 Unemployment is possibly the biggest challenge in the 21st century, 200 million people unemployed last year, an increase of about 5 million in a span of 12 months. East Asia and South Asia contributed the most to the increase. Now, out of those unemployed, almost half, well, they're the young people, 15 to 24, either uneducated or underqualified. Clearly, there is a skills gap here. Our discussion today is on the premise that entrepreneurship and education will help alleviate the problem. But the question really is, how do we revamp the education to produce enough entrepreneurs to create the billions of jobs in an increasingly automated world? Big question, but an important question to be answered. Please join me in welcoming our panel today, James Riadi, Lippo Group, CEO and co-chair of WEF on East Asia, Tessie Sikosan, SM Investments, Board Vice Chairman, Kevin Sneeder, McKinsey, Asia Pack Chairman, Vickers Porter, Verkey Jams Foundation, CEO, Mark Ruiz, Happy Noi, Microventures, President, Co-Founder, Social Entrepreneur. Tessie, gentlemen, good to have you with us today. Now, when you take a look at entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, Lee Kushing, the one thing they have in common is that they're all school dropouts. Do you even need education to be an entrepreneur? In our case, I think we value education because they teach the students to think. It's basically that the rest of the knowledge, you get it from experience. Kevin? Well, look, I think the celebrated names of the entrepreneurs who don't have an education, I think it's a little dangerous to base a whole society on that notion. It's a wonderful thing that they've been incredibly successful. But it is very important that education plays a role in entrepreneurship. And I think the real issue that we need to grapple with is why is the education system disconnected from employment in terms of actually creating people with the skills needed for the jobs that the nations of East Asia require? And I think in East Asia, the challenge is as much about unemployment as it is about underemployment, i.e. there's a disconnect between the skills that are needed to successfully shape the economies of this part of the world and what people are learning in school. And that disconnect needs to be closed because if that persists, then I think it's legitimate to ask the question, what's the role of education? But education can play a role if it's more oriented towards the skills that are needed for jobs and if it's more vocationally driven and driven by the tasks and the skills on the job learning, the kind of experiences that people need to be successful. I think that's probably what society needs. I think the notion that education doesn't have a role to play is a little dangerous. Can I pay a devil's advocate? Do you need schools? I mean, you can have an education on the internet, have access to the best teachers, best curriculum. Do you even need schools, Vickers? I mean, not to get you out of business, but because Vickers run schools. Well, you look at online dating and tell me how many successful dates people have had. See, the problem that we have when it comes to education in particular is that our teachers themselves are not entrepreneurial enough. They have no experience. They're not to blame for that, but this is where they've not come from. And therefore, to expect them to do something that they're not used to or to encourage children to think outside the box and think entrepreneurially, I think is a challenge that we have to address. And we're doing this in a number of ways. There are training programs. My friend, Dr. Kumar over here, spoke about mentorship, work experience. When we expose teachers, we expose students. And that's, I think, a really fitting solution. Otherwise, what we have is a situation akin to nuns trying to teach sex education. Your thoughts, James? Well, if you think about being an entrepreneur, it's like to become a bill gauge, then maybe it's one out of a billion. But when you think about entrepreneurship, it's a process of creativity. Somebody taking some risk, willing to put up his resources to create something new or to get something that's there, but make it better, then it's for everybody. And if you think about entrepreneurship as something also, that's really a part of the economy. Because nation building is about a process of creativity. And behind that creativity are the entrepreneurs who may take a loan, mortgage the house, start something new, put up with all the government bureaucracy and all the inefficiencies of the system. And create jobs, now that's the true entrepreneur. It's not just Bill Gates, though. I mean, it's Tat Turner, Richard Branson, Michael Dell, a whole list of entrepreneurs who dropped out of school. Why is it that schools are not inculcating that they managed to develop when they dropped out? What is that curriculum's need? I think that we have to widen the definition of entrepreneurship for today's debate. It's not necessarily just about setting up your own business. You can be entrepreneurial within organizations. And when curricula and when classroom lessons teach you about resilience, about risk, as well as the hard stuff, which is reading balance sheets, talking in terms of legal language. What we do, what we see is a knock on impact on the child's overall confidence to succeed. There's a lot of statistics that support this. For example, children who have actually taken part in some sort of entrepreneurship education, there's a statistic that says 44% of these, their aspirations are increased. We know that their leadership behavior is increased by 8%. So what I'm saying is that it's not necessarily about setting up your own business, it's actually asking them to be something else. It's asking them to excel in different areas. And Mark, that's how you come into the picture because you're a social entrepreneur, you empower women who otherwise wouldn't have jobs. So I guess I think that's the perspective I'm bringing into this panel, really. So by way of quick introduction at Happy Noi, we support women micro entrepreneurs in rural areas who run really these small shops in the Philippines we call Sari Sari stores. Now, we've talked about the Mark Zuckerbergs