'Future Skills' that our kids should be learning NOW ...

According to a recent World Economic Forum jobs report, an estimated 65% of students entering school today will have jobs that do not yet exist. Parents and educators are all scrambling to find a balance between technical learning (STEM focus) and kids personality forming activities (sports etc.) which empower kids to deal with the ever-changing global landscape.

Skills our kids should be learning beyond STEM

Institute for the Future conducted a research to increase an understanding of the skills workers will need over the next decade. This report projects proficiencies and abilities that will be required across different jobs and work settings in the organizations of the future. (IFTF, 2010) - http://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/SR-1382A_UPRI_future_work_skills_sm.pdf
What is striking is that there have been numerous reports and despite all the awareness and talks about the need for such social, cognitive, emotional, behavioral skills; there seems to be a lack of action to deal with this challenge head-on. Even though higher education providers have begun making some strides when it comes to where it matters most - which is 'K-through Middle school' - there is still a sense of apathy.
Research indicates that the maximum and lasting impact of learning and personality development occurs between the ages of 4 to 13, and yet the majority of these future skills are not being taught in our technical education orientated learning environment.

Education today is mainly focused on academics and standardized testing ...

Parents and educators are either not sufficiently equipped or are unable to devote exclusive time to help children develop critical social and leadership skills ...

What are these key skills and how do we expect our kids to be ready to succeed in the future?

Leading developmental psychologists, and organizational leadership experts have developed a balanced “Leadership Persona Model” for kids. This model provides a framework of ten key skills that parents and educators should be promoting in their kids:

1. Ethical Mindset: Kids must learn the value of 'Respect' for self, others, and our environment during the early ages. Kids need to develop an ethical mindset towards people and situations and develop New Media Literacy to promote the ethical and responsible use of a variety of media (including social media) and technologies. This skill will be critical in creating and participating in a digital and artificially intelligent secure world.

2. Communication skills: One of the most important tools that leaders use to succeed is effective communication. Kids must learn the importance of communication skills and what does it mean to communicate effectively? Kids must develop communication driven problem-solving skills in a global and diverse environment. By learning to collaborate and effectively communicate, kids can drive their social influence, a skill that will be critical in the workplace of the future.

Effective communicators are good problem solvers - because they can see & understand both sides of a story

3. Collaboration skills: Kids must be encouraged to work with others, they need to recognize the benefits of teamwork, and working together to achieve common goals. Kids must learn about the benefits of cultural diversity & practice effective & positive communication techniques to deal with the diversity and technologies that surround us. This cultural awareness & tolerance will help these future leaders to develop critical cross-cultural competency which will be essential to enable global teams to create solutions and technologies of the future.

4. Presentation Skills: Presentation skills must not be mistaken for standing and speaking in front of an audience. This skill is a foundation of effectively and meaningfully communicating ideas. Kids must practice body language, tone, voice, and engaging presentation strategies. Effective presentations can help kids to tell engaging stories and ideas clearly and with confidence.

Good presenters are not about being able to stand and speak in front of an audience - they are about good stories

5. Change Management: Dealing with change is a complex task for adults, let alone kids. However, when kids learn to master dealing with change and ambiguity they become resilient change makers. By understanding and practicing emotions experienced during a change, they can gain expertise at coping with change and stresses and becoming the change agents of the future. Encourage kids to learn about the phases and emotions that we experience through a change - and help them navigate change with a positive mindset.

6. Project Management: A structured methodology to approach solutions, and a framework driven thought process can help kids experience lower stress while driving towards meaningful outcomes. Kids must learn about the advantages of planning, identifying, understanding and interacting with the key players in an interaction, time management, and project management framework. This can help them maximize their chances to succeed in anything that they do.

When kids learn about structured methodologies like Project Management or Change Management they develop a design mindset, which promotes the ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired outcomes.

7. Emotional Intelligence (EI) & Mindfulness: EI is a key driver to succeed in complex environments, kids should learn to recognize & name their emotions. Kids need to understand how emotions enable or disable relationships. They need to learn the strategies to manage emotions and develop mindfulness with simple strategies like meditation.

A key outcome of being emotionally & socially intelligent is enhanced sense-making skills and developing intuition. This is a key competency that will help our future leaders triumph in data-driven organizations and workplaces.

By learning meditation, structured thought, project management & change management methodologies, our kids can maximize their cognitive load management & sense-making capabilities.

8. Assertive Behavior: By leveraging emotional intelligence, positive attitude, and assertive skills, kids can prevent the "unwanted" behavior from surfacing within themselves and be able to deal with a difficult encounter. Educators and caregivers should help kids to recognize & identify bullying behavior and encourage them to identify trusted adults who can help them stand up for self and others.

"Bullying is a behavior, and we all have experienced or displayed it more than once"

9. Resilience & Perseverance: Learning to approach failures as opportunities to learn, and navigating failure with positivity can help kids to have strong self-esteem and resilient personalities. This "grit" empowers kids to successfully navigate setbacks with a smile and helps them emerge as resilient leaders.

10. Creativity & Innovation: Kids must be purposefully taught and encouraged to always find better and creative ways of doing things. By inculcating open-mindedness, curiosity, and an understanding of creative process & innovation, kids develop the future skill of "transdisciplinary literacy" (an ability to understand concepts across multiple disciplines.)

Nurturing kids with tools and skills that go beyond STEM, to help them succeed in the future workplace and life as a whole; should be a priority for our educators

Kids with the right character, attitude and mindset will lead fulfilling lives and will make this world a better place. And we need to create a balance between STEM and these critical future skills and nurture leaders who will succeed in defining the workplaces of the future.

About the authors:

Preeti & Rishi are founders of ‘LeaderKid Academy' and are passionate about the human interactions that occur all around us. When they had children of their own; providing them with the right values, the right attitude, grooming them with essential future skill competencies, and character with an enhanced moral compass that not only helps them deal with life but also pushes them to make this world a better place, became their central focus.
So, they embarked on a difficult journey of doing something meaningful. They worked closely with educators, cognitive learning experts, child developmental psychologists, and organizational leadership experts and founded ‘LeaderKid Academy’ a Non-Profit mentoring & advocacy organization in 2015.
The objective of LeaderKid Academy is to enable children & youth to gain a sense of connectedness to global situations, people, & environment and to position kids to effectively collaborate & succeed in this highly complex and global world.

Visit LeaderKid.org to learn how our “Leadership Persona Model” based curriculum & the "ICL learning model" can equip kids with "future-skills.

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