What are the skills required for handling future jobs?
I found this report from National Academies Press. A few skills listed in this document include:
- Creative Problem Solving
- Complex Communication Skills
- Adaptability
- Self-management
- Self-development
- Systems thinking
From my experience of working across two continents, I would like to add a few more:
- Critical Thinking
- Cross cultural training
- Curiosity
- Inspired and Inspiring (got this from a job ad at Forrester’s research)
I want to dwelve a bit on “Self Management”. I use it as a primary metric to hire people since I do not believe in supervising or managing people. I found that many people who are great at managing themselves do it because they believe in a cause, passionate about what they do or extremely proud of their work.
How do you develop these competencies? Or even explain why they are important? That is the challenge that requires a lot of innovation in teaching or coaching.
Also See:
Malcolm Gladwell on the challenge of hiring in the modern world.
Meta:
This post was triggered by an email from ACM news about a study done in Ireland. Looking at the study, I felt that some of these problems have global implications. So I started searching on “future skills” India, USA.
[...] I am going to add these to the list of The New Skills. [...]
Pingback by Found in a Job Description « Dorai’s LearnLog — June 27, 2008 @ 7:16 am
[...] In software we do the same. We try to measure some of the basic skills like knowledge of software development including programming, conceptual understanding, ability to solve simple problems. The true attributes, however, are more complex and are not easy to measure in a test or in a few interviews. These include the ability to work in a team, ability to learn and communicate, a healthy curiosity and a certain amount of pride in work. Our challenge is to figure out how to train our employees in these new skills. [...]
Pingback by The Mismatch Problem « Dorai’s LearnLog — June 29, 2008 @ 8:03 pm