and the Bill Gates. On one end of the spectrum who dropped out and essentially built large companies, but I think the fundamental difference between them and the women we partner with is that they dropped out by choice. In our situation, in our context, the women did not finish formal education, not by choice, really, but they were really literally driven to start these small shops because they had to literally come up with a livelihood. But I think when I look at that, that other spectrum of micro entrepreneurship, which is really where we are, it's a point of pride actually for a lot of our store owners who've grown to then say, I didn't finish high school, I didn't finish college, and remember this very distinctly, one of our store owners telling me, but you know what? I employ people who've actually graduated from college. And again, they didn't go through the formal system, but they were able to make something out of that. Now, I think there are, I'm a fan of the formal education system, I'm a product of that. And then certainly not saying we should do away with it. But I think really there are really opportunities here, both on the micro enterprise side, because now we're seeing as they're growing their stores, they do need those skillsets that are actually taught in school. They have those latent experience, that experience of actually doing it. But then they need upgraded skills, and to a large extent, that's what we do. We provide that supplementary education as they're growing, which they missed out on. But of course, it's tempered with a lot of their experience. And to be frank, a lot of the things we also teach back to them are things we also learn from them. Is there a multiplier effect when you see your mom being an entrepreneur having a stall? Does it encourage the children? In our case, again, to contextualize it, these are small shops. But I think there is a multiplier effect to them. Again, because by the sheer numbers, there are literally hundreds and thousands, in fact, some are seeing around a million of these shops nationwide. And so you can then start multiplying those numbers. Not all of them would employ quite a smaller percentage, but then when they do, they tend to employ relatives. So that multiplies it by anywhere between three to five. But certainly, what we see in all of them is that it encourages the family, really, and they consider it a family business, really. We talked about, Kevin? Well, I was going to say, I mean, I think the multiplier effect's huge. Because at the end of the day, we need to remember that 70% of all the jobs in this part of the world are created by small and medium enterprises, not the big ones. And I think as a result, we do have to rethink what we mean by entrepreneurship. The notion of everybody being a Richard Branson, or even a Tony Fernandez is wonderful, and they're incredibly inspiring figures. But in some case, what we're really talking about doing is the person celebrating the person that starts a small enterprise and sees that grow. And in a way, big business is a notion of corporate entrepreneurship responsibilities, CER, one person was talking about the other day. And I think that is part of the notion, it's how do you get access for these small enterprises to large companies that can, in the back of that, create bigger enterprises out of small enterprises? And that, I think, is part of the challenge in this part of the world. And that is something that large enterprise has perhaps a responsibility now to stimulate. We talked about skills gap at SM and at Litpo. What would you like to see? What skills should students learn? For us, I guess we have employed a lot of people and we find that after a certain time, the resources are getting scarred. So we are training them for our business. And also if they go elsewhere because they have gotten enough information, I mean they have gotten enough skill, that's good also for their future. So we are going to look into right now, beside our training programs in the company, we are also looking into working on some schools in some communities. But for me, schools is, it's really make people think, give some confidence. It gives confidence to aspire for bigger things, confidence to be, to lead. But outside of, I think there is more, it's more of the experience that will teach people how to go about the future. It doesn't stop with education. I've been hearing, yes, it's true, we do need education. But education is just a starting point. Beyond that, a person has to think out of the box. Because if you follow the school strictly, the school teaching strictly, you won't be a Richard Branson. James? We do look for entrepreneurs in our organization. In the sense that people that across the board and throughout the whole organization understand what creativity is all about. And these are the people that would come out from an education system that is not road memorization. That understand that education is not just about knowledge, but it's about the process of learning. So this is where the problem is. And the right kind of education, and to be an entrepreneur, is not just about setting up a business, becoming Bill Gates. It's about income mobility. A lot of these people, they cannot move up. They have no mobility. Take Indonesia, for example. 70% of 112 million workforce are in the informal sector, low wage, low skills. So how do we get these people up? And as long as the education system cannot bring them up, they've got no mobility. So this is where we also have to take a look at what education is all about. We've got the three foundations of education. The family, which is the basic educational platform, the schools, and places of worship. So if we've got to get the whole system right, we've got to get these three foundations right. Now in the school system, it is very important because the rule is if you don't go through school, the chance of you making it up there is going to be very, very slim. And you do not want to go through life with the rule of exception. You won't go through life through the rule of the rule. Now, unfortunately, the education system is like a silo. They've got their own little world. They design their own system. They run everything by themselves. Even the accreditation is peer accreditation, a peer review. And this is where I think some kind of integration with what the business world needs, what's our economy needs, entrepreneurship, and working together to create a better system that would work. Just to put some numbers on that because I think that's a critical point. We've got a situation where the educators, the students, and the governments of today, they're operating in parallel universes. They don't understand what the purpose of education needs to be. So just to put some numbers, if you ask employers what proportion of the students that they recruit are well trained for the job at hand, they'll tell you 87% are not well equipped. 