Skilled for the Future

There is so much impacting on the world of work at them moment that the skills required are evolving rapidly. The rampaging mark of digital and AI technologies, exacerbated by Covid-19 has changed what skills will be required in the future. A just released report by McKinsey & company entitled ‘Defining the skills citizens will need in the future world of work’ (click here to download it), reports on what their research found will be the jobs that are lost and created. Even more importantly, it specifies what skills will be required.

There are 56 foundational skill areas identified by McKinsey that are grouped into four broad categories:

• Cognitive
• Digital
• Interpersonal
• Self-leadership

The following table form the report categorizes the 56 foundational skills (note that the acronym DELTA comes from Distinct Elements of Learning):

The research looked at the levels of proficiency the current workforce has in these skills and concluded that “participants with a university degree had higher average scores”, giving this group a distinct advantage. However, across all groups, some of the lowest scores were in relation to communication and planning ways of working.

Also of interest was that employment was strongly associated with having proficiency in the following areas:

• Adaptability
• Coping with uncertainty
• Synthesizing messages
• Achievement

The highest incomes are associated with those proficient in the wide range of digital skills.

The implications of this are far-reaching. For the individual, it is a chance to fill in any deficiencies in these skill areas to ensure you are equipped with what employers are going to be looking for. For employers, it is an opportunity to be targeting these skill sin new hires, so your workforce is already equipped for the future. And for education and adult training providers, this is what is needed to ensure your graduates are employment ready.