McKinsey launches youth employment initiative in Singapore and Hong Kong

McKinsey is celebrating a successful start to the year for its Generation initiative, with the international youth training programme expanded to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Launched in 2015, McKinsey’s Generation programme partners with non-profit organisations, governments and the private sector to provide unemployed youth with accelerated skills and job-readiness training for in-demand sectors such as healthcare, technology, sales & retail, customer service and skilled trades – helping to address the some 75 million jobless youth worldwide.

Since its inception, the global programme has graduated more than 20,000 students with 85 percent of those placed in jobs, having in that time expanded to nine countries – including, this year, Singapore and Hong Kong. The Asian states join existing Generation projects the US, Australia, Spain, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan and India, with new locations in the UK and France in the short-term pipeline.

For Singapore, Generation will partner with state agency SkillsFuture to offer a 40 day boot-camp in digital marketing, while in Hong Kong, programmes in customer service and digital and social media marketing are already underway. The Singapore launch aligns with concerted recent efforts from the local government to prepare its citizens for the future workforce – including within the consulting sector.

Currently operating in over 75 cities, the McKinsey Generation programme takes a strategy and management approach to the issue of unemployment and vocational placement, firstly identifying the areas of most demand by employers, and then undertaking extensive data tracking to measure outcomes – allowing the organisation to ultimately demonstrate the value for all relevant parties.

And the data so far? 82 percent of graduates employed within three months of completion, a retention rate after one year pushing 70 percent, 84 percent of employers stating that graduates outperform their peers on productivity and speed to promotion, $70 million in cumulative graduate earnings (at incomes of two to six times higher than prior to the training), and an established partnership base of more than 2,300 employers.

With such early success, the programme too is beginning to receive recognition. In Spain, the original launchpad for the programme – in an economy marked by chronic youth unemployment – McKinsey’ local managing partner Alejandro Beltrán received an award from corporate social responsibility organisation Fundación SERES for his role in Generation and contribution to society.

More recently, the US edition of McKinsey programme earned a major accolade from the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE – a Qatar Foundation-led international initiative focused on innovation in education), beating out over 400 global candidates last month to receive one of six coveted WISE Awards – with the ceremony set for next month in New York.

“The Generation team is thrilled and honored to receive the WISE Award,” said Generation President and CEO Mona Mourshed. “This recognition makes us even more determined to enable a career for every person, anywhere in the world. We are grateful for our learners, employers, and implementation partners who have all worked hard to help us to learn and grow fast.”