Emerging Skills for the Future of Work

Your paper degree may have helped you get one foot in the door, but you still need to impress interviewers with the relevant skills to get that coveted job.

According to The Future of Jobs Report 2020 by the World Economic Forum (WEF), “doubledisruptions” in automation and pandemic-induced recessions have led to transformation in jobs, tasks and skills that will last to 2025. 43 per cent of businesses WEF surveyed indicated that they would reduce their workforce due to technology integration, as compared to 34 per cent targeting workforce expansion due to technology integration. In addition, 41 per cent are planning to engage contractors for more specialised work.

By 2025, the time humans and machines spend on current tasks at work will be equal. As a significant number of companies are also expecting to make changes to locations, value chains will shift in the next five years as well. Because of this, employers will begin to look for new skills in employees to manage these disruptions.

Yet, as of the time the survey was released, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) had put the global unemployment rate at around 6.5 per cent as employers often cannot find people with skills suitable for the positions they are looking to fill – even though they are backed with the relevant paper qualifications.

As the global job market is expected to continue to evolve with growing competition and advancing technologies, another layer of complexity will be added, and firms are quickly switching hiring strategies to meet these challenges.

In this time of business landscape disruptions, these are skills and qualities employers look for in candidates

Top emerging skills (what employers want)

Singapore Worldwide

1. Analytical thinking and innovation

2. Active learning and learning strategies

3. Leadership and social influence

4. Emotional intelligence

5. Creativity, originality and initiative

6. Technology design and programming

7. Complex problem-solving

8. Troubleshooting and user experience

9. Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility

10. Technology use, monitoring and control

11. Instruction, mentoring and teaching

12. Critical thinking and analysis

13. Technology installation and maintenance

14. Service orientation

15. Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation

Top 15 skills for 2025

1. Analytical thinking and innovation

2. Active learning and learning strategies

3. Complex problem-solving

4. Critical thinking and analysis

5. Creativity, originality and initiative

6. Leadership and social influence

7. Technology use, monitoring and control

8. Technology design and programming

9. Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility

10. Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation

11. Emotional intelligence

12. Troubleshooting and user experience

13. Service orientation

14. Systems analysis and evaluation

15. Persuasion and negotiation

Impact of Covid-19 on companies’ strategies

1. Continued acceleration of digitalisation of work processes (e.g. use of digital tools, video conferencing)

2. Hybrid work arrangements

3. Continued acceleration of implementation of upskilling/reskilling programmes

4. Continued acceleration of digitalisation of upskilling/reskilling (e.g. education technology providers)

5. Temporarily reassign workers to different tasks

6. Introduction of new role or newly-defined roles

Top 10 technology adoptions

• Encryption and cybersecurity

• Artificial intelligence (AI) (e.g. machine learning, neural networks, natural language processing)

• Internet of Things (IoT) and connected devices

• Text, image and voice processing

• Big data analysis

• E-commerce and digital trade

• Distributed ledger technology (e.g. blockchain)

• Augmented and virtual reality

• Robots, non-humanoid (industrial automation, drones)

• Power storage and generation

A varied skill set will only serve you well in your career, and constant upskilling should be part of your professional development. These fundamental skills are perfect to serve as the base of your upskilling journey – and it is never too late to start developing them!