Abraham Maslow once said “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety. ”In a world driven by innovation and knowledge, in a world of immense opportunities and risks, the ingenuity, agility, and skills of the people are crucial for their evolution.
20th-century life is imagined as a ‘simpler time’ in today’s world, while the future remains explicitly unknown. This has happened due to fueled urbanization, technological advances, social advances, etc.
The 21st century does not incentivise the cramming of knowledge since the threshold for the necessary knowledge that one should possess to be able to compete is constantly escalating. Children in today’s age need to be protean and for that, they require a firm grasp on numerous skills that they can apply in various aspects of life.
A 2013 Gallup poll, in collaboration with Pearson and Microsoft, showed that students with heavy exposure to 21st-century skills in their last year of school were two times more likely to be successful and valued at their jobs. In the 2014 CBI Education and Skills survey, employers rated “attitudes and aptitudes for work” – like self-reliance, confidence, and openness to new ideas – as the most important factors when recruiting at the school and graduate levels. Only 30% listed a school-level academic result as a priority compared to 85% for attitude to work.
There are three 21st century skill categories and each 21st century skill is broken into one of three categories:
Learning Skills (the four C’s):-The four C’s can help improve the modern work environment by teaching children how to adapt to the mental process required for it.
Literacy Skills (IMT):-These focus on how children can discern facts, publishing outlets, and the technology behind them. There’s a strong focus on determining trustworthy sources and factual information to separate it from the misinformation that floods the Internet.
Life Skills (FLIPS):- These are intangible elements that focus on both personal and professional qualities of a child’s everyday life.
We have shortlisted the top ten 21st-century skills that you should install in your kids through both good education and upbringing.
- Communication Skill
Communication is a major skill that everyone should master. Good communication has two parts: speaking and a necessary one listening. Communication is extensively different from a debate where a person is speaking to prove a point. Communication requires a person to listen and empathize with what the speaker is saying. Good communication is learned at an early stage and will help your child throughout their life.
- Collaboration & Cooperation
To go fast, you go alone but to go far, go together. In the early stage of life sids should be taught the art of collaboration and how much teamwork is important to succeed in life. This should be done by putting kids in group activities that require them to work together to solve a particular problem.
- Critical Thinking
The ability to discern what is a fact and what is a plausibility is critical thinking. Critical thinking in today’s age is extremely important for kids with the growth in technological advances and the easy availability of the internet, kids should be able to critically analyze a fact that they came across to realize what it is since there is a lot of unnecessary /incorrect information available on the internet today. The world is full of unnecessary information in which kids can get lost and critical thinking will help them navigate through it.
- Imagination
Kids have a wild imagination but enabling them to use it is a task for the parents. Encouraging the kids to be imaginative through explorative tasks and undefined challenges helps them in developing and growing their creative and imaginative abilities.
- Problem-solving
A lot of persistence and resilience are required with problem-solving to make sure the slightest failure or unfamiliarity does not make your child want to quit. The ability to solve the problem will help you through life. Introducing your kids to some sort of challenge and making them find their solutions is a great way to boost their problem-solving abilities.
- Technology Adoption
Introduction of kids to new technologies is extremely important. No one would want their child to miss out on some great opportunity due to a lack of technological awareness.
- Ethics, Action, Accountability
Achieving your goal is important but it is also important to keep a check whether your actions are good or they are causing some harm to someone because ethics are what we humans should live by because if it were not for ethics the world would be in chaos. Integrity and accountability are probably one of the most important characteristics a child should possess.
- Leadership
Giving out commands and having others work for you is not good leadership. A good leader always leads from the front and not only will the leader give his/her best but also motivates others to give their 100 percent and never leave anyone behind.
- Cultural Awareness
The connectivity in the world today has gone far beyond anyone’s imagination, every corner, every part of a country has its own separate culture. Teaching kids about the diversity of cultures and respecting each one is extremely important.
- Helping
Helping is an intention, not exactly a skill. Teaching kids to help each other in need is necessary. Man is a social being and thus we need society to help us get through life so kids should be taught to help anyone in need.
Skill requirement changes with every change in era for its people. Antecedently survival skills got you far, while theoretical knowledge didn’t enjoy much value. Subsequently, memorized theoretical knowledge became a cherished intellectual possession, since having it memorized in your head or printed in books were the only two possible ways to efficiently store and transport data.
A significant transformation has occurred in data storing, transporting, and collection aspects in the 21st century and in the time leading up to it. We no longer have to teach our children to memorize everything and carry it in their heads – they can effectively store them on multiple platforms like cloud, microchips, or in vast databases and have any/all information at their disposal and they will be able to access it with just a touch of the button. Memorizing facts or flaunting to others your skills to fight a bear or a wooly mammoth are not the key skills required today for children to possess. Not only are the above skills not required, the ones required are completely disparate from them. In the 21st century, children need to possess the skills that enable them to access quantities of information that are readily available at their fingertips purposefully and effectively.
