The large numbers of young Indians can be a demographic dividend if they are educated well and have the skills to work in jobs likely to arise in the 21st century. Conversely, they may become a demographic nightmare if they don’t have such skills. But what kinds of skills will students need to be successful in the 21st century?
Understanding 3 Kinds of Skills
As an answer to this question first consider that there are 3 kinds of skills people have, namely :-
- Internal Skills
- Interpersonal Skills
- Effectiveness related Skills.
Internal skills include analytical skills, self-management skills, and planning and organization skills. Interpersonal skills are used to interact with internal teams and external customers. Collaboration, networking, teamwork, and negotiation are components of interpersonal skills. Effectiveness skills make people effective at their job. People with good effectiveness skills are good at their work. Effectiveness skills include virtual productivity.Critical thinking, problem-solving, and the ability to research and analyse data are also components of effectiveness skills. The ability to research and analyse data is important because there is a plethora of data, yet using data to gain insights and drive intelligence requires considerable skill. Finally, presentation skills and communication skills are important skills as well because they help people present in better way which is crucial for success.
Other Crucial Skills
All the above-mentioned skills to some extent are essential for young people to be employable yet young people need other skills as well. To see why consider that today large and small companies are impacted by global events. Every large company has a global footprint while smaller companies are also impacted by events on the other side of the globe. Hence the employees of tomorrow need to be attuned to a worldview that they are global citizens. A feeling of global citizenship needs to be inculcated within them. Young people also need to be inculcated with environmental skills. The environment is in a precarious state, yet too many even now remain unaware of the harm they are causing the environment and of steps they can take to eliminate such harm.
Ethics and compassion will play an increasingly important role in the future. Leaders need to be instilled with a sense of ethics and compassion so they can lead effectively. Being compassionate and having a solid ethical framework makes for sound leadership and allows leaders to make ethical decisions when faced with moral conundrums.
Why These Skills are Necessary?
Today the journey of many professionals is one paved largely with chance. There is little or no structure in place to ensure that a good education leads to commensurate life outcomes. Rather usually even highly educated professionals fail to reach their fullest potential. Career progression is in effect a roll of the dice in which winners and losers are decided not by merit but mere happenstance. Because career progression depends on the roll of the dice, meritorious individuals often don’t reach upper echelons of organizations and don’t make decisions that could produce benign and wide-reaching results that benefit more people.
Each of the skills mentioned should be taught at appropriate ages before students turn 16. When internal skills, interpersonal skills, effectiveness related skills, and awareness of global citizenship, the environment, and ethics and compassion are coded into individuals at a young age, their life outcomes will happen not by chance but design. This is why the mentioned skills are so essential to the success of young people today and for society to prosper in the future.