The document outlines 7 skills that students will always need: 1. Critical thinking and problem solving, which involves seeing problems from different angles and formulating own solutions. Teachers should present situational problems that can be solved in multiple ways. 2. Collaboration and leading by influence, such as taking on different roles in group projects to work together harmoniously. 3. Agility and adaptability, like being comfortable with change and varying teaching strategies to prepare for a dynamic future. 4. Initiative and entrepreneurship, including being creative and contributing new ideas to improve the classroom despite risk of failure. 5. Effective communication, both oral and written, with practice in areas like enunciation, eye contact and distinguishing formal/

1. 7 Skills Students Will Always Need
Skills #1: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Preparation: Students will need to develop their skills at seeing problems from different angles
and formulating their own solutions. Regardless of the field they choose to enter for their careers,
the ability to think and act quickly is an indispensable tool for the future. To practice this, teachers
should present students with situations in which they need to figure things out for themselves –
where skills that they have already developed can be drawn upon and applied to help them figure
out a problem.
The problem should ideally lend itself to multiple solutions, as we do not want to teach students
that there is only one answer available, but instead that problem-solving can be a creative and
personal experience. Situational problems in mathematics provide a good example of these skills
at work.
Skill #2: Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence
Preparation: Understanding that not every person is born a natural leader.
However, the ability to lead others can definitely help a person to advance and become successful
in their chosen career. Also, finding a job where you don’t need to be able to work closely and
harmoniously with others can be quite a difficult task. To best prepare students in this area, more
than just the typical teamwork is required. Instead of simply getting into a group and splitting the
tasks with each other, students should instead be encouraged to take on different roles within their
group for each task within the project.

2. Sometimes they can be the ‘manager’ and at other times they can be an ‘organizer’ or a ‘graphic
designer’. There are many different roles that students can fill during a project with their peers that
allows them to work with others in a more collaborative way than just breaking apart a project and
then putting it back together in the end.
Skill #3: Agility and Adaptability
Preparation: If we look back at the last twenty years we can see how much has changed in the
workplace and the world.
Our students need to be comfortable with the idea of change and be willing to adapt to the changes
around them. Teachers can create a very dynamic environment within the classroom that can help
to prepare students for the future. Varying the teaching strategies we use, the setup of the
classroom, the ways that learning is demonstrated by students, and even the guidelines for group
work or homework can help students learn to adapt.
Have students create a storyline, for example, then surprise them with a mandatory element to
incorporate, or even have them switch work and complete a task based on the preparations of
another. They might grumble at first, but the skills will serve them well!
Skill #4: Initiative and Entrepreneurship
Preparation: Students need to be able to take initiative and contribute to the world. We should
encourage these skills within our classrooms and our communities. Our students can be incredibly
creative and interested in shaping their experience in the classroom, so we can ask them for much
more than a list of classroom rules and consequences.
Let them know that you are available and willing to listen to any of their ideas about improving
the classroom or school. Help them organize their ideas and put them into practice – even if an
idea may fail. It can be a valuable lesson about how to analyze what went wrong and consider how
to improve the idea. Students should never be afraid of trying because they are afraid of failure.
Skill #5: Effective Oral and Written Communication
Preparation: Despite advances in technology, these skills never diminish in importance. Think of
a boss or manager sending you an email full of grammatical errors or presenting a new business
plan while speaking too low and reading the entire presentation off a sheet of paper. What would
you honestly think? Consider some of the best communicators you have seen – what makes them
rise above the rest? We need to teach our students how to speak confidently and clearly.
This doesn’t come naturally, but with practice; enunciation, speed, volume, gestures, and eye-
contact can all be taught and learned. The same skills that help in drama can help in oral
communication. Take a moment one day to begin teaching a lesson in a very ineffective way and
see how long it takes your students to ask what you’re doing… they should be able to tell you
exactly what’s ‘wrong’ with your communication skills!

3. As for written communication, we need to continue to emphasize the rules while also teaching
students how to use the technology available to them to help check their writing. The difference
between formal and informal writing is quite important for students to learn and start applying.
Skill #6: Accessing and Analyzing Information
Preparation: Students have access to unimaginable amounts of information today. The Internet
provides an incredible research tool that can be their best friend or worst enemy. Accessing
information is easy, but accessing good information tends to be more complicated. Students need
to be taught how to sift through the millions of web pages available on a topic and find what they
need (and be able to trust what they find). They need to learn the difference between factual
information and factual-sounding opinions.
Many students today will check ‘answer’ websites to gather information, not really thinking about
how the information was written by a person who may or may not be correct or truly
knowledgeable in a subject area. In the same way, a teacher can ‘think-aloud’ reading
strategies, we can think-aloud Internet searching strategies. Project your screen on the board and
learn about a topic with your students. Show them how to search, and how to use those ‘answer’
sites without being misled!
Skill #7: Curiosity and Imagination
Preparation: Our students come to us naturally curious about their world and wanting to explore
it. Their imaginations are vast and untamed, creating endless amounts of practical and impractical
things. Our task as educators has less to do with teaching them how to be curious and imaginative,
and more to do with not taking that away from them. We need to continue to encourage them to
develop these skills, as well as teach them how to apply them creatively and purposefully. Imagine
the little boy who loves soldiers and robots, but dislikes princesses.
How do you react when he shows you his freshly-drawn picture of a soldier using a robot-inspired
weapon to destroy a princess? Do you celebrate his creativity in the same way you celebrate the
world-saving-robot drawn by the student next to him? Is his picture hung on the wall?
We don’t all like and appreciate the same things, so an educator must be very careful about how
they nurture and develop their students’ creativity and imagination. We can teach them which
things are appropriate in which situations without making them feel like their ideas are wrong or
bad.