by Laura Belyea, COO at Talivest
It’s fair to say that life has certainly changed in the past few months. With it have gone the days of five-year plans and a job for life. In today’s fast-moving world, you need to be resourceful, agile and adaptable in order to meet current and future ways of working.
Even the most accomplished of professionals can benefit from reviewing their skill set and using this time to level up with training courses.
You may think this doesn’t apply to you, however, findings from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report suggest otherwise. According to the latest data, at least half of all employees will need to reskill by 2025, in line with economic and technological changes. And by the way, that’s less than five years away!
The good news is that the necessary tools and training methods are widely available to help you gain a competitive advantage.
Are you ready to futureproof your career? If so, here’s the ten skills of tomorrow, to invest in today.
Analytical thinking and innovation
We’ve seen how technology has helped progress society and the many benefits that come with it. The employee of the future will need to be able to interpret data and look at new and creative ways to innovate, to keep up with this demand.
Active learning
It comes under the banner of ‘self-management’, making it a valuable interpersonal skill. Active learning is a more engaging and hands-on form of learning, which seeks understanding on a deeper level than ever before.
Resilience, stress-tolerance and flexibility
We’ve all had to exercise business resilience throughout the pandemic. Being agile, adaptable and flexible has served us well and will replace outdated structures that simply fail to move with the times.
Problem solving
The ability to tackle complex problems and find viable solutions is a skill that is needed both now and in the future. Although some believe this is deep-rooted in personality, there are a number of emerging training methods that can really help to upgrade your solving skills.
Critical thinking
Not to be confused with problem-solving, critical thinking involves the skilful application of being able to understand and digest data and repurpose the findings for effective outcomes. Again, you will need analytical ability and resilience.
Creativity and Initiative
Some say you can’t teach creativity. However, there are many training methods that can help actualise your potential and tap in to your inner-intuition. Once unleashed, this can be an extremely powerful tool, which can be applied to every part of your job.
Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation
Future generations will need to be adept in generating and developing new ideas, and running with them, if they are to succeed in the corporate world.
Leadership and social influence
Strong leadership and people skills are a prerequisite, even today. As we move forward and look at future ways of working, this remains a crucial skill that senior managers will need to possess to deliver results and motivate their workforce.
Technology use and development
It goes without saying that being digitally literate is a mandate for any future business leaders. Being able to understand and use new technologies will continue to be a high priority in all sectors.
Technology design and application
In these uncertain times, the only certainty we have is that technology will continue to transform jobs and play a key role in creating them. Thus, being able to design, programme and interact with technology will be a huge advantage for future ways of working.
How long will it take to retrain?
The benefits of training have been well documented. As we move forward and look to the future, we will need to continue to invest in ourselves if we are to remain relevant and employable. So, how long will this take? Studies suggest that depending on background and experience, it can take anything from a few weeks to a few months to self-upgrade.
For this reason, it’s never too early to think about futureproofing your own business needs.
About the author
Laura’s role is to successfully support the growth and strategy for Talivest, as well as provide product support with her expertise within the HR industry. Previously posts were director of HR & operations in Telefonica, Elizabeth Arden and ICON
