|
What’s Working? A forum on young people, skills and jobs
The challenge of connecting young people to skills and training and then to employment opportunities is shared by many countries.
In this Social Innovator Dialogues forum, you are invited to join Tarik Yousef and Jonty Olliff-Cooper in a conversation about the common themes, and some of the differences, that characterise the way these connections are being made more effectively in the Middle East, the UK and other parts of the world.
Dr Yousef is the CEO of Silatech, a leading social enterprise in the Middle East whose mission is “to connect young people, 18-30 years old, with employment and enterprise opportunities.” The organisation has a commitment to “mobilize interest, investment, knowledge, resources and action to drive large-scale comprehensive employment and enterprise development programmes”.
From the UK, Jonty-Olliff Cooper is Director of Strategy and Policy for leading UK social service provider A4E which works to “improve people's lives...by helping them to find work, skills, direction.” With operations also in Australia, Ireland, Germany, India, Poland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, A4E is, by its own admission, building a social movement.
The forum will share projects and initiatives from these different parts of the world, and the thinking they reflect, and dig beneath the surface a little to explore the role of social innovation as a source of fresh thinking and new approaches.
Overall Festival theme: Changing the way we govern
In a world of turbulence and transition, new patterns and rhythms of governing are being imagined, tested, refined and scaled. From the front line of the Arab spring to the search for better ways to design and shape services in our suburbs, towns and regions, from the new debates about better ways to engage with citizens and communities to radical changes to the “operating DNA” of core public services and agencies, the imperative for change seems irresistable.
As a result, experiments in governing and social change across the world are proliferating. How can people participate more effectively in policy, service design and in their own communities? “open and transparent” government sounds great (if sometimes a little oxymoronic), but how do we make it happen? How do we give out public agencies a way of operating, a ‘business model’, that is fit for purpose in a more connected and collaborative world? In many parts of the world, thinkers and practitioners alike are reaching for the instincts and insights of social innovators as one way to open up ideas and search for some promising new directions.
And that isn’t so surprising. At their best, social innovators bring a combination of pragmatism, imagination and often sheer inspiration to the task of rethinking answers to complex social questions, including governance itself, and sometimes even rethinking the questions.
This “February Festival” in the Social Innovator Dialogues series brings to Australia a group of people who, in their different fields and from their different perspectives across the world, are leading many of these movements and discussions.
For a couple of weeks in February 2012, we have the chance to hear from:
-
Tarik Yousef – a leading economist and public administration thinker from Libya who has had a front-row view of the “Arab spring” and is now running a social enterprise, Silatech, grappling with big challenges for youth employment and skills across the Middle East.
-
Richard Wilson – one of Europe’s leading experts and practitioners in new models of large-scale digital engagement and participation, pioneering new tools and platforms that are transforming the way government, society and citizens talk with and to each other.
-
Jonty Olliff-Cooper – a leading thinker of the new “progressive conservatism” movement and now strategy and policy leader for A4E, a leading UK and global social business that focuses on poverty, exclusion, and community and public service transformation.
-
Jocelyne Bourgon – formerly the most senior public servant in Canada and now leading the “new synthesis” project which is crafting a framework for 21st century public administration to help governments “serve beyond the predictable.”
Between them, these leading thinkers and practitioners bring a world of experience and exploration from some of the world’s biggest dilemmas of social change and governance. In particular, they will share their ideas and expertise in:
-
The Arab spring and some of its possible implications, looking not so much at what happened, but, perhaps more importantly, what happens next.
-
Rethinking service models that link young people, skills and employment
-
Innovation in the methods and processes of public innovation from inside government and the public sector
-
New ways to blend physical and virtual engagement models that dramatically widen the range of options to improve participation by citizens and communities in the big questions that affect them, their families and their communities.
For a couple of weeks in February, the Dialogue series is bringing the world to Australia for a series of conversations about these big public reform challenges.
We hope you’ll be able to join the Festival to learn something new and to contribute your ideas, your experience and your expertise. We’re looking forward to seeing you...
|
