Whether promoting sustained, inclusive economic growth, ending poverty, building resilient infrastructure or ensuring access to affordable energy for all, one factor stands out as critical a foundation to achieving continued progress across the Sustainable Development Goals spectrum: SKILLS.

Although the worldwide labor market is large and growing, too much development – economic and otherwise – is currently put at risk due to a shortage of people with the skills necessary to build and operate today’s infrastructure technology and compete in a 21^st century workforce.

We see this reality playing out in markets around the world. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, a burgeoning population is boosting unprecedented economic opportunity, creating jobs and improving social stability. However, in order to maintain this rate of growth, these economies will need to produce citizens who have the skills necessary to fill between 450 and 600 million new jobs over the next 30 years.

Ensuring job creation and skill development at this scale will require a collaborative effort between the public and private sectors, we must:

• Strengthen our education systems and ensure that curriculums are more responsive to the requirements of industry
• Open our labor markets and emphasize the importance of localized talent
• Develop and maintain a skills pipeline that produces a workforce able to take full advantage of the evolving future of work

Strengthening education systems and skills alignment

In order to improve education quality and boost development outcomes around the world, curriculums should be updated to reflect the topical skills necessary in a modern economy. Increasing the number of students in developing economies exposed to STEM subjects (science, technology, education, and mathematics) will pay dividends as blossoming healthcare, infrastructure, energy, and education industries drive demand for those skills.

We also need to encourage a closer dialogue between academic institutions and industrial firms.   This will lower unemployment rates and increase productivity by improving the alignment between the supply of students with skills and the proficiencies being demanded by the private sector.  Progress here will depend, in large part, on the private sector’s leadership in demonstrating how a constructive dialogue can work.

Opening labor markets and localizing talent

Governments have an important role to play in attracting the domestic and foreign investment that will create jobs, including expansion of infrastructure spending and lowering of barriers to doing business. Along with improving education outcomes in local school systems, these approaches will help to attract the kinds of private sector investments that allow firms to scale quickly and bring production into local markets.

Once those markets have been opened to private investment, global firms have an important responsibility to ensure that, whenever possible, leadership and mid-level positions are filled with local employees. Doing so not only boosts the reinvestment of earnings back into developing communities, it also guarantees that local leadership has an appropriate understanding of the cultural and historical landscape in which they are operating.

Some existing partnerships between businesses and governments focused on this kind of skill development and localization are already producing results. For example, training and technological transfers in industries such as transportation and healthcare have begun to accelerate the creation of much needed skills in Eastern Africa.

In fact, over the summer, GE announced a commitment of $14.7 million towards tackling the most critical health challenges in East Africa through a focus on skills development and capacity building. As part of this initiative, we have created the first-ever dedicated healthcare skills advancement center in Africa, which will open in Nairobi, Kenya later this year.

Developing a skills pipeline for the future of work

The manufacturing sector is currently experiencing a second industrial revolution, driven by the widespread adoption of new technologies into every facet of development and production.

Research conducted by GE’s Chief Economist Marco Annunziata and Chief Manufacturing Scientist Stephen Biller, revealed three converging forces that are shaping this revolution, something we at GE refer to as the “future of work”:

1) The further integration of the digital and physical world, or the rise of the industrial Internet

2) The development of new production processes and materials, or advanced manufacturing

3) A reorganization of the networks connecting factories, workers, supply chains and distribution channels which is enabled by advanced manufacturing and the industrial internet.

In this evolving landscape, skills gained through STEM education can be applied to creating innovative solutions in infrastructure development, healthcare delivery, or power generation.

For governments, companies, and individuals alike, the future of work brings tremendous prospects for pushing development forward and creating new centers of advanced manufacturing.

By leveraging the entrepreneurial energy and innovative spirit of developing economies through skills development, communities across the world will be able to leapfrog current models of industrialization and growth, redefining what it looks like to create globally competitive economies.

In order to capitalize on these incredible opportunities, global leaders from all parts of society should encourage investments in people and the skills they need to thrive.

Jay Ireland is the President and CEO of GE Africa. Based in Nairobi, Jay leads GE’s operations on the sub-continent across power generation, healthcare, transportation, oil & gas and aviation. He is a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa and serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors of the Corporate Council on Africa. He is the Co-chair of the World Economic Forum Africa strategic infrastructure initiative and a Board member of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.