Unlocking human potential

Dr Nat Ware, Founder and CEO of Forte

3 min read
  • By 2030, over one billion people will need retraining, due to factors such as AI, robotics and automation. But talent development isn’t keeping pace, leaving many of the world’s population facing an uncertain future.
  • Forte is revolutionizing how the world provides people with training. To reskill global populations, Forte delivers quality scalable training that’s free for participants, and with no upfront costs for governments.
  • It’s an approach where everyone wins:
    • The company’s innovative financing model gives investors a new way to achieve social impact without sacrificing returns. They can invest in disadvantaged individuals but with the creditworthiness of governments.
    • Students receive fee-free training.
    • Governments pass back a portion of the increase in income tax revenue they receive, paid by people who received training, for a set time. This means governments never pay for training that doesn’t work and just pass back what they otherwise would not have had. This approach means incentives are perfectly aligned and everyone is pushing in the same direction – striving for jobs, quality jobs, and job retention.
  • Governments are increasingly approaching Forte for its services. So far, the New York-based company has launched programs successfully in four markets (Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico), and will soon launch in a fifth.
  • One of Forte’s priorities is to support disadvantaged women. For example, Forte focuses fully on women in Costa Rica to bridge gender divides, reduce inequality, and encourage more women to choose STEM careers (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
  • In 2023, 700 students received high-quality education and support, free of charge. Most of the students were in long-term unemployment or facing systematic disadvantages, but now have good jobs with high salaries.
  • Forte’s Founder and CEO, Dr Nat Ware, grew up in a household where both parents were schoolteachers – instilling a lifelong commitment to improving global access to high-quality education.
  • Nat has a Master’s in Development Economics at Oxford, where he was awarded the Arthur Lewis Prize for Best Performance in Development Economics. He also has a PhD in financing education and healthcare to disadvantaged populations. Nat’s research inspired him to develop the ‘Forte (Financing Of Return To Employment) Model’. The World Economic Forum endorses the model, which is proven to be the most effective way to optimize education outcomes.
Portrait of Dr Nat Ware
There is a way to finance high-quality education and healthcare at no cost to individuals or governments, and without relying on philanthropy. We just need a new way to operate that perfectly aligns social impact and financial return at a systems level, without any tradeoff between the two. That’s what Forte does. I like to think of it as trickle-up economics.

Forte works towards these UN Sustainable Development Goals:

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