Ashoka and Accenture launch new joint job initiative
Accenture has signed a partnership with Ashoka, a global association of social entrepreneurs, to establish a joint job initiative: the Talent Growth Initiative. Through partnerships with job-training organisations, the initiative aims at closing the skills gap and (better) equipping job seekers with the skills needed for the 21st century workforce. The partnership forms a part of Accenture’s ‘Skills to Succeed’ initiative.
Ashoka is an in 1980 established global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. The network operates in 70 countries and has as its goal building an “Everyone a Changemaker World.” The community does this by championing new social change ideas and supporting the innovators behind them by helping them get started, grow, collaborate and reshape whole systems, through start-up financing, professional support services, and connections to a global network across the business and social sectors.
As part of its corporate citizenship initiative, Skills to Succeed*, consulting firm Accenture has decided to partner up with Ashoka and launch the Talent Growth Initiative (TGI). The TGI has been established to bridge the skills gap and help people who are looking for a job in 2015 succeed through different sets of skills training. The initiative mobilises partnerships with job training and placement organisations that focus on up-skilling individuals and placing them with employers who identify open positions that require specific skills.
“With the Talent Growth Initiative, we’re helping to address the skills gap by convening innovative cross-sector partnerships. This initiative provides a more sustainable career track for job seekers and creates a new pipeline of qualified and diverse talent for employers,” explains Larry Solomon, North America Operating Officer and Corporate Citizenship Lead for Accenture.
The TGI is in part funded by more than $4 million in grants and pro-bono support from Accenture and the Accenture Foundations. In addition to this, Accenture will provide pro-bono consulting services to the job-training organisations to strengthen career pathways for workers and ensure they complete their up-skilling/education and successfully transition into employment. Through the TGI, Accenture and Ashoka aim to equip approximately 5,800 individuals with the skills that that are increasingly in demand for today’s career-track jobs – such as adaptability, resilience and entrepreneurship and provide them with leadership, teamwork and negotiation training.
* ‘Skills to Succeed’ addresses the global need for skills that open doors to employment and economic opportunity. The effort plans to equip more than 700,000 people globally by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business. The firm also recently partnered up with Girls Who Code to help young women to secure a career in technology.
