There has been much talk about jobs recently — green jobs, tech jobs, more jobs, and even Steve Jobs. With more than 200 million people unemployed worldwide, and another 1.5 billion under- or informally-employed, such a focus on economic growth is both necessary and expected.
In this respect, the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative (which took place last week) delivered. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: Generating Employment for the 21st Century was the headlining meeting topic for this annual convention of former heads of state, Nobel Prize laureates, CEOs, philanthropists, and frighteningly smart can-do-gooders.
These leaders spoke about game-changing innovations for building social and economic value (to enable global growth while still preserving our sustainability as one people on one planet), but it wasn’t all cheers, champagne, and confetti.
Andrew N. Liveris, chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, explained that while many of the world’s innovations give us great hope, there is one thing that could keep us from meeting our social, economic, and environmental goals:
“Everyone in this room could probably name the top five sports stars or the top five entertainers in their domain or globally,” Liveris began, addressing the audience during a special session on the last day of the event. “But you can’t name the top five scientists. When did we fall out of love with science as being part of the solution? When did that happen? I don’t quite know.”
The limited consideration toward high-quality science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education is something that keeps Liveris up at night. Because without it, our aspirations for brilliant public-private partnerships, hybrid value chains, and borderless enterprises might fall flat.
In the same session, John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco, asked Tarja K. Halonen, the President of the Republic of Finland, how her country has been able to foster an unusual cooperation between business and government for full employment and job creation and be on the leading edge of technology.
“In three words: Education, education, education,” Halonen responded. A country that loves to learn, she explained, is encouraged to become better by challenging existing practices.
Today, a few days after the event that bears his name, former President Bill Clinton echoed the need to support education to an audience at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, New York.
“The big message I have [for] you is we need more emphasis on the future, even if we have to give up a little in the present,” Clinton said. “It begins with you. It has to be done not with hot air in Washington, but hard work at the grassroots level.
“We spend so much time talking about our problems, sometimes, we forget about our assets.”
We need to be aggressive to stop the college dropout rate, he continued, because we can’t maximize the impact of investments in the future if we don’t have the minds to do the job.
Which leads us back to STEM: a field offering higher pay, lower unemployment, and, most importantly, jobs for both today and tomorrow. With everyone fixated on creating jobs, we need to ensure that there are enough minds working on education, the key to the future.
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Be an asset for social change! Beginning on October 5, 2011, you can get on board with Ashoka Changemakers, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and The Opportunity Equation and vote for the most innovative solution that maximizes untapped community talent to engage students, particularly our highest-need students, in rich STEM learning.
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