As the COVID-19 crisis reminds us, the future can be fickle. That makes it doubly tough on educators and trainers who strive to prepare the next generation of workers, or help current wage earners disrupted by developments in our ever-changing world. In fact, the only constant seems to be change itself, causing a fundamental shift away from learning specific tasks toward “learning to learn” and other so-called soft skills.
As cited in Changing Skills Demand in the Countries Neighbouring the European Union, a report recently released by the European Training Foundation (ETF), the European Union has outlined a handful of key competences that it deems important to personal fulfilment, employability, social inclusion, a health-conscious and future-oriented mindset, and active citizenship in peaceful societies with sustainable development. As outlined in the European Reference Framework, they are: literacy; multilingualism; numerical, scientific and engineering skills; digital and technology-based competences; interpersonal skills and the ability to adopt new competences; active citizenship; entrepreneurship; and cultural awareness and expression.
Those factors tend to favour capability over competence, which some experts see as outdated and passive. Competence is static and narrow: measuring whether someone currently has the knowledge and skills necessary to perform a particular job. Capability is dynamic and broad, emphasizing flexibility and adaptability; it is also about integrating knowledge and skills to meet future needs.
“In our post-industrial times,” states the above-mentioned report, “in addition to the specific technical skills needed to use technology and perform certain tasks, there is an entire array of other skills that people need to possess in order to get the most out of changing labour markets and perform effectively in different work-related settings as employees, self-employed people and entrepreneurs. These may be key competences (competences that everybody must have), but they may also be attitudes and a mindset to be able to adapt to and support change. As the famous futurologist Alvin Toffler put it, ‘the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.’”
Nearly three dozen countries make up the European Neighbourhood Region, the countries set geographically around the edges of the EU. While remarkably diverse, including in terms of education, most of them need more people with medium- and high-level skills. Skill mismatches remain stubbornly high despite dramatic increases in educational levels. Adult education and training and accessible and affordable lifelong learning systems will be essential.
Some countries still have large proportions of people with merely basic education. These citizens are generally slower at acquiring new and upgraded skills through additional learning. Around two-thirds of the labour force in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia fall into this category, as do about half of workers in Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt and Albania.
Drawing from the EFT report and the summary of key messages voiced during an international conference called ‘Skills for the future: how to manage transition,’ hosted by ETF in Turin, Italy, in November 2018, here are eight leading skills for the future currently trending among experts:
Cognitive and socio-emotional skills
The increasing importance of intellectual and social tasks as well as those linked to human–machine interaction leads to more demand for higher level cognitive and socio-emotional skills and less demand for manual skills owing to the decline in physical tasks. Socio-emotional skills may be more important than cognitive ones for employment, especially among low-skilled occupations. Studies show a correlation between job performance and openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness in managing/coordinating, teaching/training/coaching, selling/influencing and serving/attending.
STEM skills
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics: considered essential for innovation-driven economic development, they are not only for university graduates. With the increasing use of new technologies, some employers in the European Neighbourhood Region express a need for specialised workers in specific tech areas (e.g., data science, software development, cybersecurity, robotics, mechatronics and sensors, etc.). Some countries in the region have a high share of tertiary STEM graduates (Tunisia, Algeria, Belarus, Russia, Serbia, Jordan and Ukraine), while for others the percentage remains very low (Palestine, Armenia and Egypt).
Digital skills
All citizens need at least basic ICT skills. Nearly every job will require digital literacy. According to a 2019 survey, 62% of adults have above basic digital skills in Serbia, which is closest to the EU-28 average (69%). In Montenegro, North Macedonia and Turkey more than half of adults possess above basic digital skills. Numbers are higher among young people aged 16–29 and lower for women than for men everywhere except North Macedonia. Figures are low for people with no or little education.
Entrepreneurial skills
Individuals need them to adapt to changing forms of employment and enhance their flexibility and labour mobility. There remains a debate about their definition, but they are generally thought to encompass a range of technical, management and personal skills that include creativity, innovation, risk-taking, and the ability to plan and manage projects.
Soft skills
These are also referred to as non-cognitive skills, transversal skills, personality traits, character skills, 21st century skills, life skills, etc. They are essential to a “new mindset” that helps people to adopt new technologies and adapt to change. Commonly listed characteristics include open-mindedness, openness to learn and to change, flexibility, curiosity, innovation, creativity, resilience, persistence, initiative, sociability, empathy, emotional control and positivity.
Career management skills
These enable people to navigate labour markets and manage their careers in a context of complexity and uncertainty. Individuals now make more frequent transitions from education to work and training as well as from job-to-job. They must permanently and quickly adapt their skills sets, learn new concepts, acquire new knowledge and master new competences. Countries that invest in key competences (including entrepreneurial skills, foreign languages and core skills) across all education levels will be better placed to face future challenges.
Green skills
Environmental challenges and the policy objective of greening our economies will create demand for labour in these areas. Green skills are generally thought to consist of technical or subject-specific competences, generic interdisciplinary competences and normative aspects (visions, values and preferences). The ETF identified three levels of green skills required in the wider economy of most countries of the European Neighbourhood Region: a broad base of knowledge and understanding related to sustainable development; a set of core skills that apply across occupations and which support employment in a variety of contexts; and new specialist skills that apply to the new occupations. Organic farmers still need traditional agricultural skills, but must also acquire additional expertise; windmill maintenance workers must supplement the traditional skills of mechanical technicians; etc.
Multidisciplinary skills
Fusion skills cover the combination of soft skills and technical skills based on the concept merging and blending of skills and industries – including the arts, design, technology and business – and a changing labour market that will require a mixture of expertise, knowledge and experience. Composite skills are created by using two or more skills in harmony. T-shaped skills involve horizontal knowledge of many disciplines instead of the traditional specialization in one. These terms point to increasing demand for workers with wider skills and multiple expertise areas in the changing labour markets.
The European Neighbourhood Region was the focus of an online panel discussion on ‘Policy Advice: new ideas for achieving sustainable reforms’ on 16/03/2021.
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