Parents, you know the importance of setting up your kids for success in this competitive world, but while education workshops like coding and tuition do help – they might not be the be-all and end-all answer. Besides hard technical skills, kids also need soft skills as much—if not more.
So how do you help, if not make sure, that your child is well-equipped to face the future? Here we share with you 6 of the most in-demand skills for the future that will help your child holistically and keep them ahead of the pack.
6 Most In-Demand Skills For The Future
1. Focus
According to authors of a new self-help book Deep Human, Crystal Lim-Lange and Dr. Greg Lim-Lange, the number 1 problem they face with current youths are distractions. “Youths are too distracted to be able to achieve what they really want to achieve in life. They don’t have the focus and they talk to us about there being too many options in the future of jobs,” Crystal observed. Because of this, it is important that young people have a certain amount of focus on what they want so that they do not get affected by distractions.
Some focus exercises you can try with your kids are games like crossword puzzles and Uno.
2. Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is essentially knowing information about yourself. This includes your likes, your dislikes, your interests, etc. But of course, this is not as easy as it sounds. Crystal and Greg noticed during their workshops with university students in Singapore that they often did not know what kind of problems in the world they are curious to solve. This is a problem because not having an understanding of your strengths, preferences, behaviors, thoughts, and emotions leads to poor life choices. Employers always appreciate clarity in their employees. Nobody likes a confused person.
To build self-awareness in your child, expose them to new activities and encourage them to try new things! This can range from swimming classes to drama lessons.
3. Empathy
Empathy is how one can connect deeply with another human being without being anxious or having a fear of being judged. Despite moving into a highly automated era we still crave for human interaction and contact. For instance, buying food from a robot might seem cool but nothing beats great customer service where you interact with a person. Similarly, in the work environment no matter how much we automate, there will always be a need for human connection. In fact, there will probably a greater need to display humanity amidst robots and artificial intelligence.
Parents can foster empathy in their children by creating a safe environment for them to talk to you about anything and also do not be scared to tackle difficult emotions.
4. Mindfulness
Research suggests that about 47% of the time your brain is either focussed on something that happened in the past or your brain is in the future like whats next after this appointment. Besides not letting you enjoy the present moment, it is also very ineffective. The way to optimise your brain is to learn how to control your attention so you can focus your attention on what’s going on right here right now. Having mindfulness helps your focus, productivity and your relationships with other people because they feel seen and heard. Moreover, it is also great for your mental health as it regulates difficult emotions.
To teach mindfulness to your kids, try some light meditation exercises or play games like sharing a 3-breath hug.
5. Emotional Literacy
Emotional literacy is having the capacity to be able to identify your emotion. This can range from easy emotions like anger to more complicated one like love or despair. Crystal and Greg during their workshops in Singapore also noticed that there is a lack of emotional literacy in the next generation. “The top three responses we are getting when we asked the students how they were feeling were normal, nothing or sleepy,” recalled Greg.
Not knowing your emotions makes it hard to connect with others on an emotional level. You might as well be a robot. In the workplace having emotional literacy allows you to make deep connections with your colleagues and clients. This is an extremely important soft skill.
You can develop emotional literacy in your kids by simply allowing them to freely express themselves, and by sharing about difficult emotions you might have faced in your day.
6. Creativity
Creativity is always tagged as a skill of the future. According to Linkedin Learning, creativity was the second most in-demand skill in the workplace right behind cloud computing. This is because as we venture into an automated century, mundane and admin-related jobs will be taken over by artificial intelligence. This leaves us, humans, to come up with jobs that need our creative minds. For instance, software companies already have computers that can write codes for them, what they really want is somebody who can come up with new softwares to fix old problems. Essentially, it is all about creatively solving problems.
Parents can nurture creativity in their kids by doing small projects with them where they can come up with solutions. You should also encourage your kids to come up with new ideas to solve problems.
Remember parents, the best way you can encourage these skills is by practising it themselves because ultimately you are your child’s biggest role models.
