21st Century Skills, Research Paper Example

Abstract

The skills of the 21^st century are different from those of latter centuries. The hard and soft skills must provide quicker reactions, more complex problem solving and include a globalized economy.  The shift from manufacturing and production based economic frameworks to a more knowledge and service based economic structure is driving changes to the skillsets and learning environments that students need to develop and teachers need to create.  These skillsets focus more on the softer skillsets because these are only gained through experiences while some of the hard skillsets are taught in an academic setting.  While the hard skillsets are still a prerequisite, there is a need of the soft skillsets to be able to maximize the total package of skills.

Keywords:Skills, problem solving, academic setting

21^st Century Skills

Skills for the 21^st century have shifted based upon the fact that there is a shift from a manufacturing and production knowledge base to an increased emphasis on technology and knowledge services (Pacific Policy Research Center, 2010).  Manual labor or routine skillsets are being replaced with robotic operations and technological advancements.  This move from labor intense operations to more critical thinking, innovation, collaboration and communicative skills are also shifting the way students learn and what teachers provide as a knowledge base.  This new focus on the changing demands in the basic skillsets the students must learn and understand is changing the competencies and knowledge expectations of the education system and the types of skills the system will focus upon

Skills are broken down into two subsets, the hard skills and the soft skills.  Hard skills include those skills that are teachable and can be quantified and measured.  These hard skills include those like mathematics, typing and the ability to use software programs or code programs.  Soft skills are harder to measure because they are based on personality or leadership qualities.  Examples of soft skills include the ability to lead a group of people, negotiate contracts, engage in conversations, or work well with one another.  With these two types of skills, hard and soft,there is a specific shift that is occurring that the students and those entering the workforce in the 21^st century really need to raise their awareness. While many hard skillsets have been mastered, the art of teaching the hard skills does not directly translate to creating the same opportunities for soft skills in the academic world.  We do not necessarily know how to teach self-direction, collaboration, creativity and innovation the way we know how to teach long-division (Aldridge, 2010).  The first step, to transition the learning mindset in the 21^st century, is to understand which soft skills are necessary and create an environment to take advantage of both academic settings as well as real life interactions.

The increased need to bridge the gap amongst skillsets is of large concern for the 21^st century workforce. There is a deep demand to develop the individual differently.  There are nine lessons for the 21^st century learner including making the learning relevant, teach through disciplines, develop thinking skills, encourage learning transfer, teach students how to learn, address misunderstandings directly, treat teamwork like an outcome, exploit technology to support learning and foster creativity (Kappan, 2012).  While understanding the skills needed for the 21^st century, it is also important to understand how to ensure those people who will venture into the workforce during the 21^st century understand how to obtain those skills.  With the hard skills,the task of gaining theses skills is easier considering the learner can take a class, earn a degree or learn by reading a book in order to gain the knowledge of a hard skill.  This is not the case for the soft skill.  These skillsets take experience, immersion and understanding to fully take advantage of learning a soft skill (Banta, 2009).  The gap between those with vast hard skills and those with eloquent soft skills needs to be bridged in the 21^st century.  This gap is closing in, and it takes both, the hard and soft skills, to optimize the workers ability to succeed in the 21^st century environment (Joyce, 2008).

Hard Skills for the 21^st Century

Hard skills like reading, writing and arithmetic are the core functional skills that must be learned and should be mastered, but there are other hard skills that should be mastered by the 21^st century work force (Milone, 1996). One type of skill set includes project management. This skill is the epitome of matching hard skill tactics and operations while marrying those aspects with soft skill implementation.  Project management provides the abilityto utilize tools and techniques to provide a specific objective. The ability to lead projects is more of a soft skill but the ability to utilize the tools and techniques is a hard skill, both of which are mandatory for success in the 21^st century.  The fundamentals of project management can be taught in the classroom. The Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) is the central learning and development tool to understand the processes and procedures that would lead to a successful project but implementation and execution is a definite blend of skills. The theme throughout this research is the fact that there is an increasing need to bridge the gap between hard and soft skills. The project management area of expertise is one of those skills.  An example, for the 21^st century skillsets, involvesoptimization projects.  As the business world moves faster, it is of greater importance to either provide a faster product or service or provide a better product or service. In many regards it is necessary to do both(Kotter, 2012).  The typical lifecycle of a project includes many aspects of hard and soft skills.  The project life cycle varies from project to project but the overall theme remains consistent. There is a distinct end point that the project manager is driving toward. The skill sets need to take the technical tools to optimize a project and utilize the soft skills to ensure the people and resources are fully utilized. Building a project plan and executing a project plan are on two ends of the project activity spectrum. One side is heavily reliant on hard skills and the other on soft skills.  The example of an engineer building specifications, CAD drawings, Engineering Change Orders or other technical documents is common.  Their existence is to build and solve problems. Now the same engineer in the 21^st century is expected to complete these same activities but also they must gather resources, execute programming tasks with various resources globally, build and justify budgets as well as execute the project on-time, on-target and within scope. A project plan denotes the implementation milestones that are required to go live at a given point of time in the future. The technical skills to build a project plan include understanding timing of key activities and utilizing a project management tool to execute the task. Each milestone represents a multitude of different actions underneath each area. In order to complete the project the system must be created, tested, tuned, validated, adopted and utilized after implementation date. All of these areas include hard skills of tool utilization, engineering acumen married with the ability to make connections and influence people. Communication is paramount in the 21^st century as well as understanding how to communicate and when.