87% not well equipped. If you ask the educational providers, they tell you the opposite number. 87% are well equipped. So we've got this complete contrast between what comes in and what comes out. Employers need a set of skills and educators don't necessarily understand those skills and moreover actually think they're already giving people the skills that are needed. That has to change. I think if education was seen as a means to an end, which is equipping the youth of today with the skills needed for tomorrow, then we'd probably end up with a different system. But it is a system problem. You need to start with the youth and go all the way through to the educators and make sure that somehow it's being joined up. And that's why places like Germany, where they have the craft schools and where the schools have a purpose, which is to train people for employment, have done very well. And perhaps we need to have a look at some of the examples that already work. And instead, some of them are in Asia with the Meister schools in Korea. That's what the world needs today. And that's what Asia needs today to ensure that education is with a purpose, which is to give people a job that is value added and equips them to survive tomorrow. Yeah, I agree with you. After high school, I think there should be more vocational training than the formal educations that we are subjected to. Vikas, you wanted to add? Yeah, there are two or three things. When you look at the geographical landscape and you see that the statistics that will back this up, we'd say that Europe actually struggles with entrepreneurship education, whereas the United States, as we instinctively know, does well in this space. One of the biggest challenges that we face is that entrepreneurship education is seen to be the sole domain and monopoly of universities. And you can teach it just at that level. I support everything that's been said, which is actually it's not just high schools that we have to look at. You can start from a very young age teaching children and socializing them in that kind of environment. So for example, when we look at what I call the hard stuff, the ability to do most activities you can learn. But when you look at personality traits, you look at competencies. One of the reasons why I believe these two dynamos have been so successful is because of their ability to take risk. And you've got to think in terms of, well, how do you expose children to take risk? The education system itself is inherently discouraging you to do that. It discourages you from looking at failure. Can you imagine going to school and saying, well, I got an F today? It's just not the culture. So we have to look in terms of how we complement. So how do you do that? Encourage children to take risks, that it's okay to fail? So in our school environment, we have almost 100 schools around the world. And we have experimented and we have trialed things that have worked since time immemorial. So for example, when I went to school, we had a business simulation game when I was 13 where I ran the sweet shop. That's a simple thing like that. And with popular culture, actually embracing concepts and TV programs like Dragon's Den and these kind of things, I think children are more attuned to the culture of entrepreneurship, to thinking disruptively, and by fixing problems. If there's one thing that, whether it's a Bill Gates, a Richard Branson, a Sunny Varky, whoever teaches us, it's quite simply that entrepreneurs are good at fixing problems. And that's what education systems need to actually look at more clearly and carefully at. What are the skills you impart, Mark? Yeah, well, actually just to pick up on that point, and just shifting lenses a little bit, it's like, I think the industrial style of education has, you know, has, I guess, brought us to a certain point. But now I think the onus is really to encourage more entrepreneurialism, even at the educational level, because the world is becoming more uncertain. And I think right now we have, in the previous century, I think, is that we have certainly produced graduates who are fit for that kind of world. But I think now we're entering a period of uncertainty. And again, cookie cutter graduates are not going to necessarily make it in this new environment. And I think exposing somebody, a fresh graduate, who's only been trained to think a certain way and then just get every answer correct, it's not going to thrive in the new reality. And I think, and to a certain extent, I mean, linking back to our work, the uncertainty is something they deal with every day. And actually, my concern is for those people who are going to school, who are fairly sheltered, who are not exposed, really, to what the new normal is. And the normal used to be, as Richard Branson puts, you know, you go from a garage to being a local player and a national player and international player. These were distinct stages of growth in terms of entrepreneurship. They don't exist anymore. You could be a global hit sitting in your bedroom overnight nowadays. And so you have to think in terms of what are the skills, what are the competencies, what is the knowledge you require. And that's why I think school education plays a very important part in that. Because there's no age barrier, there's no wealth barrier, there's no barriers whatsoever to this now. We talked earlier about the U.S., how it does it very well. SMEs provide a lot of jobs in the U.S., 26 million small businesses. They provide about half of the workforce in the private sector. How can that be replicated