When did that happen? Generation Y’s gone from being entitled and irresponsible to a fully integrated part of the workforce to shell-shocked victims of layoff or desperate graduates in search of a job — in just a few years. “The recession’s a massive punch in the face, and a big wake-up call for graduates,” says entrepreneur Lucian Tarnowski.
Gen Y is “no longer an interesting minority, their numbers make them a vital constituency” and, within a few years, the largest group in the workforce, according to Tammy Erickson. But despite their numbers, they face an uncertain future.
Worldwide job losses have been predicted to exceed 30 million (the worst figures put lost jobs at 51 million) in 2009 and it’s the more junior, usually younger employees who are most vulnerable to redundancies or employment freezes. “Generation Crunch” graduates face prospects so bleak that skills secretary John Denham recently launched a National Internship Scheme to encourage employers to take them on. (RateMyPlacement’s rightly sceptical about its real purpose).
So Tarnowski (in true entrepreneurial style, seeing the silver lining to every cloud) is helping to promote a campaign to give Generation Y a global platform, in what he hopes will become “a youth Kyoto”.
“We’ve got to encourage leadership at a young age, because there are a lot of problems that need tackling,” says Tarnowski, a self-professed youth-leadership evangelist whose social media-style recruitment site, BraveNewTalent, is hosting the launch of the One Young World campaign, which seeks to identify 1,500 global leaders under the age of 26 and is backed by the likes of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Kofi Annan, as well as its founder at ad agency Euro RSCG.
The campaign will select people from 192 countries, with representation in proportion to a country’s size — so China and India will be the most heavily represented — a challenge, given the importance of hierarchical position in Chinese culture, and the potential gaps in Web access across both Asian markets.
In an initiative that’s due to be announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the campaign is using social media to recruit its global participants, who will then take part in a four-day event in London in 2010 and will tackle issues such as the environment, the global economy, politics and terrorism, healthcare and ‘interfaith’ dialogue, as well as the media, its role and power in society.
Tarnowski sees Gen Y as ready and willing to take a lead when it comes to shaping the new business agenda, and wants the OneYoungWorld to become the representative voice of young people worldwide.
“We cannot afford to become defeatist, even in this climate. We need to do something or we’ll become disillusioned.”
