“To boldly go where no one has gone before.” Those words, which open episodes of Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek,” express the spirit of fearless ambition to create a better world honored by the Roddenberry Prize. A global competition to find “innovative solutions to issues that demand audacious, far-reaching, and scalable responses,” the prize was awarded this month to Generation, the independent employment nonprofit founded by McKinsey.
The $1,000,000 Roddenberry Prize is shared among winners across four categories—Humanity, Education, Science, and the Environment and this year focused on efforts to respond to COVID-19. Generation won the Humanity category for its work in reskilling more than 200,000 healthcare workers in Italy, Mexico, India, Spain, and France to help fight the pandemic, in addition to its core work in preparing, placing, and supporting people in jobs.
We shared the story of Generation’s impact in Italy earlier this year. There, within a matter of weeks, the team brought together a coalition of medical, academic, and other partners to develop a set of online learning modules to help nurses develop the unique skills needed to treat and care for COVID-19 patients. The training covered the use of personal protective equipment (PPE); non-invasive ventilation techniques; and how to manage stress in a crisis situation. To date, 13.3 percent of nurses in Italy have already enrolled in the course, and it’s been extended to doctors and dentists.
Similar programs have since launched in Mexico, India, Spain, and France. In Mexico, Generation partnered with one of the largest health systems in the Americas to create training that focuses on the protection of non-medical personnel from hospital administrators to orderlies; 100,000 people are receiving the program across almost 280 hospitals.
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McKinsey_Website_Accessibility@mckinsey.comGeneration was honored for its work reskilling more than 200,000 healthcare workers across several countries.
In India, 85,000 nurses and nurse assistants across 700 hospitals have registered in Generation’s training course; in Spain, 24,000 front line healthcare personnel have enrolled. And in France, the training is tailored to caregivers working in nursing homes with a focus on hygiene, healthcare during a time of crisis and stress management—and it is available online to healthcare workers in other French-speaking countries.
Launched in 2015, Generation now operates in 14 countries, with over 38,000 graduates from its core programs. Last year alone, Generation served more than 10,000 learners, making it the largest global employment program by annual volume that both trains and places people in jobs. Generation graduates have faced high levels of adversity; 93 percent were unemployed prior to joining Generation, 60 percent have a secondary school background or less, and 20 percent attended technical/vocational institutions. Fifty-four percent of Generation participants are women, and 40 percent have dependents. Within three months of program completion, 86 percent of graduates are employed, and they earn three to four times what they earned previously.
We are expanding our global work at Generation to meet this challenge and to train, place, and support people in new jobs that would be otherwise inaccessible.
Mona Mourshed, Generation CEO
In light of the pandemic, and the resulting wave of unemployment, Generation is accelerating the growth of its programs in each of its countries. “The pandemic is leaving an employment crisis in its wake, and solving it requires far-reaching solutions,” says Mona Mourshed, global CEO of Generation. “We are expanding our global work at Generation to meet this challenge and to train, place, and support people in new jobs that would be otherwise inaccessible. In addition, we have been training healthcare workers with the skills to treat and care for COVID-19 patients, with 200,000 reached so far over the past four months. We are thrilled to be one of the 2020 Roddenberry Prize winners, and so thankful for the support of our partners and funders who have helped us set the bold agenda that is being recognized today.”
Other Roddenberry Prize winners include Libraries without Borders in the Education category; Digital Green focused on smallholder farmers in the Environment category and Global Gene Corp for mapping and organizing genomic diversity in Science. To learn more, please visit the Roddenberry Prize website.