Unilever : Preparing people to adapt and thrive in changing times

You're absolutely right: 10 million people is an awfully big number. But then so are the challenges facing young people. I'm with Saadia Zahidi on this one. She's Managing Director at the World Economic Forum. As she rightly points out, today's youth are facing massive disruptions to their education on top of a fast-changing job market. Her verdict is that we need to 'double-down on reskilling and upskilling initiatives'. I fully back that idea, which is why we wanted to be ambitious and set the bar really high.

This is echoed by Henrietta Fore, UNICEF's Executive Director: 'By helping young people gain access to training, volunteering and work experience opportunities, Unilever is showing that businesses have an important role to play in ensuring that young people are not deprived of the opportunities of tomorrow.'

As to our plan, it's to work with our partners to provide young jobseekers with a free online platform that will support them in finding their individual purpose and then matching it with opportunities for accredited training, volunteering and work experiences.

We're currently piloting the platform in South Africa and will roll it out gradually around the world in the months and years ahead.