Skills Needed by Our Students to be Prepared for the Future

As many of us are still working from home fully or with reduced office hours, we are left to wonder what our world might look like after the dust eventually settles down. There’s a lot of unknown factors on how society will change, how the subsequent health and economic crises will evolve, and what mindset changes will arise. It’s extremely unlikely that things will just go back to exactly the way they were before.

The workplaces are likely to change, and with it, the skills companies will require. Pandemic opened a way for novel job opportunities to appear in the market, and quite a few of their skills differ from our market-standard skillset valuation focus. How can you make sure you coach and build your students' skill sets to navigate in this  competitive job market?

A report by Deloitte Access Economics considers two-thirds of all jobs by 2030 will be made up of soft-skill-intensive occupations, so developing and enhancing these skills is key.

Here are the top five in-demand skills according to the two leading recruiters:

1. Resilience

As the pandemic has presented employees with various trials, employers are looking for people who are flexible enough to adjust to different situations and handle setbacks.

How to demonstrate resilience: Identifying and talking about the capacity to recover from situations and adapt is a very valuable boost. Use the lockdown experience for your benefit, for example - prepare the students with the questions, what did you do, how you stayed productive, how you dealt with unexpected and gruelling circumstances.

2. Confidence in using technology

IT literacy has been important for about a decade, but almost all businesses suddenly had to integrate new technologies due to the pandemic. Hence, giving rise to demand for technoid professionals, who are familiar with teleconferencing, collaboration platforms, file sharing, remote learning if to name a few.

How to demonstrate your technological aptitude: Make sure that your student has  present-day knowledge and skill sets because technology is evolving at such a rapid pace. Identify what technologies they are using, how it is used and how they assist your work (to boost productivity, cut down on your day-to-day activities and to support teamwork).

3. Agility

The pandemic showed us that the world can change dramatically and very quickly. Therefore, hiring managers are looking for employees who can be productive in a borderless environment without necessarily having a written process to follow.

How to demonstrate your agility: Job descriptions have undergone a metamorphosis, coach the students to mention how they’ve volunteered for assignments (tutoring, teaching assignments, internships).That’s a great way to highlight the skills of a team player who adapts easily to change.