Unilever to empower 10 m youths with essential employment skills

05 / 11 / 2023

By Marwa Nassar - -

Unilever has committed to empowering 10 million young people with essential employment skills by 2030.

This comes on the back of a recent survey of global employers which showed that 44% employers expect job disruption in the next five years, and with it the skills needed for workers and business to thrive.

At present, however, the skills gap is wide, with research showing 75% of 15- to 24-year-olds are off-track in having the expertise to take advantage of future opportunities.

Unilever has committed to changing through providing youths with needed skills.

“Skills such as ingenuity, our ability to adapt and innovate, resourcefulness and resilience are the threads that will guide us toward a better future,” Nitin Paranjpe, Unilever’s Chief People & Transformation Officer, told 2,000 young leaders at this year’s One Young World Summit.

There are four ways Unilever’s developing youths’ skills.

The first way is promoting “resilience through self-esteem”. Globally, eight in ten girls with low body esteem will opt out of fundamental life activities. The Dove Self-Esteem Project’s education programs provide free confidence-building workshops for classrooms and educational activities for parents, mentors and youth leaders to help the next generation reach their full potential.

To date, the Dove Self-Esteem Project has reached 94 million people. Its stretch target is 250 million by 2030. Courses have been designed to engage 10 million young people in India, Indonesia and Brazil. And digital e-learning platforms aim to reach 16 million 15- to 24-year-olds across India by 2025.

In the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Future of Jobs Report 2023, resilience ranked third in its top ten core skills. “One needs resilience – a tenacious refusal to give up, stemming from a deep belief in our capacity to overcome obstacles and forge a brighter future,” Nitin said.

The second way is “innovation and problem-solving”. As micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) account for 49.8% of Nigeria’s gross domestic product. Unilever Nigeria’s nine-month Future-X Unilever Campus Ambassador Program aims to harness that entrepreneurial spirit by teaching young people professional skills to encourage growth and innovation.

In 2023, Future-X Unilever Campus Ambassador Program partnered with Yoma, an e-education platform to give more students access to courses. The goal is to upskill 700,000 young people and reach 3 million over three years.

Creative thinking ranked second in WEF’s top ten skills. “The problems that plague our world are immense, but they’re also immense opportunities for the daring and the innovative,” Nitin said.

The third way is “using resourcefulness to mobilize climate change” through DIG and the Global Volunteer Initiative.

Unilever’s Dirt Is Good brand, including Omo and Persil, is working to expand the Global Volunteering Initiative which currently empowers 12.5 million volunteers in 40 countries.

The partners aim to mobilize 1.1 million young people in India and Brazil to design and lead climate change campaigns on local issues.

Managing community volunteers requires resourcefulness. It develops transferable skills such as flexibility and communication and drives awareness among local people. The project’s goal is to reach 5 million through the impact of these actions.

“If we embrace these challenges as opportunities, together, we can continue to shape a world that reflects the very best of humanity,” Nitin said.

The fourth way is “encouraging ingenuity” through Unilever’s Changemakers program. Unilever is also working to develop its own talent via a 12-month development program called Changemakers. Each year 24 young leaders work in squads on four real-life business challenges, guided by in-house mentors. The goal is to use their skills to drive tangible impact and provide sustainable business value within Unilever.

“The current challenges we are addressing today require innovative solutions that encompass systemic thinking, given their complex interconnectedness,” Nitin said.

“Yet, there is no reason to believe that we don’t have the ingenuity to do so. We certainly do. All that is needed is to channel our near-infinite resourcefulness. Work together. That is a force multiplier,” he added.

Upskilling young people is more than an investment in their personal development. According to WEF it has the potential to add $6.5 trillion to global GDP by 2030. It also provides businesses like Unilever with diverse talent to develop more inclusive, sustainable economies. “Harnessing these qualities can pave the way forward,” said Nitin, “unlocking the potential for extraordinary solutions to the most pressing challenges of our times.”