26 January 2021—As technology is changing the nature of jobs and demand for skills, the future workforces needs to have a new set of skills to not only keep their jobs but also advance their careers.
If “hard skills get them hired” but “poor soft skills could get them fired”, how can the future workforce be better prepared for the increasingly competitive world of work?
One simple answer is the integration of “human skills” into technical and specialised learning such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. A discussion panel concluded recently that doing so could help prepare young people for their first jobs, facilitate labour market transitions of those in their 30’s and 40’s and develop a positive attitude to lifelong learning.
At the 2nd Integrated STEM Leadership Summit in Asia held virtually on January 22, the panel discussion on Shaping the Future of Integrated STEM Education and Workforce Development walked more than 700 participants through innovative and practical approaches for integrating STEM learning and workforce development.
Human skills such as communication, problem solving and teamwork can help workers thrive in organisations, said George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist of MIT J-WEL Workforce Learning and Senior Lecturer of MIT Sloan School of Management, who moderated the panel.
“The human skills will help us to do the job we’ve got better and it will also help us to move in our career over time”, he said, adding that training and retraining for workers will take even longer.
These [human] skills are important for improvement of employment prospects at any age.
Jordi Prat Tuca, Regional Technical and Programme Coordinator of the International Labour Organization-led Skills for Prosperity in South-East Asia Programme (SfP-SEA)
Jordi Prat Tuca, Regional Technical and Programme Coordinator of the International Labour Organization-led Skills for Prosperity in South-East Asia Programme (SfP-SEA), shared the ILO’s achievements through a number of programmes - including SfP-SEA - incorporating human-centric skills into STEM-related training programmes in the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system.
The ILO promotes the development of human-centric or core work skills for employability in South-East Asia, he said. These include socio-emotional skills such as the ability to communicate, collaborate, empathise, negotiate or adapt, he said, as well as higher cognitive skills such as critical thinking, creativity, systems thinking and decision-making, he added.
“These skills are important for improvement of employment prospects at any age. They facilitate labour market transitions and they are very important for employers’ and workers’ productivity. However, in low- and middle-income countries a challenge in access to training provision and lifelong learning for those at the base of the pyramid still remains”, said Mr Prat Tuca.
Jukka Tulivuori, Asian Development Bank’s Social Sector Specialist, agreed, saying he sees demand for these skills from Asian governments.
It’s important to add human skills [into basic education] before you enter TVETs. There’s high demand in TVET for these skills.
Jukka Tulivuori, Asian Development Bank’s Social Sector Specialist
“It’s important to add human skills [into basic education] before you enter TVETs. There’s high demand in TVET for these skills,” said Mr Tulivuori.
Victoria Levin, a senior economist at the World Bank, emphasised that it’s important to develop students’ ability and willingness to learn and continue learning.
Once that strong foundation is built and students enter the workforce, employers can give them opportunities to learn - for example, by assigning them to diverse project teams. Employers can also partner with training and education institutes, she said.
The panel also discussed a need for workers to be able to sell their competencies to their potential employers.
Christopher Monterola, a professor at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), said having a work portfolio, making it as substantive as possible and listing all their areas of competency can help them showcase their skills and clearly articulate what value they can contribute to a company.
As learning may occur at work, not just school, there is a need for an integrated training system where all parties - government, employers, workers and academics - work together. In response, the panel discussed how to make educators aware of which skills are required by industry.
Edward M. Reeve, a professor and teacher educator in the area of Technology and Engineering Education (TEE) in the department of Applied Sciences, Technology and Education at Utah State University (USU), shared his experience in the United States.
“All of our technical and vocational schools are required to have advisory committees,” he said.
In connecting STEM education to workforce needs, David Barnes, the Associate Executive Director of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), emphasised that it is important to be able to collectively engage individuals at every level to achieve more in science, engineering and technology education.
