We all know that lifelong learning is the key to career success and maintaining a leading position in a changing world. However, in recent years, we have witnessed the rapid growth of new topics, scientific fields, and technological advancements, which is also a short-lived phenomenon. The hard skills acquired by a person may be outdated in just a few years. This has also changed the world of work. In the past, it was possible to obtain an education and work in this field for a lifetime. Today, you may have received an education, but 10 years later, 60% of the jobs may no longer be the same, or they may not even exist when you start high school or university.
There is an old saying that may be more important than ever before, and that is in terms of recruiters and educators. Don't recruit for skills–recruit for attitude. In addition, when it comes to skills, we need to pay more attention to our attributes, build a strong foundation, and look for skills that can be universally applied.
The half life of skills and abilities is getting shorter and shorter
The half-life of skills is getting shorter and shorter, which is a direct result of technological progress. With the development of new technologies, the skills required to use these technologies will become outdated. For example, 10 years ago, the skills required to use smartphones did not exist. Today, smartphones are everywhere, and the skills needed to use them are taken for granted. In just a few years, the same will be true of new technologies that have not even been invented.
A recent report by the World Economic Forum found that the average half-life of a skill is 6 years, which is expected to be reduced to only 2.5 years by 2030. This means that in less than 10 years, ordinary people will need to learn new skills more than twice as often as they do today.
To maintain a leading position, you must constantly learn and improve your skills. The best way to do this is to make learning a habit. Take out a certain amount of time every day or every week to learn new things. This can be anything, from reading articles or books to attending online courses to attending seminars or conferences. It is important to make sure that you continue to learn and expand your skill set.
Artificial intelligence and automation boom
We have seen many people saying that artificial intelligence will replace our work, and our work will be unrecognizable. Yes, there will be changes, but more mechanization and automation have shown in the past that they create more jobs, more growth, more economic opportunities, and a series of new jobs with different skills and different job descriptions. As I said, this situation will only speed up the frequency with which people learn new skills and change jobs, but the basic skills required in the future will not change much. The identified future skills will enable you to truly adapt to future jobs and lay the foundation for your future career.
Many skills may be essential for work in the early 21st century. The key is to recognize the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative artificial intelligence, on the future employment situation and skill requirements. The rise of artificial intelligence not only heralds a major shift in job types but also a major change in the skills required for these new positions. Taking the field of heavy machinery manufacturing as an example, the intelligent upgrading of crane products is redefining industry standards through the real-time optimization of lifting paths by embedded AI systems and predictive maintenance based on sensor data, operators are transitioning to "man-machine collaborative engineers". As artificial intelligence and automation take over more routine and data-driven tasks, we are seeing a shift in jobs that require human intuition, creativity, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking. This technological evolution will also subvert the overall pattern of construction, manufacturing, logistics, and other industries. From the natural language interactive interface design of the overhead cranes remote control system to the steel structure safety simulation test based on generative AI, it confirms that a new working paradigm of human-computer collaboration is forming.
However, for most workers and most of the labor force, there are still challenges: narrowing the gap between current skills and future required skills. As the world increasingly turns to digital value creation, every organization and individual must adopt a strategy that includes acquiring and improving skills related to digital and artificial intelligence, while not ignoring the eternal human skills that have promoted progress in every era in human history. The integration of artificial intelligence into our work and life does not mean the end, but a transformation. This list also shows that to keep up with the pace of this transformation, we always need to master very basic skills.
Necessary basics and basic knowledge
These foundations are the foundation for future development. They provide everyone with a toolbox for acquiring future skills, while also letting them understand.
1. Literacy
As before, we consume a lot of information. To expand our horizons, it is necessary to have good reading/writing skills. Not only to learn new things, but also to share your knowledge with others.
2. Mathematical ability
In a world full of data and analysis. The most important thing is to have a sense of numbers and statistics, and to understand the basic calculation methods.
3. Information and communication technology and digital literacy
Understanding how applications, websites, communication networks, etc, work may help understand future challenges. It is good to have a basic understanding of how the digital world works.
4. Financial knowledge
Especially for the younger generation, financial knowledge is also a key aspect. We need to rethink how pensions work, how personal finance is established, and what business models and business finance mean. This will help with projects, start your own company, or just plan your financial future.
5. Cultural literacy
In a globalized world, we need to understand each other well. It is beneficial to have a basic understanding of differences in culture, language, generation, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or political orientation. This understanding helps leaders, supports team building, and helps form better international partnerships.
6. Scientific method literacy
As mentioned earlier in computing power and digital literacy, it is important to understand numbers. In addition, it should also include an understanding of science, especially scientific methods.
7. Learning literacy
Knowing how to learn may be an important skill in the future. It may be a good thing to educate you on learning strategies and find the best working methods for you to quickly adapt to the changing environment.
8. Ethical literacy
Understanding the impact of ethics and decision-making may help make the right decision. This basic literacy is the key to international cooperation and the key to future decision-making.
