In June, during the annual PRME Global Forum, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and the Higher Education for Good Foundation (HE4G) announced an exciting new collaboration. This marks the initial stride towards accelerating impact on transforming responsible management education. The objectives of this alliance are to amplify the role of youth in accelerating responsible management education through joint communications, fundraising and research.
This collaboration is an opportunity for PRME to deeply understand the mindset of today’s youth, and contributes to PRME’s awareness-building and evidence-based efforts. These insights will empower PRME to drive transformative changes in management education, complementing their existing initiatives and fostering a deeper understanding of stakeholders’ needs and aspirations. For Youth Talks, this collaboration enables the extension of invitations to an even broader range of stakeholders, promoting dialogue and collaboration among diverse voices. Moreover, it offers a larger platform to reach and engage with young people through PRME’s network of student organizations, PRME Global Students, increasing the relevance and strength of each edition as they build upon one another. Additionally, PRME will support the preparation of the survey for HE4G’s ‘Youth Talks 2.0’, providing additional credibility and ensuring continuous improvement to the research methodology.
Through Youth Talks, both the HE4G and PRME will contribute to transforming management education by supporting educational institutions in reshaping the way business education is taught in order to meet the demands of the mid-21st century. By equipping young people to lead and participate in addressing pressing global challenges, this collaboration plays a crucial role in preparing them for the future and allows their voices to influence business and management education.
“PRME is delighted to collaborate with the Higher Education for Good Foundation as our agendas are aligned to provide a platform for youth to shape a sustainable future. We are confident we can amplify the role and voice of youth through our collaboration and complementary initiatives and youth networks e‧g. PRME Global Students and Youth Talks.” Mette Morsing, Head of PRME
“With Youth Talks, the Higher Education for Good Foundation has decided to go against the grain of traditional surveys and consultations and offer a true powerful platform to the youth, offering them the opportunity to share their dreams, expectations and concerns about the future, without any form of censorship, listening to them in all their diversity and complexity. We are thus committed to promoting the voice of young people to institutions of higher education, but also to all the major players on the global stage, in order to make their voice a real lever for change. Because to transform our world and create more inclusive, sustainable and just societies, it’s essential to involve young people.” Marine Hadengue, Executive director of the Higher Education for Good Foundation.
Youth Talks, the global youth consultation.
With 45,000 participants from 212 countries and territories, and nearly 1,000,000 contributions, Youth Talks is the largest global youth consultation ever organized. By asking 15 to 29 year-olds open-ended questions about their aspirations, concerns and expectations for tomorrow’s world, and using artificial intelligence to analyze young people’s contributions, Youth Talks allows a deep dive into the mind of the youth of today, naturally bringing out the consensus and disagreements between different cohorts of young people from around the world, while identifying weak signals and latent needs. To ensure the consultation inclusivity and make sure young people from marginalized and underrepresented communities participated, while overcoming the digital divide, Youth Talks conveyed a large network of young and dedicated ambassadors.
As the HE4G Foundation’s first initiative, Youth Talks aims to provide in-depth insights into what the generation now entering higher education and the world of work expects and desires for the future. The promise of Youth Talks is to offer an immersive experience at the heart of what young people around the world think, and to promote the voice of youth to the world’s major players, making it a tool for change and a key element in international decisions.
The first edition of the Youth Talks consultation was completed at the end of May 2023, and the results will be announced in the coming months. A new edition is being prepared with support from PRME for 2024.
About the Higher Education for Good Foundation
The Higher Education for Good Foundation (HE4G) is a not-for-profit organization, created to help support educational institutions transform their curricula to meet the needs of the mid-21st century, not least by equipping young people to lead and participate in solving the pressing global challenges of this age. HE4G’s role will be to help its partners better understand what young people want, thanks to the results of Youth Talks, its first initiative, and to think through how to integrate this demand with their in-house expertise in education to design curriculums that bring the best of established and innovative knowledge and approaches to education..
By working closely with its partners, HE4G expects to learn valuable lessons about how to modernize curricula. This knowledge will be gathered in a curriculum redesign hub housed at the foundation that will be a core part of a broader initiative to drive change in higher education well beyond the initial network of partners.
About the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME)
The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) is a United Nations-supported initiative founded in 2007 that aims to raise the profile of sustainability in their classrooms through Six Principles focused on serving society and safeguarding our planet. PRME engages business and management schools to ensure they provide future leaders with the skills needed to balance economic and sustainability goals, while drawing attention to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aligning academic institutions with the work of the UN Global Compact. Driven by its mission to transform management education, PRME equips today’s business students with the understanding and ability to deliver change tomorrow. As a voluntary initiative with over 800 signatories worldwide, PRME has become the largest organized relationship between the United Nations and management-related higher education institutions.
