4 Skills students need to be employable in the future
Today’s students are up against unprecedented challenges when it comes to preparing for the future. While it has never exactly been easy to compete for the most prestigious and highest paying jobs, historically, workers were only in competition with each other for these roles. Nowadays, new graduates not only have to compete against each other and more established workers; they’re also in competition with robots and other automation technologies when they look for work. Increasing numbers of tasks are being automated, leaving less work overall for human employees to do.
This has created a situation where it isn’t realistic for a new graduate to spend resources preparing for a future career in a niche that could be expected to become obsolete in the near future. It also means that students will need to cultivate a broad and diverse set of skills that tend to be in high demand with employers. The following are four skills students need if they hope to be employable in the future:
1. The ability to learn independently
Lifelong learning is crucial because ongoing growth and development are necessary for anyone who wants to avoid being left behind. Considering the recent explosion of new technologies that have become available, even the best universities cannot successfully adopt and teach them all. Even if they could, additional technologies would become available following your student’s successful graduation from university. Eventually, the old ones would become obsolete.
Therefore, today’s employees are compelled to continue learning on an ongoing basis after graduation. This means they need to have the ability to learn new things autonomously.
2. Interpersonal skills
What separates humans from robots and other automation technologies? There are a few key skills humans have the capability to possess that robots do not. Of these, interpersonal skills are some of the most important skills that employers demand from their workers.
Interpersonal skills include the ability to communicate effectively, listen carefully, empathize with others, negotiate with others and pick up on nonverbal cues. These are uniquely human skills that your student would do well to cultivate to gain an edge in the workplace of the future.
3. Leadership skills
Leadership skills are related to interpersonal skills, but true leadership goes well beyond the basic interpersonal skills. To be an effective leader, an individual must have the ability to inspire others to meet their employer’s highest priority goals.
Successful cultivation of leadership skills can result in lucrative management career opportunities. Businesses in all industries have an ongoing need for leadership talent, which translates to a solid future job outlook for business managers.
4. Business analytics expertise
In today’s global corporate environment, many business leaders view data as being a novel type of currency. Virtually every type of business is now engaged in the secondary business of data collection and analytics. With that in mind, an understanding of business analytics is extremely useful for working professionals in every niche.
Your child could cultivate all these skills by studying a Master of Management degree program
There are multiple ways to acquire the skills listed above; however, the simplest and most straightforward way to cultivate them is to learn them from experienced mentors. The Master of Management degree program at the University of UNSW is designed to teach this specific combination of skills, along with other skills that are useful in a business environment. Click here to learn more about the Master of Management program at UNSW.