Overall, the hard skills must be established before someone can be effective in the 21^st century. The soft skills, which can be honed with experience, make the person efficient. In addition to the traditional hard skills that are necessary in order to read, write and compute mathematical problems, there is a higher need for advanced learning in the hard skills to be competitive on a global market. These include engineering, physics, finance, chemistry and economics to name a few.  There is an exponential growth on the reliance of technology and emerging technologies. Technology is, and will continue to be, a driving force in workplaces, communities, and personal lives in the 21^st century (Salpeter, 2003).  Technological forces are driving the business world and the ability to work globally while also acting locally. With the implementation of cellular devises in the work place, cloud computing, virtualization and the “always on” aspects of business, understanding and maximizing the opportunities with technology is a key aspect of skills in the 21^st century.

Soft Skills for the 21^st Century

In addition to the core competencies there must be a focus on the soft skills. In many instances the ability to negotiate, communicate and interact with people overshadows the technical prowess of the situation. Critical thinking is paramount for the basis of 21^st century skillsets. Critical thinking is definedas the ability to analyze, interpret, evaluate, summarize, and synthesize information. What gives these, perhaps traditional, critical thinking skills a twist in the 21st Century is the availability of advanced technologies for accessing, manipulating, creating, analyzing, managing, storing, and communicating information (Trilling and Fadel, 2009).  Soft skills encompass many facets of life’s interactions including negotiations, managing project or leading an organization. Through these types of soft skills, the core capability to interact and function successfully in an organization hinges on the ability for the individual to successfully implement soft skills.  The facilitation of soft skills provide enhancement to the core capabilities of hard skills.  One of the primary examples of soft skill utilization falls under leadership.  Leadership is all around from leading a team on the football field to conducting military relief missions in down stricken countries.

Management and leadership vary in their form and function.  Management is seen as doing things right and leadership is doing the right things.  Both are important and are required for successful business operations but their key traits and skillsets are different.This simple statement places the emphasis on how leadership is more than accomplishing goals and objectives but how those achievements are obtained and implemented while also imparting guidance and strategic intent throughout the process.  Leadership is the accumulation of skills and qualities an individual utilizes when he or she is trying to accomplish a task or objective.  This is traditionally how soft skills are learned and honed. The influence the individual possesses becomes the process in which they pull together the support of others in a common goal. Leadership traits include influencing skills, charisma, intelligence, foresight and integrity to just name a few. These traits are critical in the ability to lead a group of individuals to accomplish a common goal.

There are five elements of leadership that will be discussed; these elements range from the individual leader, their followers, context, skills and management. Each area plays a critical role in the understanding and implementation of leadership. Learning each aspect is important in order to develop and learn. Leadership is a skill honed by practice, study and imparting the right guidance and practices. Leadership is what will drive change and new processes as well as methodologies that will take business, government and other entities to the next level of performance and goal achievement (Kotter, 2012). Throughout this look into leadership the key aspects include understanding leadership as a whole, how to take advantage of the lessons from leadership and imparting the vision of the future roles of leadership and how it relates to management (Kouzes & Posner, 2008). The difference between managers and leaders can be slight but more than likely the difference can be as vast as a canyon. As we discuss leadership there are key elements that will be covered including the individual leader, their followers, leadership situations, skills and management. The elements of leadership are blended into multiple situations and will be outlined in scenarios as well as insights into leadership.A leader would utilize the intelligence, charisma and knowledge to assess the situation and provide guidance and a plan to do the right things (Hyslop, 2011). In this a leader would assess the situation and take the assessment to the next level. This includes involving the people on the floor and experiencing the issues first had. This leadership ability is utilizing other tools to find solutions.This ability is not limited to the hierarchal levels of the organization.  Leadership is used to push change, drive results and increase capability.  Leadership facilitates the hard skills of project management that was discussed previously.  Leadership is the catalyst for the success within projects.  This is another skill area the blends the hard and soft skills that will make candidates in the 21^st century successful.

