To futureproof skills, businesses must engage with the entire education system

Every business model—and especially talent and skills development teams—should include engaging with schools and the entire education system as a core strategic initiative. Revitalizing education systems is vital for effectively preparing people—from kindergarten to lifelong training—for the constantly changing world that AI and the sustainability emergency has already accelerated. Businesses that don’t engage can’t complain when futureproof talent proves elusive.

Generation C, an organization with a mission to embed sustainability skills in curriculums, recently hosted a summit of businesses, educators, and policymakers in London. The gathering delivered a series of recommendations for the business community to improve their strategic and logistical engagement with education and policy (see Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1: Businesses must improve their engagement with the education system to develop long-term talent effectively

Source: HFS Research, 2024

Career ambitions are formed—and often limited—by age seven!

Some time ago, the OECD outlined how students’ impressions of future careers are formed around the age of seven, including limitations on potential jobs. Attitudes then change minimally between ages 7 and 17.

A University College London (UCL) study found only 31% of 2,500 students aged 11-14 felt that learning about climate change and sustainability might translate into career opportunities. Just 17% expressed an interest in sustainability-related careers. In the US, more than 330,000 jobs have been created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a landmark climate and broader infrastructure funding package. Three-quarters of those jobs do not and will not require a college degree. Businesses cannot, therefore, solely engage with soon-to-be university graduates. Engaging with the whole education system, from kindergarten to technical colleges to universities, is an imperative.

Long-term plans must start with early education and connect all system levels

TATA Steel’s replacement of blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces in Wales is expected to cost 2,000 workers their jobs and affect thousands more in the local supply chain and community. This is a huge failure of transition planning. Business strategies should integrate with local schools and universities to ensure future and existing workers are skilled and retrained before such crises arise.

Link skills and careers to the global context

For example, in partnership with Generation C, Octopus Energy offers lesson plans on the energy transition from technology to jobs and its link with the global sustainability context (see Exhibit 2).

Business London presented its Local Schools Improvement Plan to the summit, highlighting challenges including defining green jobs, jargon, slow course development, and carbon literacy. It added negotiation, resilience, communication, and leadership to the list of future-proof skills that others at the Generation C event listed as reflection, creativity, confidence, and systems thinking.

Exhibit 2: Link strengths and passions throughout education systems to the global context

Source: HFS Research, 2024

Meet schools on their schedules

Several event attendees advocated for businesses to create funded and organized models to remove the burden from schools. However, given the individual school goals, metrics, and timescales, businesses should retain enough flexibility to adapt.

Schools also plan in years, not quarters. Engaging with schools before the summer holidays is essential because academic schedules are firm. At best, it will likely be the next term before an event can be organized.

Business must move first: Due to resource constraints, schools are often unresponsive to business outreach

A global construction company representative talked me through its outreach program for approaching a school in a former mining community. The community has had turbulent experiences with work, employment, training, and education. The company offered multiple options for varying time commitments to meet the school on its terms, starting small and building the relationship.

Engaging with education is challenging in a world of business short-termism—so find partners who want to think long-term

Octopus Energy and Dentsu, already working with Generation C, are examples of businesses that can collaborate and advocate collectively for what’s working. A critical mass can create positive tipping points once value is established for business and education. Businesses must seek out multiplier effects, such as local government hubs for business engagement.

An engineering firm specializing in heat pumps and retrofitting explained that they don’t struggle for a long-term business mandate, given the company’s technology and services are poised to address long-term building decarbonization targets. But most businesses struggle to surpass corporate social responsibility (CSR) tick-box exercises such as volunteering (or government funding prerequisites)—which schools hate:

We wanted a partnership that lasted longer than a single visit.

— A school vice-principal

Businesses should collectively influence policy—forcing a mandate beyond what they can individually craft

Networks and associations exist to lobby the government. Businesses should collectively call for resources that empower schools to engage with business.

Businesses should also lobby for ongoing curriculum review. If skills are to meet technology and sustainability changes, both technical and “soft skills” should be embedded throughout education systems.

The Bottom Line: Policy will not empower schools to embed future-proof skills without businesses first proving the case—and lobbying—for a drastically improved engagement model.

Act on the recommendations in Exhibit 1. Leverage the examples in this piece. And consider reaching out to Generation C and the broader business-education-policy ecosystem. The futureproofing of your talent and your business is at stake.