Introduction

Skills have become a key driver of economic empowerment for individuals and communities alike. In a rapidly changing world with competitive workforce pressures, the need is greater than ever to have the right skills to build confidence and capabilities that will open doors to employment in emerging and mature markets. At the same time, this societal need resonates with a key competence and hallmark of our talent-based company: training and developing people to achieve higher levels of performance.

In 2009, we developed and launched a new corporate citizenship initiative, Skills to Succeed, which focuses on building skills that enable people around the world to participate in and contribute to the economy.

Skills to Succeed has inspired our people and gives us an opportunity to create sustained impact in our communities. In 2010, we set an overarching goal for our efforts. We announced that, by 2015, Skills to Succeed initiatives will equip 250,000 people around the world with skills to get a job or build a business. That goal further fueled our employees' determination to create measureable impact, and in 2011 we implemented an enhanced performance measurement framework, which provides a comprehensive approach to tracking and managing progress toward our goal. By the end of fiscal 2011, we had already equipped more than 160,000 people—nearly two-thirds of our goal of 250,000 people—with workplace and/or entrepreneurial skills.

Watch our Skills to Succeed impact video:

This video features our Skills to Succeed initiatives in four countries: Brazil (with Conexão); South Africa (with Enablis); India (with Dr. Reddy's Foundation); and the United States (with Genesys Works).