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Future job skills

By on December 15, 2013
Over the coming decade, we will be seeing a major transformation in the workplace.  Virtually every domain of our lives will be dominated by smart machines.  Repetitive tasks that were once the domain of humans are gradually being replaced by workplace robotics and are expected to continue in the years ahead.  It will be an exciting new era of co-dependence between machines and humans.   The learners of today therefore, will require stretching their capabilities by acquiring skills that are relevant to this collaboration. With the rapidly changing job landscape, global independent researchers point to the following work skills as becoming increasingly relevant.  

Competency in Cross Cultural Environment  As companies expand globally,  the need for people highly adaptable at working in diverse geographical environments will be in demand.  Aside from being adaptable, language proficiency and the ability to think and respond to new contexts will dominate.

Literacy in New Media  
Familiarity of how user-generated media works will be a strong focus in the communication field.  The ability to critically gauge its use in order to develop market-focused content as communication tool will become commonplace.

Social Intelligence   One quality unique to humans is the ability to feel.   A socially intelligent worker is one who is able to understand the feelings, gestures and reactions of people around him.  He uses this ability to connect to others, stimulate reactions and  forge relationships.  Sales being the lifeblood of a company, businesses will want someone with a high level of social intelligence to join its team.

Computational Thinking   The greater the amount of data we deal with on a day-to-day basis, the more roles open up for people who can make sense of this information through computational thinking.  Computational thinking is a problem-solving ability that involves breaking down large amounts of data to translate them into concepts that match data-based reasoning.

Design Mindset   A result is always a product of design.  Changing a result requires changing the design.  Design mindset is the ability to adapt and develop work processes to achieve a specific outcome or enhance a result.

Virtual Collaboration  With most work these days done through a virtual work environment, people that are able to work productively with a virtual team are highly sought.

Cognitive Load Management   The ability to stay on top of a stream of huge data by using tools and techniques to process and filter out information based on importance.

Novel and Adaptive Thinking  The work of most high-income professionals has to do with thinking of solutions in unique unexpected situations.

Trans-disciplinarity    Global issues such as eradicating poverty, global warming and nuclear crisis, to name a few, are real multi-faceted problems requiring 21st century solutions.  The ability of people in specialized fields to take part in a problem-solving team of different disciplines is becoming an important skill set.  This means that a mathematician may also have an understanding of biochemistry learned after years of formal education.

Sense making   Critical thinking is the domain of humans.  A computer is man made and relies heavily on coding.  We will see more 21st century jobs needing people who can apply critical thinking in any work situation.

About Ted Tanaka