FUTURE SKILLS UPDATE
Find out what Industry leaders want from their future workers
In its Future Skills Report published in 2023 in partnership with the International Baccalaureate (IB), ACS International Schools restated that the role of education is a topic of on-going debate and, post-pandemic, it was clear that, in order to thrive, students need a holistic well-rounded education that opens their minds and encourages them to ask the questions that will solve tomorrow’s issues.
As part of that research we not only spoke to more than 500 small and medium businesses on what they were looking for from future employees, but also conducted in-depth interviews with leaders in some of today’s most forward-looking organisations. Here we examine some of those core industry insights.
Being able to understand topics and acquire knowledge within a broader context was important to Ramiro Prudencio at McKinsey & Company, “It’s understanding maths or science in the context of societal issues and values that matters, not just science and maths in a classroom. This requires deeper understanding of the material, and high levels of discussion and argument in the classroom, along with learning from peers and working in teams - all these things ideally will set them up for success in the workplace in the future.”
Ability to communicate with ease came out as another key attribute for young people to be able to stand out in a competitive market in the future workplace. “A lot of people have amazing CV, but don’t know how to communicate. I have always hired people based on how they communicated and expressed opinions and not relied just on CVs,” commented serial entrepreneur Ghanim Alsulaiti of Enbath Holdings.
Coming from a different side of the fence, Nadia Danhash, Director of Innovation at the Royal College of Art Design and Innovation arm agrees. “Everything is international these days. The better we understand and the more open-minded we are, the more chance of succeeding and coming up with good solutions to everything, whether it is in business or challenges facing the planet."
Communication and empathy came high on the agenda for all of our industry panel. Stuart Jackson, Director of Global Workplace communications at Amazon agrees, “ In the last ten years empathetic leadership has become a valuable commodity for an individual leader and a business but it’s a recent phenomenon." The focus on the need for empathy amongst workers extends to inclusivity and diversity for this group of industry commentators. “If you think about diversity and inclusion and you think about our world, we need people who are really engaged in these topics,” commented Gordon Castle, Technical Business Development, Amazon Web Services. ”I do think we need to do a lot to encourage kids to get involved with our communities and make stands." The requirement for empathy as a skill was echoed in the small and medium business research cohort where two thirds of respondents (66%) believed that professional empathy is important to job productivity and satisfaction when there is less human interaction.
If you’re hardworking, work well in a team, if you’re conscientious, if you have human qualities you are likely to succeed in the corporate world.
It is evident that whilst technology marches on and the next generation of workers need to be able to hold hands with it as it evolves, developing and honing essential human skills are as, if not more, important.
Education today means getting students ready not just to have the skills and knowledge to get a job, but to be fully human, and to be convinced that they have the ability - and responsibility - to change the world for the better.
That calls for an education that develops confident individuals who are caring contributors and effective learners in school and beyond the classroom. As the ACS Future Skills report concluded, the consensus across every industry surveyed shows that the most important future skill for students to learn, is the skill of being human.
