A simple yet powerful set of slides that you may use for training employees, managers, teachers, and administrators on fundamentals of 21st Century skills while providing them with an introduction to 4Cs (Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Communication). The presentation also has an experiential group activity to help learners experience essential 21st century skills.

1. 21st Century
Skills

2. What is a Skill?
The skill is simply the ability to do
something effectively.
People possess different abilities ranging
from cooking delicious Indian food to
easily get organizational work done by
fellow employees.
What are your unique
abilities?

3. Types of Skills
Skills are described and categorized based
on various factors including:
1. Time takes to learn them
2. Duration they can be used for
3. Measurability
4. Natural ability of a human being
During our discussion, we will classify
skills in two major categories:
1. Technical Skills
2. Soft Skills

4. Technical and Soft Skills
Technical skills are the abilities gained by people to
perform a specific task such as:
Surgeries, Plumbing, Cooking, Batting, Dancing,
Mechanical Engineering, Mountaineering, etc.
Soft Skills are the abilities that can help people
perform various tasks at home, organizations, and
society. Soft skills also help people in developing
Technical Skills.
Few of the highly mentioned soft skills are: Critical
thinking, Creative Thinking, Collaboration, Time
Management, etc.

5. Skills must be there from long!
What’s new with 21st century?
21st century has come up with new
opportunities and challenges.
Cultural shift, Artificial Intelligence, Climate
Change, Social Media, Biotechnology, Mental
Health, Digital Economy are few to mention.
We need 21st century people to be skilled
for taking effective decision to solve
upcoming global, loal, and personal
problems.
Research suggests to focus on 4Cs.

6. Critical Thinking - Analyse and Interpret the
information to generate decision and solutions.
Creative Thinking - Find alternative or unique
methods to solve a problem.
Collaboration - Work together with people
from diverse skill sets to solve larger problems.
Communication - Listen, interpret, and convey
information, ideas, problems, and solutions
effectively.
What are
4Cs

7. Critical Thinking
Again, the same description: Analyse and Interpret the
information to generate decision and solutions.
Critical Thinking helps develop the logical mindset to
understand the problem, collect information, analyze
data as well as situations, generate crucial
inferences, and make intelligent decisions.
21st Century Professions that require high proficiency
in Critical Thinking Skills:
Data Scientists, Psychologists, Environmental Activists,
Financial Analysts, Software Developers, Cyber Security
Experts, Police Officer, Honey Bees, etc.

8. Creative Thinking
Again, the same description: Find alternative or
unique methods to solve a problem.
Creative Thinking skills help people in exploring the
world with immense consciousness and come up
with a unique solution to various problems given to
them.
21st Century Professions that require high proficiency
in Creative Thinking Skills:
Artists, Innovators, Product Designer, Curriculum Designers,
Fashion Experts, Architects, Film Makers, Game Developers,
Educators, Scientists, Octopus, etc.

9. Collaboration
Again, the same description: Work together with people
from diverse skill sets to solve larger problems.
Today, we need people from diverse expertise and
culture to effectively operate an organization.
Collaboration skills help people work with each other
and build outcome while working together.
21st Century Professions that require high proficiency in
Critical Thinking Skills:
Data Scientists, Psychologists, Environmental Activists, Financial
Analysts, Software Developers, Cyber Security Experts, Police
Officer, etc.

10. Communication
Again, the same description: Listen, interpret, and convey
information, ideas, problems, and solutions effectively.
Communication skills is the set of sub-skills such as
listening, articulation, empathy, and many more. In the era
cross cultural and diverse working environment,
communication skills help people understand perspectives
and articulate ideas effectively.
21st Century Professions that require high proficiency in
Critical Thinking Skills:
Consultants, Physicians, Politicians, Administrators, Managers, etc.

11. Let’s experience these skills.
You are challenged to work in team to build a 4 feet tower
using tape and skewers.
We need to follow following rules while building the tower:
1. The tower should attain a height of at least 4 feet.
2. You should not use material other than skewers and tapes for building the
tower.
3. The tower should stand for at least 2 minutes once it is built.
4. You should take ideas from all team members and explain your moves to all
team members while doing this task.
After successfully developing the tower, you need to
communicate the process of building, issues you faced, and
how did you resolve those issues.

12. Reflect
Where did you use following skills while developing the tower:
1. Critical Thinking
2. Creative Thinking
3. Collaboration
4. Communication

13. Presentation by Akash Verma