Essential soft skills

MICHELLE LORBER

Your journey into the workplace starts as a student

Today’s students need to be gearing themselves to ultimately enter the marketplace. Automation and the advent of AI are having an effect on the way people work – and graduates need to be adaptable. The future of Jobs Report from the world economic forum mentions critical thinking and problem solving as important skills. Other skills considered to be essential in the future include emotional and social intelligence, an innovative and creative mindset, judgement and decision making, cognitive flexibility (flexible thinking in reaction to new challenges and situations) and computational thinking and digital literacy.

Other useful skills include active learning, effective communication (both verbal and written), the ability to negotiate, and resilience. A love of learning, willingness to grow and a curious mind are also advantageous.

Partner at pwc, Amanda Mcintryre, considers that skills that technology cannot yet provide, such as creativity, persuasion and the ability to teach others, will become more appreciated.

Other skills in the same category are people management (motivating staff and maximising productivity), co-ordinating with others (being able to work with different personalities) and service orientation (helping consumers and citizens, and anticipating their needs in the future). Global citizenship has become increasingly important as employees now deal with people on a worldwide basis.

With this comes a need for an appreciation and comprehension of the culture of others. Additional languages are helpful in this respect.

Diversity is also critical – employees need to be sensitive to the need to respect differences in language, culture, race, sexual orientation, age, gender as well as political or religious beliefs, among others. the qualities of entrepreneurship and progressive thinking are also assets. Companies want visionary thinkers who are prepared to take the initiative.

While being well-rounded is desirable, having the skills to retrieve information needed is vital. Further to this, the sifting and judging of the information is critical in order for the data to be analysed. Making decisions and assessments will also be a valuable tool. Data can gather information and offer insights, but a human will ultimately have to determine how to act on it.