Dr Mona Mourshed: Confronting Corporate Ageism

This week’s guest with Avivah Wittenberg-Cox on 4-Quarter Lives is Dr Mona Mourshed, the founder and CEO of Generation, a global non-profit organisation that prepares, places and supports adult learners of all ages into careers that are otherwise inaccessible, delivering sector-leading employment and income results consistently.  

Generation has recently worked with the OECD to publish a report on The MidCareer Opportunity. It recognises that the world of work is getting older, with profound implications for the labour market, government finances, healthcare and welfare systems, and millions of midcareer workers. The OECD and Generation teamed up to survey thousands of hiring managers, employed, and unemployed people across Europe, the UK, and the US. The resulting report reveals unfounded but deep-seated ageism, explores barriers and enablers to career success, and lays out the steps that business, policymakers, and midcareer and older workers themselves can take now to navigate our transition to a more digital and sustainable world. 

Launched in 2015, Generation comprises a global hub (Generation You Employed, or GYE) and a network of in-country affiliates.  To date, the network has over 100,000 graduates and helped more than 14,000 employers across 40 professions and 18 countries. When learners join Generation, 90% are unemployed, of which nearly half are long-term unemployed.  Three months after completing Generation’s programme, graduates have an 80% job placement rate, rising to 90% within six months. Of their employed graduates, 68% are hired by repeat employer partners, and 88% are in jobs directly related to the profession for which Generation has trained them. Employed graduates immediately earn an average of 3-4 times their previous earnings.  Two to five years after graduation, 70% of alumni continue to meet their daily financial needs and 40% save for the future. To date, Generation’s global graduates have earned some $900 million in wages.

Dr Mona Mourshed has decades of experience as a leader in the education and workforce space. She has authored widely cited education reports, including Education to Employment: Getting Europe’s Youth Into Work, Education to Employment: Designing a System That Works, How the World’s Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better, and How the World’s Best Performing School Systems Come Out on Top.

Previously she founded and led McKinsey & Company’s global education practice, and led McKinsey’s global social responsibility agenda. She was selected as one of Fortune Magazine’s ’40 under 40’, sits on the boards of Last Mile Health, New America and Teach for All, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Entrepreneur, and previously served on the Board of Governors of the International Baccalaureate Organization. Mona has a B.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from MIT. She holds dual Egyptian and American citizenship.

Some Useful Links:

* Generation website

* The MidCareer Opportunity – Report by Generation and the OECD

* Forbes Article: ‘Employers May Not Value 25 Years Experience As Much As 5, New Data Shows’, by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

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