In-Demand Skills for a Job Market in Flux
In a recent opinion article in The New York Times, “Skills in Flux,” David Brooks lays out an essential problem for the workers of the next generation. Brooks identifies the important skills that will likely define the work of employees in the next decade or two. One of the most stand-out skills in today and tomorrow’s economy is social courage. To follow up, develop relationships, and draw out others’ ideas and feelings is invaluable in a networked world. Those with social courage not only develop contacts, they build friendships that have lasting and meaningful value as a support network and as a cloud of potential customers, colleagues, and referral partners.
Beyond social courage, opposability is another of Brooks’ top skills for the 21st century. Opposability is to hold two conflicting ideas in mind, yet still function purposefully and efficiently on the work at hand. Employers find this skill incredibly valuable during a time of rapid, widespread change because workers who can prepare for a number of opposed options and act quickly as the ground changes are very rare. Workers who can quickly adjust from plan A to plan B as customer and cultural preferences change, even if A and B are opposed, are truly golden in today’s career marketplace.
Where Can Your Son or Daughter Acquire the Skills that Employers Want?
These skills and others like them, including purpose provision, cross-class expertise, and making non-human things intuitive to people, are the outcome of first-rate education where cross-disciplinary exploration and connection are emphasized. Purely pre-professional education falls short in developing these kinds of thinkers and skills. A knowledge base that includes a number of disciplines and perspectives as well as the depth of inquiry that comes from investigating challenging academic works is the most valuable education today’s students can acquire. A top-notch education can only be acquired in an academic setting that meets your child’s needs. Families should not assume that such an education is available at any university, despite the college’s reputation.
For further information on the essential skills to develop in college in the 21st century, see Dr. Shumsky’s list here.