The World Economic Forum’s latest report “Future of Jobs – 2021” suggests that in the post-COVID scenario, job destruction will most likely be offset by job growth in the ‘jobs of tomorrow’—the surging demand for workers who can fill green economy jobs, roles at the forefront of the data and AI economy, as well as new roles in engineering, cloud computing and product development. These striking facts pushed the organizers of Leaders of Future Bootcamp to focus this year’s boot-camp on the same topic. For this purpose NIC Peshawar came onboard with Global Shapers Islamabad Hub, SAGE and Qissa Khwanan to make the 3rd Chapter of LFB more impact-oriented and meaningful.

This year the Boot-camp was also supported by a number of International Organizations including Asia Europe Foundation, Young Professionals Network BN (Brunei), Student Innovation Center (Vienna), Forum Za Odrzivi Razvoj (Croatia). More than 150 young professionals and students from 35 different nations around the world applied to be a part of 2-days long Boot-camp.

The highlight of this two-day long online event was the speaker line-up featuring globally acclaimed entrepreneurs to VC partners to subject specialists. Every speaker brought a new dimension of “Future of Jobs” in light during their respective sessions. The regional diversity of the participants challenged the speakers to give a more global view of affairs.

One common theme which emerged from all the sessions during the Boot-Camp was that COVID has shifted the curve to a new normal instead of disrupting it to come back to the previous curve, as many of the changes will be permanent in long run. Innovation and entrepreneurship will see positive trend in coming years with more investments flowing in hi-tech industries particularly Fintech and AI but then again there is a regional debate that it varies depending on the existing economic and industrial infrastructure of respective countries, as stressed by Ahmad Ashkar and Kalsoom Lakhani both.

In a nutshell, Leaders of Future Boot-camp 3.0 explored important dimensions of Future of Jobs. The diversity of participants also helped these young people to reach out to other like-minded people from around the globe. The social media groups also opened up channels of communications between these young people to interact and make useful connections.

Highlights:

  • Asim Ishaq Khan, Director NIC Peshawar, opened the Leaders of the Future Boot-camp and welcomed all the participants and the speakers.
  • Kalsoom Lakhani, Founder and Partner i2i Ventures, talked about the importance of negotiation and persuasion skills, particularly while raising funding for startups.
  • Una McCarthy, Director STEM Education Organization for Cambodia, explained how STEM education at the primary level help in the analytical development of students.
  • Ahmad Ashkar, Founder and CEO of Hult Prize Foundation, had a very interactive fireside chat and answered the questions of participants regarding social entrepreneurship.
  • Leonie Nagarajan, Director Education Dept, with Asia Europe Foundation, led an activity-based session on emotional intelligence with the participants.
  • Koh Seng Choon, Founder and Executive Director of Project Dignity, shared his inspirational story of starting the Project and how it is impacting millions of lives.
  • Raheel Bodla, Startup Success Coach, concluded the Boot-camp with a very interactive fireside chat focusing on Leadership Styles and how leadership qualities determine overall direction in any organization.