expanded initiative

APART from its partnership with UNICEF, SAP pledged to help upskill 2 million people globally by 2025, thereby strengthening its commitment to creating opportunities through learning and development.

In view of such, the enterprise-application software provider recently launched its expanded digital-skills initiative to make vital learning resources accessible to underrepresented and underserved groups in technology.

SAP also kicked-off its renewed collaboration with Coursera to offer in the latter’s global online-learning platform an online, seven-course SAP Technology Consultant Professional Certificate, where participants can learn more about the company, the role of a technology consultant, and the value its professionals bring to customers. Available exclusively on Coursera’s portal, this offering provides focused, role-based entry-level learning resources for everyone.

Other initiatives in the Philippines include the SAP University Alliances program, which enables faculty and teachers across the globe to educate next-generation talents with SAP skills. Members can access SAP software and learning content, learn best practices for integrating program resources into teaching, and be inspired to partner with the SAP ecosystem of customers and partners.

Around 23 member-schools nationwide are under the SAP University Alliances program, which constantly seeks to empower Filipino educators in better equipping the next generation of talents with the latest SAP technologies and relevant skills.

Meanwhile SAP has also been tying up with Asean Foundation in enabling youths with data-analytics skills to create solutions for the region’s pressing social issues through the Asean Data Science Explorers competition.

The Philippines is among active participating nations in this program that complements the country’s current programs geared toward upskilling young Filipinos and empowering Asean youths with essential digital skills, collaboration skills, as well as the ability to communicate ideas and think critically.