21st Century Career Skills

Rarely does a day go by without news about the transformative effects of digitization, artificial intelligence and virtual reality on the workplace. Business leaders, politicians, and economists are making predictions about the impact of technology on employment, but no one knows for sure what the outcome will be.

However, one thing is certain - with the transformation and digitalization of companies, the profile of the most sought-after skills among employees naturally changes.
Who are those who will guarantee our success in 2040 as well?

Future Skills:

Under the sign of rapid technological changes, many companies have changed their talent selection strategy. Employers are increasingly focusing their searches on so-called soft skills such as initiative, adaptability, and analytical skills. Technical ability, on the other hand, is seen as experience that can be acquired in practice or the lack of which can be compensated by training, as long as the candidate demonstrates a willingness to learn and develop.

According to the latest World Economic Forum survey, the top 10 skills in 2025 will be:

Analytical thinking and innovation

In an ever-evolving world, innovation has become a key element that drives business forward, so the ability to reinvent existing systems or create entirely new ones will be a significant advantage for each of us. To do this, we will need to be able to identify and extract information and analyze and use data to generate innovative ideas on an ongoing basis.

Active learning

Future workers will need to be adaptable to respond to the changes happening around them. As the workplace evolves, so must our skills. To be successful in this endeavor, we will need to be active learners and keep abreast of the latest developments in our field. A study by Manpower also shows that a large number of companies (74%) are already launching internal training initiatives for their employees to avoid a possible skills shortage caused by emerging technologies.

The ability to solve complex problems

As technology continues to increase in complexity, employees will need to have the mental flexibility to think outside the box and deal with a variety of situations that may arise. Therefore, the future workplace will require us to improve our ability to find solutions to complex, non-standard situations and cases.

Critical thinking and analytical skills

Although we will heavily rely on the automation of some of our work in the future, we are still far from entrusting strategic decisions to algorithms. In a more automated working world, people will continue to be the decision-makers, while machines and artificial intelligence will contribute information and data. Therefore, critical thinking will be a crucial skill that will allow us to analyze situations, consider alternative solutions, and make choices based on logic and reasoning.

Creativity, originality, and initiative

The world has developed thanks to the creativity of people. After all, robots were invented because, first of all, a person had the idea for it. Also, jobs that require imagination, creativity, and creative analysis are much harder to automate. In fact, when it comes to artistic activities, machines, and artificial intelligence cannot be compared to human creative skills. Creativity is essential to offer new technologies, products, and services in any industry.

Leadership

Good leaders determine business success. This will most likely still be true 50 years from now. Our leadership skills will allow us to successfully lead our team, navigate the work process and grow our company.

Technology monitoring, control, and analysis

Technology analysis primarily involves troubleshooting, as well as redesigning and analyzing existing systems, an extremely important skill that companies need to maintain their productivity levels. As the business world continues to become more dependent on machines and automation, the need for professionals with technology skills and knowledge will grow.

Technology design and programming

Programming is gradually becoming a common occupational skill, especially among the younger workforce. With computers now an integral part of the workplace, the ability to code will prove essential.

Resilience, adaptability, and stress tolerance

The events of the last year have clearly demonstrated that the resilience, adaptability and stress tolerance of employees will become increasingly key skills that will ensure the stability and efficiency of the work process, regardless of external shocks and changes. Working on our professional skills, a dose of coolness and the ability to look for solutions instead of excuses will make us more and more attractive personnel.

Ideation, argumentativeness

Non-standard ideas and solutions that the future will require also imply the need for a person to present and defend them in a way that is understandable to his colleagues from different fields of activity. Therefore, along with creativity, the ability to present arguments and successfully substantiate proposals in front of diverse groups of people with diverse qualifications will be key to our professional success.

Learnability – the ability to learn, develop and adapt

According to various statistics, the growing pace of digitization will lead to the need for 50% of all employees worldwide to re- or re-qualify in the next 5 years.

In order to successfully make this leap into the future, regardless of which of the top 10 skills we need to acquire or further develop, our ability to learn and adapt is crucial, regardless of our age, education, or position in the company we are part of. A skill that at Manpower we collectively call Learnability.

Your Learnability Quotient (or LQ) reflects your willingness and ability to grow and adapt to new circumstances and challenges throughout your working life.

Take your LQ assessment now, discover your strengths, and apply them to developing one of the skills of the future this month!