Trends like globalization and advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, are constantly changing not only the demands of the labor market but also the skills required for workers to succeed. According to the OECD Learning Compass 2030, there are three different skill sets considered to be drivers of success in future employment that must be encouraged through education, namely cognitive and metacognitive skills; social and emotional skills; and physical and practical skills.
Cognitive skills are essential; metacognitive skills, sometimes known as “non-routine analytical skills,” are becoming so. Technology influences the demands for the types and levels of skills needed for the future. Over recent decades, workers have been replaced by computer-controlled equipment in a wide range of jobs that consist of routine tasks. Most routine works that revolve around performing repetitive motions have since been automated. Nevertheless, this has also opened up new employment opportunities for workers with non-routine cognitive skills, such as creativity, and social and emotional skills. Workers in jobs that require originality are substantially less likely to see themselves replaced. Education should therefore focus on imparting “fusion skills,” the combination of creative, entrepreneurial, and technical skills that enable workers to shift into new occupations as they emerge.
With classrooms and workplaces becoming more diverse, social and emotional skills are becoming increasingly essential. This is particularly true of those related to cognitive skills — like “empathy,” which calls for “perspective-taking” — to acknowledge and respond to these global connections. This is why this particular set of skills is known as global competence; They are a prerequisite for applying cognitive skills, and subsequently successful participation and performance. Despite cognitive skills being long regarded as the most significant determinant of success in employment, social and emotional skills have been found to be equally substantial, directly affecting an individual’s future employment — if not more so. Education should therefore foster attitudes and values, such as empathy and respect for others as individuals, that learners need in order to be more inclusive.
Not only are physical and practical skills associated with daily manual tasks, but they also are with the arts. Researchers have not yet found a similar activity conducive to the development of the cognitive capacity of children in the same ways, to the same extent as arts do. There must be significant cognitive and metacognitive processes involved in acquiring physical skills in arts, as its mastery requires cognitive and metacognitive processes too. Engaging with the arts also assists in developing empathic intelligence, which enhances emotional engagement, commitment, and a sense of identification with and responsibility for others. Education should therefore incorporate arts into curricula, as these skills acquired through arts are transferable to other areas, be it developing hypotheses, visualizing past events, or predicting future ones, and the intelligence developed through arts have a positive impact on an individual’s success.
In conclusion, people need to rely even more on their uniquely — thus far — human capacity for creativity as well as the ability to “think about thinking” and “learn to learn” throughout their lives. To remain competitive, we will need to acquire new skills continually, which requires flexibility as well as a positive attitude toward lifelong learning and curiosity.