in East Asia and South Asia? Can it be replicated? What can be done? Well, the U.S. system is a very particular system. And I think we should be careful before we start wanting to apply it. First of all, from an educational point of view, many people in the U.S. worry about the quality of the education system. What I think we're actually talking about is the U.S. has a culture where being in business is a good thing. We're creating money, we're making profit, is seen as part of what you do. And that's inculcated from a very young age. So part of it is also the attitude to entrepreneurship and the attitude towards business. What the U.S. I think also does well is it does give access to finance. And part of what we need to look at is a lot of those small businesses in the U.S. get their start from large businesses. There's real access to the supply chain. There's a real opportunity to learn from large business. Large business creates an enormous amount of small business. And I think that's part of what we have here, because part of the challenge in East Asia is access to finance, which I guess is part of what you gentlemen bring. And at the same time, it's also a culture where people celebrate the value of education as a pathway to a job and as a pathway to entrepreneurship. And that is something which the U.S. does extraordinarily well. I'm not so sure its education system is something we want to mirror and replicate necessarily in this part of the world. How do big businesses get smaller businesses, the SMEs, into the supply chains? What can be done, James? There are lots of entrepreneurs out there, a lot of small enterprises out there. I think what Joseph Shampita was talking about, that it's a process of creativity. And that process of creativity needs the element of good governance in the whole community. Because bad governance kills creativity. Secondly, availability of financing. There is that better level of intermediation, where the banker in the past used to be somebody who's the bridge between somebody who has an idea without money and with people that has the money without ideas. But today, the bankers have become administrative bankers. So you need both sides. You need the good governance that foster creativity. You need the financing system. But also, you're not going to get an entrepreneur by focusing on the skills. And today, the problem is that it's all focusing on the skills, as if the person is just another pair of hands. But you need to focus on the whole totality of the human functionality. So that means holistic education. That means liberal arts, the ability to think, to be asking the why. So this is what is required. But as a company, as a big organization, how do you promote, encourage innovation, creativity, make it part of your DNA? Well, people get recruited because of resumé. But normally, we let them go because they don't have the mentality, a fighting mentality. This is what my parents and all these teachers, that you've got to have that fighting mentality, never give up, and so on. But it needs just more than just an education. As I said, it's family. It's also in the schools. But also the right kind of ecosystem that allows it to flourish. Tessie? Yeah. I think we're talking about education. We should talk about education in different ways. There's, as James was saying, there's the family. There's the school, which has the formal educations. And I think we need more discipline in that area. Family is, if they're entrepreneur, they will train them on the entrepreneurial side. And the society, which means the opportunity, the financing, the availability of entrepreneur opportunities. But not everyone wants to be entrepreneur. So I think we should give their choices after high school to be either go into the formal educations of the discipline and the financial side, which is to train the financial skill, or go to vocational to train them on their skill so that they can be employed. Or they can go into entrepreneurial programs where they can further their knowledge. I think it's really, I think there are a lot of options. And some people will choose entrepreneur program. How do you promote women into entrepreneurship? Because it's a challenge globally. When we speak about America as being this beacon, they also struggle in this space. So I'd be interested from anyone. How do we do this? What, the women? How do you promote women into entrepreneurship? Just ask them to go out of the house. And they will either work or do business. Well, it could be a case of having role models as well. Well, let's remember in China, in China, if you look at who the entrepreneurs are today, a lot of them are women. I mean, if you look at the billionaires, the billionaire entrepreneurs in China, half of them are female. And that's what it should be, because at least half the population. Women have to work because they have kids to take care of. I mean, it's whether animal kingdoms or human humanity. You have to take care of the kids. So there is a need. So they'll have to really look for a job. And being on a job is like doing business by providing your skill. Isn't it the case, Mark? We work primarily, if not almost exclusively, after the women micro-entrepreneurs. But again, it's a very different context. And we work with micro-finance institutions like CARD. And so essentially, at least in that modality of micro-finance, primarily, it's actually the women that get lent to. They tend to be more responsible, actually, and they ensure, actually, that at least at that level, at the micro level, the rewards certainly automatically redound to the household. And so that's been our experience. How about the importance of role models? Absolutely. We've just started a program in Ghana through one of our businesses, which actually looks at using technology as a way of beaming role models into schools and rural areas. And the whole aspect is to provide inspiration. When you think about women entrepreneurs in particular, you think, well, there's a handful, at best. So how do children know that women are meant to be in business, are meant to be entrepreneurs, and it can be very good at it? So those are the ways of doing it. I think role models and mentorship play a phenomenally important role