Future personal skills and abilities
1. Active learning/curiosity/growth mentality
One of the most important skills is already ahead, which is the mentality of continuous growth. It involves curiosity to explore new things and active learning methods to quickly adapt to the changing world of business and technology. Contrary to most people's belief, these skills can be learned and cultivated.
2. Emotional intelligence (EQ)
In many surveys, emotional intelligence plays a huge role .Emotional intelligence describes the ability to be aware of, control, and express the emotions of oneself and others. As the world becomes more digital, we must understand each other better .Together with cultural literacy, it can be helpful in many areas of your career and is essential for team building and company culture.
3. Leadership skills
Although not everyone wants to be a leader or must be a leader, it is important to understand the work of a good leader. In an online society, everyone can occasionally take on leadership roles. Therefore, learning how to motivate, inspire, and lead people can be a great skill. A key skill is the ability to motivate and help others to be the best of themselves.
4. Communication and coordination
The world is becoming more and more complex, and each task usually involves more than one person. Therefore, it is essential to understand how to best communicate and coordinate in the team, company, or with external stakeholders. Key skills include passing the right information to the right people, translating between different parties, and understanding others. In addition, the understanding of intonation, body language, and interpersonal interaction is also very important.
5. Ability to judge and make decisions
In complex situations, neutral judgment and comprehensive and rapid decision-making ability have become more and more important. Although machines still focus on neutral data and provide more input for decision-making, the task of humans is to also recognize other factors, such as social influence, morale or business, and personnel influence. Taking the gantry cranes intelligent hoisting scenario as an example, when the AI system provides multiple hoisting schemes based on real-time load data, the on-site commander must weigh between the shaking amplitude of the steel structure, the safe movement of ground personnel, and the pressure of the project progress-this requires not only understanding the risk probability output by the algorithm, but also combining the fatigue state of the construction team and sudden weather changes to make a final decision. Therefore, it is necessary to have the skills to make decisions on uncertainty and many input variables in a short period. Just like the cognitive assistance interface integrated in the modern crane operation cabin, it not only displays the stress heat map generated by AI, but also retains the emergency braking authority for manual intervention, reflecting the decision-making level of human-machine co-judgment.
6. Creativity, conception and innovation
This is a key skill for developing future solutions, processes, and products. This is also a skill that machines cannot currently compete with, so it is a skill that is very conducive to future development. It also involves techniques for generating new ideas or brainstorming. Contrary to most people's belief, creativity can be cultivated and trained.
Another skill that can be added is “originality”, which involves creating new ideas and concepts that are not limited by current solutions.
7. Critical thinking-reasoning
Critical thinking is a skill that is the basis for solving complex problems. It is a key skill for many companies and teams to develop and develop new solutions in the best way. Reasoning needs to be based on observation and various data resources, and it also needs to follow the logical argument structure.
8. Solving complex problems
In addition, in the future, complex problems will not be easy to solve, just because we have algorithms and technologies. It involves different tasks and is also a great effort for creativity and thinking. This is one of the core skills. If used properly and then utilized by technology, it will promote a lot of value creation in the future.
9. Analytical thinking
Analytical thinking has some similarities with critical thinking. It relies heavily on logical reasoning and tries to eliminate emotions. This skill can be trained by focusing on the pros and cons, being open to different solutions, and looking for logical structures and connections. Especially with the continuous adoption of technology, it will be very helpful to use analytical thinking as the connection point between humans and technology.
10. Systematic thinking
Teach yourself how to be aware of the connected and interrelated parts, and that the entire system has predictable elements. It can be trained by analyzing complex systems, seeing the connections and dependencies, and finding solutions that affect the entire system or subsystem.
11. Collaboration
Work in a team to achieve a common goal. It involves organizational skills, communication skills, adaptability and openness. Collaboration skills can also be associated with leadership skills.
12. Negotiation
Whether it's about sales, wages, ideas, or other topics. Negotiation skills are essential to achieve your goals and convince others. This is a skill that everyone should train because it is useful in many situations.
13. Self-reflection/mindfulness
It is very useful to understand yourself and your ability to understand your cognitive and emotional responses. In a rapidly changing environment and stressful situations, it is good to understand your feelings and reasons so that you can take appropriate action. With this, you can train another skill–resilience
14. Resilience/stress tolerance
Resilience is the ability to help people cope with extreme situations or crises. It involves the skills to protect yourself from negative influences and recover from difficulties.
15. Adaptability/flexibility
In addition to learning new things (mentioned earlier), we also need to be adaptable. Change roles, change colleagues, disruptive business models, and many new (digital) channels. The world is changing rapidly, and an important skill is to respond well to new situations and make adjustments when necessary. This flexibility can also be trained.
Summary
Everyone should have a lot of skills. It is impossible to work hard on every skill on this list, and it is impossible to perfectly reflect everything in one person. These skills are in great demand, and there will be a lot of demand, because they have nothing to do with economic development. Therefore, the wise advice is that everyone should evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and work hard in a personal way.
Everyone should consider basic literacy, and then consider skills such as creativity, analytical thinking, and interpersonal communication, because they will be helpful in any work environment.
