21st Century Skills

The influence of new technologies has changed the way we live and work. Where we were taught in the past that land, labour and capital were the fundamental production factors, our current economy runs on knowledge, relationships and creativity. A new world, new production factors, new jobs, and those new jobs require new skills. What competencies will our future students, tomorrow's workforce, need in the 21st century?

Here in the Dutch knowledge economy, we train our students to function well in the society that awaits them. A challenging task, to be sure, but what will that task look like in the future? The expectation is that some 80% of our future students currently in primary education will end up with job descriptions that don't even exist yet! What knowledge, what skills and attitudes those jobs will require is almost impossible to guess. What we do know is that students will need to able to process information in a society awash with ICT tools and applications, which means that ICT training is and will remain a matter of necessity. The basic skillset of the 21st century is not limited to ICT and media-savviness. 21st century skills are all the essentials of living, learning and working. They include creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, adaptibility, leadership, entrepreneurship, social skills and many more competencies besides.