in this. Kevin? No, I agree. And I think the reason I was mentioning the point about China is I think we need to understand that in some parts of the world, there are role models. And we need to get more of them out there. I mean, I do think China, incidentally, I've been working in China for many years. I see more women in executive roles, in entrepreneurship in China than I do the rest of the year when I'm outside China. And so we need to find a way to celebrate the role models that do exist and give people confidence that they can be that, too. Because I think what we really, one thing I'm taking away from this conversation is entrepreneurship is not a course of study to be taught. It is a way of life. It's a set of thoughts. It's a holistic view of the person that needs to be embedded and built. And somehow or other, that is best captured in the minds of individuals when you can see someone that you can role model. And that role model can be a mother. It can be somebody close to you just as much as it can be one of the brand names that we've been talking about. Should it be done differently in Asia compared to the West if we were to move Silicon Valley to Manila? Will it change the landscape here? Is it done differently here than anywhere else? I believe that a big part of the process to become entrepreneurs would be to go through challenges and difficulties. And yet today's society, the dominant philosophy is what you see in the films and in the TV, the movie stars and so on, which our young people are trying to follow. So there is a real crisis of examples. Today's dominant philosophy is this young people is to be rich and happy fast. And so they're not willing to go through the process of difficulty. So throughout the whole education process, you want knowledge, you want skills, you want experience, you want technology, but you also want the whole wisdom. So that experience, that wisdom of going through life with lots of difficulties and you respond in the right way, in a fighting spirit, in the Eastern fighting spirit, you might get a chance to make. Cassie? No, I guess she has, I agree with him. I don't have much to add on to that. The Silicon Valley is a very particular model. I mean, it's about a collection of capital that happens to be one place with a remarkable culture and ambiance and the whole environment that goes with it. It's a nice thought that one could recognize and replicate that here, but it's worth remembering that the innovation models that have applied here have often been through large corporations doing wonderful things that are truly innovative. I mean, Samsung is giving Apple a run for its money and the two could not be more different in terms of the way they go about innovating and how they've chosen to do that. So I think we should be careful before we think there is only one model and it's the Silicon Valley model. Here people innovate through a more collective approach, through multi-disciplines, rather than the hero-entrepreneur. The hero-entrepreneur exists, but I think one of the challenges we need to put out there is making sure we have an array of role models and don't lead everyone to think they have to be the next big superhero because it does start exactly as Mark says. What really matters is what that mom does or what the small business owner does and how they choose to build their business over time because that's actually more likely to be the model in Asia than thinking somehow or other we're gonna transport Silicon Valley and put it into one of these economies. We talked about how there are various parts involved in encouraging entrepreneurship, the family, education, so on and so forth. Should anyone be taking the lead? In terms of? Encouraging entrepreneurship. Should the government take the lead? Should private sector take the lead? Interpreneurs are everywhere. It's a matter of giving them more opportunities in terms of, like for us, in the malls. We give them opportunities to market their items and or to provide their services and some of them really go and become a bigger business and also in terms of financial availability. I think these two will encourage a lot of those people who would think out of the box. I think leadership is very important in this space and I don't think that leadership rests just with one entity. I would probably expand what you said from government to family to schools also to things like the entertainment industry. When we speak about role models, we all know that people are crazy about Hollywood films and Bollywood films and Nollywood films. Let's celebrate entrepreneurship through these because it's a proven way of actually exciting and stimulating thinking and behavior. In our schools what we try to do is we model behaviors and attitudes and that I think is a very powerful way of encouraging entrepreneurship. It's something that we should look at but coming to an earlier point that you raised, I think history teaches us something very important which is those that are high income and low income countries have traditionally had less to lose and therefore are willing to put things at risk. I think for the region the risk is that as you become more affluent and more middle income, you stop taking the risk. That I think is a big danger. I mean just on that, government absolutely has a role to play and I think it's important that we recognize it because at the end of the day somebody has to join up what the educators do with what the youth needs and what employers are looking for. And I think it's very hard for that to happen if government doesn't step forward and play a real role. And that may be one of the differences incidentally between the more individually driven economies of the West and the economies over here which are driven in a rather different way. But government does have a role to play and if government chooses not to play that role then who is it who's going to help align the visions? Who is it who's gonna help make sure the curricula are done in a way that works? Now I love the notion that it could be done individually by lots of entrepreneurial instincts but I think if we're gonna move societies at a scale that they need to move government has to play a role. We can't wait for the government, you