Grab has launched the ‘Grab for Good’ program, a range of initiatives aiming to leverage technology, bridge skills gaps, improve digital literacy and create a future-ready workforce. Partnering with Microsoft, the Southeast Asian super app’s program will focus on honing skills and developing a digitally dexterous workforce across the ASEAN region. 

As part of the program, Grab has partnered with Microsoft to empower workers with technology skills as part of which there will be select universities to help train students with in-demand technical skills; empowering driver-partners, and their families with digital literacy skills; and creating pathways for interested driver-partners to pursue technology careers.

Grab will also launch GrabGerak, a transport service dedicated to passengers with disabilities, in two more cities in Indonesia. GrabGerak will be available in Medan and Semarang in December 2019.

Grab CEO and co-founder Anthony Tan says by 2025 the business aims to have assisted over 5 million small to medium-sized businesses in digitizing their work processes. They also aim to educate over 3 million people across Southeast Asia in digital literacy. Grab also plans to prepare the workforce for the digital economy, and will partner with governments and educational institutions to train and upskill 20,000 students in the tech skills they will need.

The initiative is part of a wider, long-standing plan Grab have had to make lasting, positive effect on the jobs market in Southeast Asia and shows the company’s commitment to creating a more equal playing field across the region. As per Tan, Grab for Good is a call for all of us today to work hand in hand to create a meaningful and lasting impact on society given that IR 4.0 will disrupt how people work across the ASEAN region, with those on lower-incomes or small-business owners potentially set to feel the impact most. 

According to Tan, Southeast Asia is poised to become the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2030 yet not everyone has equal access to opportunity - and the equal chance to succeed with the region’s growth. Programs such as Grab for Good will help equip this demographic for these changes and enable them to prosper in the emerging digital economy.