RIO DE JANEIRO, April 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ManpowerGroup, (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, is strategic partner of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and participating in the Latin America Summit 2011 "Laying the Foundation for a Latin American Decade" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this week by leading key discussions on growth opportunities in the areas of education, job creation, entrepreneurship and gender equality.

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"Latin America is presented with tremendous opportunity by the dawn of the new post-recession era, as emerging markets such as Brazil are rising in power," said ManpowerGroup President of The Americas Jonas Prising. "However, there are also tremendous challenges that must be overcome as rapid economic growth is outstripping the supply of qualified talent needed to maintain that growth. In this Human Age, the talent countries have access to will detemine whether they are successful so the importance of producing and nurturing the required talent through more targeted education, encouraging entrepreneurship and tapping in to all available talent pools cannot be overstated." 

At January's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ManpowerGroup announced it had identified that the world has entered the Human Age, where access to talent has replaced access to capital as the key competitive differentiator. With skilled individuals in increasingly short supply, businesses, governments and educational institutions need to take a collaborative approach to ensure an adequate talent pipeline in future to navigate the chaos and complexities of the new reality.

In Brazil this week, Prising will lead the private session discussion on the Gender Agenda: Mapping Best Practices in Latin America on Wednesday 27 April 16:30 - 18:00, Hotel Sheraton Rio de Janeiro. The Latin America Gender Parity Group's selected leaders have taken effective actions toward gender equality in their organizations, countries or communities. ManpowerGroup is committed to providing women with the best possible opportunities to reach their full potential through which it helps disenfranchised women globally, and within every level of the organization. Twenty-five percent of the company's executive management team and board of directors are women, as is 58 percent of the leadership team worldwide.

As a featured panelist, Prising will also participate in the session Five Regional Challenges, One Solution: Women on Thursday 28 April 12:30 - 14:00 at the InterContinental Rio de Janeiro. This panel will address how empowering girls and women radically alters the five acute challenges facing Latin America, including talent and education, health and nutrition, leadership, employment and business performance and national competitiveness. In emerging markets, women remain an undertapped solution to the talent mismatch, and ManpowerGroup believes their empowerment is critical to plugging talent gaps.

ManpowerGroup has been a proud strategic partner of the World Economic Forum (WEF) since 2004, and is the only company in the industry to have a strategic partnership with WEF. In January, at the 2011 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ManpowerGroup announced the world has entered the Human Age, where talent has replaced capital as the key competitive differentiator. ManpowerGroup actively participates in Forum events, industry programs and communities, and is a member of the Women Leaders and Gender Parity program, promoting women's leadership and closing gender gaps. In June, ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres will co-chair the 2011 World Economic Forum on Europe Summit in Vienna, and also served as co-chair for the Forum's 2010 Europe Summit in Brussels. ManpowerGroup President of Corporate and Government Affairs David Arkless is Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Skills and Talent Mobility. For more information about ManpowerGroup's partnership with the World Economic Forum, visit: http://manpowergroup.com/press/wef2011.cfm

About ManpowerGroup™

ManpowerGroup™ (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, creates and delivers high-impact solutions that enable our clients to achieve their business goals and enhance their competitiveness. With over 60 years of experience, our $19 billion company creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age. These solutions cover an entire range of talent-driven needs from recruitment and assessment, training and development, and career management, to outsourcing and workforce consulting. ManpowerGroup maintains the world's largest and industry-leading network of nearly 3,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories, generating a dynamic mix of an unmatched global footprint with valuable insight and local expertise to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, across all industry sectors, small and medium-sized enterprises, local, multinational and global companies. By connecting our deep understanding of human potential to the ambitions of clients, ManpowerGroup helps the organizations and individuals we serve achieve more than they imagined — because their success leads to our success. And by creating these powerful connections, we create power that drives organizations forward, accelerates personal success and builds more sustainable communities. We help power the world of work. The ManpowerGroup suite of solutions is offered through ManpowerGroup™ Solutions, Manpower®, Experis™ and Right Management®. Learn more about how the ManpowerGroup can help you win in the Human Age at www.manpowergroup.com.

Follow ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Joerres on Twitter: twitter.com/manpowergroupjj

SOURCE ManpowerGroup