know it will take a long time. I agree with that but I don't think you can also say I don't think you can say that government doesn't have a role to play. I mean I agree completely. The government has a role to play in every aspect but I guess that's why there are entrepreneurs because it doesn't matter whether there is assistance from the government or not they know how to navigate their business. Agreed. I think we need to take a bigger picture perspective that we are all in this one calling, one enterprise that for the next generation that you know we are all stakeholders but within all this the government have to make sure that it's not coming out with wrong policies. Absolutely. So the worst enemy is not corruption but it is wrong government policy. I agree. So that begs the question should entrepreneurs be in government? I mean if you want the right policies to be in place policies that would encourage entrepreneurship should there be entrepreneurs in government? Businessmen should be in government. James are you for it? This is the spirit. The spirit of the entrepreneurs should be in government but you know governments require different set skills. You've got to understand social, political issues, bureaucracy and it's just totally different. So there must be a total perspective in this. Not every businessman can go into the government and be successful. But it is important. It is important for entrepreneurs to be in government or representation. Entrepreneurship spirit. Yeah, so yeah. You know one of the things I think is very important in this is that entrepreneurs should be in government but they should also be in schools. So simply because entrepreneurs are phenomenally disruptive people. And if there's one thing that needs to be shaken up is our education systems. You know we have a global learning crisis there. Don't be mistaken about that. And governments haven't evolved the school model for the last 100, 200 years and yet they expect better results. And so the only people that have this track record are entrepreneurs. I mean as the World Economic Forum the responsibility lies equally with all of us. When was the last time we went into a school to speak to students? When was the last time that we put out there the opportunity to come and shadow us at work? You know, I think that's really important. I'll buy you a drink later. Tessie, you were shaking your head. No, I was just thinking if you have, if you teach them entrepreneurship at an early age there will be nobody in the classes. You know, I think in school we expect you to teach them how to be disciplined and then they can gradually grow into and be exposed to more creativity as they become more matured. A divide between government and business is not a good thing. I mean I think if you're asking what at the end of the day characterizes the US the reality is they have a lot of business people in government. We can debate whether that's a good or bad. I think for the entrepreneur it's not always obvious why they'd want to be in government but if you say entrepreneurship is about creativity not taking no for an answer being able to break down barriers, solve problems you'd love to see them. You'd love to see the entrepreneurs in government. The challenge is more do entrepreneurs want to get involved with government given all the obstacles that we've just discussed? But the answer I think would be you'd love to see more entrepreneurs in government because if we'd close that gap which unfortunately is all too real between business and the individual entrepreneur. And if that gap persists and there's disconnect between business and broader society that is not a good environment for business. So somehow or other we have to find a way to close that gap. But behind this government decisions is the again is the set of belief system, value system, philosophies. If today by and large governments thinking it's still that the solution of all of society's problem business, economics, education, what have you is a bigger government, more regulations. So I think this needs to change. And the business community do play a big part to influence government decisions. Strong views at this stage. I'd like to open a discussion to the floor if there are any questions. Obviously they are. Could we have the microphone please? And if you could introduce yourself first. Is there a microphone in the house? Could you please stand up and introduce yourself please? Thank you. Thank you. I'm Vivienne Lau from Junior Achievement Asia Pacific. The work that we do is exactly inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. So I could not have been in a happier forum. I've got two questions. I think Kevin you spoke about this connect between the skills needed and education. James education is a process of creativity thinking out of the box. Now does it call for a bigger role that companies can play in involving with the education because exactly to the point that we can make right now education most of the time is a lifelong profession. Which means by definition there is a disconnect. The second question that I have is actually about taking risks. Because you talk about encouraging young people to take risks when they are young. How about corporations? Are you being entrepreneurial with your hiring policy? Are you taking risks? Yes we are. We're taking risks in recruiting the right, in recruiting the people that we're getting. And I lost my thought for a while. Anyway, maybe the other people. James? At our group, we are focused not so much on the risk taking but more on the needs in the society that's not being met and how we can meet those needs, build the values, and get people to come in to understand those needs and be willing to do things differently, work very hard and so it's not just about taking risks. It's actually, you know, there's some science in it. There's some science in it, so. Yeah, go ahead. No James. So yes it is a lifelong learning process but you've got to have the tools, you've got to have the master key. And the master key does not come automatically. It comes through proper education, comes through the proper culture, the proper philosophy, things that we learn at home and so on. The idea of getting business closer to