A while back we watched an incredible TED Talk by Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, who completely blew our minds.

Young people ages 10 to 24 make up the largest demographic segment the world has ever seen: 1.8 billion of them. If there’s strength in numbers, then young people today should be stronger than any generation in history. But they’re not.

“They’re worried that they might not get the education that they need,” she said. “And you know what? They’re right. Two hundred million adolescents are out of school worldwide — about the population of Brazil.”

That’s a terrifying and disturbing statistic. And even those who are in school feel that they might not be getting the right skills.

“Young people are telling me that they’re also worried about employment,” Fore said. “That they won’t be able to find a job. And again, they’re right. Every month, 10 million young people reach working age. It’s a staggering number.”

While some of them will pursue higher education, many will not and the world is not creating anywhere near 10 million new jobs each month.

Again, terrifying.

But it also made us realize that the tools we were creating at JazzJune could make a difference to many of these young people. So we set an ambitious — some might even say outrageous — goal for JazzJune: Create 1 million new jobs.

Jobs has always been fundamental for JazzJune. Make connections between learners and employers to give both what they need most: workers with the right skills for the jobs available and a paycheck for those who need a job.

“We want to help as many students as possible find jobs and to make sure employers have an easy way to find skilled workers,” said Eric Matas, JazzJune’s co-founder and Chief Learning Officer. “Rather than just saying it, we decided to really go for it, and 1 million new jobs is a way for us to push ourselves to make a real difference.”

We hope JazzJune becomes a vital part of how learners get the education they seek and can fill roles employers have. JazzJune is designed to make these connections as seamless as possible.

“A million jobs is a lofty goal, but we can’t afford not to try,” Matas said.

Fore closes her TED Talk with a clarion call to action:

“We need ideas. We need ideas that are big and small. Ideas that are local and global,” she said. “This in the end is our responsibility. A massive generation of young people are about to inherit our world. It is our duty to leave a legacy of hope and opportunity — for them, but also with them.”