The job market is changing drastically. New technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) are leading to mass automation — posing the challenge of ‘re-skilling’ for industries and existing workforce. As the dynamics of the job market is going be different in future, employers will be looking for skills in a different order in the next two years as compared to 2015. Skill set required in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity are the three most important skills a child needs to thrive, a report by World Economic Forum said.
Here are the skills that will be hot in 2020:
In the five year period, the order of skills will change; and yet complex problem solving will be the topmost priority for employers. What’s important to note here is that ‘creativity’, which was on the 10th position in 2015, has jumped to the third position, while ‘critical thinking’ has jumped from fourth to the second position.
“Let’s take a moment to underscore that creativity has jumped from 10th place to third place in just five years,” the World Economic Forum said in a report. Emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility, which were not among top skills in 2015, have become a part of top 10 skills. These two have kicked out skills such as quality control and active listening.
The report also underlined that the skills employers will be seeking are not often featured in schools, which is worrying. “The norm still is the chalk-and-talk teaching approach that has prevailed for centuries,” it said. Many of today’s education systems are already disconnected from the skills needed to function in today’s labour markets, the report added.
