Farah Mohamed, CEO, Prince's Trust Canada, Creating Inclusive Workplaces that Empower Inspired Youth Driven Leadership, (Ep. 42)

The Inspired Leadership Podcast is sponsorsed by PowerUp Leadership and Tyler Bayley. On this episode, we have Farah Mohamed, CEO of Prince’s Trust Canada, His Majesty King Charles III’s charity focused on helping youth find meaningful employment. Farah discusses Canada’s youth employment challenges and how leaders can create an inclusive workspace for equity-deserving young people and kickstart their careers.

A former refugee from Uganda, Farah is of Indian heritage and was raised in Canada. Prior to taking the helm at PTC, she worked with Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, created G(irls)20 (now Fora) and spent almost 10 years working on Parliament Hill with former Deputy Prime Minister, Anne McLellan and Paddy Torsney, M.P. For her contribution to Canada, Farah was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and Meritorious Service Medal.

Recently, Prince’s Trust Canada revealed the results from a global report that surveyed 1,249 Canadians aged 18-30 on the future of work. Farah wrote an op ed in iPolitics on this topic; here is the news release linked here, and the top survey findings below.

Prince’s Trust Survey Findings: Canadian Results

• Only 28% of young Canadians think the education system provided them with the skills they needed to get a job
• 15% of youth are currently working multiple jobs and of those, 33% need to work multiple jobs to cover basic needs.
• Of youth currently working, 29% currently work in a job with income that can vary week-to-week and where there is nothing preventing the employer from firing them on short notice.
• 76% think that providing young people with digital skills is necessary for Canada’s economic future.
• 57% are interested in a ‘green’ job, but only 48% think they have the necessary skills or qualifications, and only 30% think those jobs would be easy to find.
• 80% of young people reported that they have been impacted by the increased cost of living, with 54% experiencing a negative impact on their mental health, and 45% on their social life.