Jobs to Be Done

calendar_today 29 March 2019
  1. Only 25% of adolescent refugees are in secondary school, meaning 75% are nonconsumers of traditional education. (UNESCO)
  2. Many refugees cannot work in formal local labor markets, despite high levels of literacy (Samuel Hall, 2014)
  3. Many lack the skills for when they do arrive in their host country which affects entrepreneurship (UNHCR, European Commission)
Research suggests that future movement ‘prevents the establishment of an entrepreneurial environment as people put their energy and limited financial capacities into preparing for a future migration or onward journey’. This makes sense.

It’s not good for innovation. Think of the unlocked human potential.

It’s not good for the economy. The World Bank share that test scores, versus years of schooling, impacts economic growth. Whilst researchers have noted that some investments in education can raise economic growth, I am curious as to what this would look like for developing countries.

Why I give a shit?

Like many, my parents immigrated from the Eritrean War of Independence and moved to London when I was nine months old. I am disconcertingly aware that I would have had a very different upbringing had they not made that choice.

A child growing up in London, or any city for that matter, can take comfort in the free museums or public libraries, regardless of income.

At seventeen, in the process of applying to universities, I watched this video.



Andrew McAfee eloquently stresses the importance of digital equity and his optimism in humans to befriend technology to overcome societal challenges.

McAfee quotes Churchill’s 1949 addressment at the MIT, a speech pinned to every bedroom wall.

“If we are to bring the broad masses of the people in every land to the table of abundance, it can only be by the tireless improvement of all our means of technical production, and by the diffusion in every form of education of an improved quality to scores of millions of men and women. Yea, even in this darkling hour I have faith that this process will go on.”

- Winston Churchill, 1949, MIT


Income inequality is improving (yay) but we have work to do.