schools on a regular basis is very appealing. Because I think one of the issues with everybody operating in these parallel universes, the educators, the youth, and employers, is because each is distant from the other. If we can get business people, as Vikas said, into schools talking about what it is to be in business. If business is clear around the skills it really wants, that can only be a good thing. And then they know business has to run in business. So there's a limited amount of time but I do think this notion of being clearer around the skills that employers need and then working back from there is something that's not happening enough. I mean business does have a role to play here. I mean part of it is shouting loudly and being clear on what's needed. And that's why science and technology and all that go with it, those courses aren't getting the prominence they need and they need a bit more prominence because that's the set of skills business keeps looking for and doesn't find. So in the UK we actually have companies that sponsor schools through our academies program and they have a large input into what happens in that school. I think that's a very positive thing. I think to your point earlier regarding collaboration, I think it was a point you raised. You know at this event last year in Myanmar we had a session with Don San Suu Kyi as during the young global leaders program and I asked her a question in terms of, you know given where Myanmar is at the moment, where do you see the education priorities of her country? And I was expecting the answer such as science, mathematics, everyone, more kids to be able to calculate. You know she floored me by saying that actually what we need to do and prioritize is the spirit of teamwork in our children. Now that plays to a question, sorry. That plays to a greater question. You know at Davos this year, John Chambers actually said that 80% of the jobs in the next 20 years are not yet created. So how do you prepare your workforce for the future apart from giving them a foundation of phenomenal values? And that's where I think families, schools and governments have to think. On the element of taking risks actually I think, I agree that actually people have to make these choices and not everybody is an entrepreneur. But I think we also need to distinguish between voluntary entrepreneurship and involuntary. And when I say that I guess what I mean is that like the point raised earlier between like different economies in periods of crisis or in periods or situations wherein you have no choice, you have no choice but to risk. If you can't find a job, if you don't get the right opportunities, you're not gonna take it just lying down. You're gonna have to take a risk. So I guess in that sense, if you can't get employed, then you have to make do. And I guess, and that's what I would call involuntary entrepreneurship because you're forced into it. And I see that a lot in our work, but if I guess if I were a fresh graduate and I can't find a job, what would I do? And then I'll be forced into a situation where that could be involuntary entrepreneurship, not necessarily by choice. And I think like areas like who encounter challenges and obstacles, you're gonna see more and more of that. And maybe that breeds creativity and maybe that will breed entrepreneurs. Next question. I'll come here soon. My name is Kumar K.S. Kumar. I just wanted to touch two, three points that is covered here. Just one question please because there are quite a number of questions out there. All other important questions I thought. One of the things he talked about the government and of course, somebody in the business said it's not a good idea to involve government. The question was how can government and you asked about the Silicon Valley idea how to bring it to Philippines. The question was how do you create an environment of entrepreneurship, innovation, right? There's places you make like making a startup village. How do businesses collaborate with the governments to create a startup village for young people to come and innovate in one common place to collaborate, right? The young people of today are born after the 80s are a different kind of people than, you know, the entrepreneurship I just understood earlier. So how do you help them, mentor them, coach them, support them to bring it all together and how can government and businesses come to have to create those kind of collaborative, you know, culture of entrepreneurship and create an environment to collaborate. Thank you. Anybody for that question? How do you create an environment of entrepreneurship, collaboration between the government and the private sector? It's a government's responsibility. The whole community is responsible, but the government should take the role in creating an environment of good governance. That means the institutions must function efficiently. Things must be transparent. There should be minimal red tapes, bureaucracy, because those are the things that this hindrance towards more entrepreneurship. The other part is financing. A lot of them, if they do not have financing, a lot of the ideas just won't fly. There's a long history of government getting things wrong in terms of trying to innovate in behalf of its population, so we should recognise that. I think government can create a framework, though, within which entrepreneurship and innovation can thrive. So for example, if you look at some of the things Singapore has done over the years in terms of creating incentives, creating a tax environment that favours business, creating vocational schools that actually allow people to get some basic skills and doing it in a geographic area where they can get some skill, that can work. So government's role, I think, is to create a framework. I'm a bit hesitant about whether government really wants to dive into the business of innovation, but it can create a framework. Well, I have a very unique experience in that just to quickly build, because my co-founder actually went to government. So we actually have a social entrepreneur, my co-founder, going to government. Of course, we've had to separate ways so there's no political connection out here, but I guess his experience as a social entrepreneur in Hapinoy is