In the current labour market, deeply modified by social integration and economic and cultural globalization, the development of soft skills — skills that are more social than technical— is a crucial part of fostering a dynamic workforce. These skills can be gained from past jobs, responsibilities, life experiences and personal interests. They can be even hidden and, when identified, they can help people become better contenders in job search as well as in the daily-working activities.
International researches have made a list of skills a person should have to compete successfully in the global economy of the 21st century:
- Creativity/innovation
- Critical thinking
- Information literacy
- Problem solving
- Decision making
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Learning to learn
- Research and inquiry
- Communication
- Initiative and self direction
- Productivity
- Leadership and responsibility
- Collaboration
- ICT operations and concepts
- Digital Citizenship
For the full study by David Finegold and Alexis Spencer Notarbartolo on the impact of 21st century competencies click here
Image source: Flickr by Yoel Ben-Avraham – CC BY-ND 2.0
Post by: Omar Appolloni
I entered the management world in 1965 and was taught the same list of skills and traits that I see above, albeit in much less technological jargon. If we are to accept the current list as representative of the new digital working world, we must assume that nothing much has changed in the past 50 years.
Instead, I would suggest that while this list of skills is still valid, the new requirements center on a person’s ability to work in relative isolation, interacting with his peers and customers only via electronic media, and to discipline one’s self to work productively in a world where Facebook, Twitter and the like are always just a click away and where, try as they might, bosses won’t be able to fully measure what portion of time is spent on personal pursuits. In the latter requirement, I would suggest that hiring new employees who have received at least part of their education electronically and who would have washed out without a good deal of focus, is a good starting point.