Communication is critical to providing and understanding information in the 21^st century.Learning is a fundamentally social activity—whether in schools, workplaces, or other environments. The communication and collaboration skill sets refer to the ability of individuals to communicate clearly, using oral, written, and non-verbal languages, and collaborate effectively and responsibly with diverse populations(Pacific Policy Research Center, 2010).  This includes want the person wants to do, what he or she needs and how he or she is going to achieve those objectives.  Also, as a skill, the art of communication maps out how the skill needs to be implemented (Duran, Yaussy, and Yaussy, 2011).  The 21^st century student and employee must understand how to communicate, whether it’s email, text, virtual interactions and face-to-face interactions.  Sometimes sending a text about a critical issue could be lost or misunderstood while using a face-to-face interaction would be best suited.  The use of technology has enhanced the ways we communicate but it has not necessarily enhanced the way we communicate.  The skill of communication has lost some of its value due to the increased use of technology to provide and receive information.While education has focused on the fundamentals of good communication – speech, writing, and reading- the demands of social relations and global economy call for a much more diverse set of communication and collaboration skills (Trilling and Fadel, 2009).  Teaching and learning communication is vital to the success of those learners taking on situations in the 21^st century.  Communication is a key attribute to success in the 21^st century and must be coupled with the hard skills in order to fully succeed.

Conclusion

In the 21^st century there is a demand to bridge the gap between technical prowess and personal interactions.  Globalization, economic necessity, and low civicengagement compound the urgency for students todevelop the skills and knowledge they need for success.The interconnectedness of our global economy,ecosystem, and political networks require thatstudents learn to communicate, collaborate, andproblem solve with people worldwide (Kappan, 2012).  Specific technical or hard skills are necessary to fulfil job requirements but adding the addition of successive soft skills will enhance the individual’s ability to succeed in the 21^st century.  The only way that the people entering business in the 21^st century must be prepared and the only way to be prepared is to take on learning and trying to immerse oneself in business interactions(Aldridge, 2010).  The only way to hone and polish soft skills is to utilize them in real life situations.

The key interdependencies between hard skills and soft skills are the main driver of success in the 21^st century.  The ability to utilize the ability to be a leader,pursued individuals to accept the leaders ideas, and drive results all of which would be coupled with the ability to solve mathematical equations, utilize key software and derive information for key business decisions is an overall synopsis of what someone taking on the economic scene in the 21^st century needs.  These skills between hard and soft are blurry and creating a challenge in the academic environment.  Pushing the experiences for soft skills, honing hard skills and then enhanced with the technological advancements will create an environment for success.

References

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Banta, M. (2009). The Value of Teaching 21st-century Skills.Businesswest,25(21), 12.

Duran, E., Yaussy, D., & Yaussy, L. (2011). Race to the Future: Integrating 21st Century Skills into Science Instruction. Science Activities,48(3), 98-106. Print.

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Kappan. (2012). Learning 21^st-century skills requires 21^st- century teaching.Kappan Magazine,94(N2). Retrieved from: www.kappanmagazine.org

Kotter, J. (2012). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2008). The leadership challenge. (4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub.

Milone,M. (1996). Preparing teachers for the 21st century. Technology & Learning,17(2), 42. Retrieved from http://bluehawk.monmouth.edu:2048/?url=/docview/212079177?accountid=12532

Pacific Policy Research Center. (2010). 21^st century skills for students and teachers. Research and Evaluation. Kamehameha Schools Research and Evaluation Division.  Retrieved from: http://www.ksbe.edu/spi/PDFS/21%20century%20skills%20full.pdf

Project Management Institute, P. M. (2008). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. (4th ed.). Newtown Square: Project Management Inst.

Salpeter, J. (2003). 21st century skills: Will our students be prepared? Technology & Learning, 24(3), 17-18,20,22,24,26. Retrieved from http://bluehawk.monmouth.edu:2048/?url=/docview/212099794?accountid=12532

Trilling & Fadel (2009). 21st Century Learning Skills. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.