exactly the perspective he brings in. And I think that does two things. One is really creating a framework really for micro enterprises, which is our advocacy, to really thrive. And he's created that policy and framework to encourage that. And I guess on another point, because when we were building out this enterprise, we had very scarce resources. So he also has to navigate that and I guess takes that entrepreneurial spirit, navigating now a different world that is no longer in social enterprise. Question of it, yeah, the back, please. Could you stand up, please? Yes. Thank you. My name is Yosef. I'm a global shaper from the Auckland, Havana, New Zealand. I'd like to thank James for bringing the point of wisdom. That is something that I think is very important when we think about education, but it's not talked about much in the education space, entrepreneurship, creativity. So I'm keen to hear your thoughts around how we can incorporate wisdom in the way we train and develop people to be citizens and contributors to the global economy. I guess each business can have training for their own people and perhaps that will be creating a generations of more skilled people for jobs beyond that particular business. I think when you look at wisdom, you think about knowledge plus experience equals wisdom, in my view. And when you think about that, I think education systems and schools actually impart the knowledge, but it's the experience side of it that I think lacks quite drastically and that we have to address. Over here, please. Good afternoon. I am Tony Lopez from Business Asia. I'm tempted to ask, why do we need entrepreneurs? In a developing country, we need entrepreneurs to create jobs and reduce poverty. In a rich country, we need entrepreneurs to improve the quality of life and solve problems and make people, very few people, very rich. Why do we need entrepreneurs? But there's no question that we need education. So the problem is improving education, not having more entrepreneurs. Thank you for the comment. Anybody who wants to respond, I will take the next question because that's more like a comment. But I agree that the key is actually the education. And so this education, if the end, well, again, it really depends what's the end of education. So the question becomes, who owns the child? So if education is only training them to be rich and happy, then that's a problem you've got. But if education is to bring them to focus and develop their biggest talent and understand that life is about a calling, then you've got a good foundation for the kind of things that I think you're talking about. I'm afraid we've really run out of time for questions. Thank you so much for participating. But before we conclude, I'd like some takeaways from the panelists. And perhaps we can start with Mark. Yeah, I mean... What's the key takeaway from today's discussion? Well, for me, it certainly really is that there is a link between education and entrepreneurship. But at least in our perspective, they can reinforce each other. But I guess in the informal sector, entrepreneurship breeds itself. Lucas? What I take away is the ecosystem that is led by the role model that we so crave to see in schools. If there's one thing that I'd say to all business leaders and all those assembled here, is actually go to a school, give you a time, because I think there's no better service that you will do. Kevin? I think a couple of things. Entrepreneurship cannot be taught. It can be inspired, it can be experienced. What actions would have the most impact, do you think? I think the biggest impact is people, when they realise it's something they personally can do, because they've seen someone they can identify with. This is not about film stars. This is about people that we can relate to and identify with. And the more you can make it personal, the better. So a business personally goes to a school. A mom from a small community who opens that store that you're talking about. An individual that can be within reach, that's what creates the role models that this country and other countries in East Asia need. It's a very practical sense. And the reason we need entrepreneurs is because we need individuals who people can relate to and who can inspire other individuals to do great things. And great things, there's no finer thing than to give somebody a job that is value-added and takes a whole raft of people from subsistence living to living at a higher living standard that grows and continues. That's what entrepreneurship is. And just to rely on government to do that, I'm not so sure. We need entrepreneurs and that's what this conversation I think is reinforced. I think entrepreneurship is an option for people who do not want to take the regular jobs and for people who, I mean, but you need educations to make you think to make you think of whether you want to take that options or go to corporations or government. We've had so much progress in Asia over the last 30 years. And yet if we honest and look at the other side of the coin, we've got so much problems. We've got so much gaps. The rich, the poor, educated, uneducated, people that are healthy, people are not and so on. So it is a real threat whether the current growth is really sustainable. But I think we need to go beyond that to say that this is actually an opportunity, an income opportunity. If we can get income mobility with the right kind of education and training and the right kind of environment, then it is going to be really an opportunity. I guess on that note, we can summarize today's discussion. Education of course holds the key to nurturing entrepreneurship and of course job creation. But as we understand it, the education is not keeping pace to what the economy needs. There's obviously skills gap, which needs to be addressed, not just by the government, but also the corporations which can incorporate SMEs, even students into their businesses. Companies can play a part by incorporating startups in their supply chains, make innovation part of the DNA and hopefully that would help encourage entrepreneurship and give jobs to those who need. On that note, please join me in thanking James, Tessie, Kevin, Vikas, Mark. Thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you.