The World Economic Forum portal published a list of skills to reach a high level of demand by employers by 2020. B&B educational centre is aware of the importance of adapting to the trends of the future, so all the skills listed below are also acquired at the time of the studies. We place great emphasis on the employability of graduates, so we also teach skills that cannot be assessed with a school grade, but have priority with employers.

#1 Conflict resolving

High-conflict people generally have a bad reputation and I wonder if justified? Non-conflicting people are often not honest, do not express their opinion and keep doubts to themselves, which often leads to stress. Conflicting people honestly express their opinion, despite the awareness that it may not be well received, they usually strive for improvements and innovations.

The true challenge, however, is resolving conflict situations. In conflict with clients, it is important to choose assertive communication and find the right solution through ethical judgment. The next time we write a CV, it is worth to reconsider if pointing out our non-confrontational personality as a positive characteristic is a good idea. I suggest to write “I know how to resolve conflict situations” instead, if that is true, of course.

#2 Critical thinking

Critical thinking is seeking deeper truth and questioning the facts. This way of thinking can be annoying to “simple people” and extremely welcome in the business world, as it can lead to improvements, changes for the better or new discoveries. People who think critically will never let themselves be satisfied with a simple explanation; they will always want to know more and explore the details themselves, and decide on the basis of their own findings.

#3 Creative thinking

Creative thinking is a way of looking at a problem or situation from a fresh perspective that encourages unusual and non-obvious solutions. Creative people have the capacity to create new ways of carrying out tasks, solving problems and facing challenges. This way of thinking can help companies to get more productive, so creative people are very welcome and appreciated in every department.

#4 Human resources management

There are very few good leaders today. Everyone likes to be called a leader of something, but a true leader leads a group of people, directs it, mentors it and seeks solutions together with them. If you are able to manage people well, you possess a highly sought-after competence worth upgrading and nurturing. When a problem arises in the department, it is necessary to stick together and not turn against each other.

#5 Organisational skills

Typical signs of a lack of organisational skills include a sense of work overload, delays in the agreed deadlines and important matters getting out of control. Task lists are essential to increase efficiency as they list all the tasks we need to perform over a certain period of time. With the most important task at the top and the least important task at the bottom of the list. Organisational skills are not something we are born with, so we need to learn and develop them. Every minute we spend on task planning can save us at least ten minutes later on.

#6 Emotional intelligence

The development of emotional intelligence begins at an early age and is one of the most important personality features that helps build good mutual relations. People with developed emotional intelligence are more successful in gaining knowledge, finding it easier to solve problems and are generally healthier, as the nervous and immune systems are closely connected.

Emotional intelligence consists of 4 key competences:

Self-awareness – the ability to recognize feelings, emotions and control thoughts
Self-control – the ability to control emotions and adapt to changing conditions
Social consciousness – the ability to recognize and understand other people's feelings and the skill to maintain good relations
Social skills – the ability to develop and maintain good relationships and positive influence on other people

#7 Ethical judgement and decision making

Ethical judgment is a highly appreciated skill in the modern world, where people are causing wars to maximise profits. The first step in making an ethical decision is to collect facts and try to be as impartial as possible. Mostly people tend to distort the truth to their advantage, which is why we can overlook, distort or exaggerate facts to our advantage. If the facts are distorted at the very beginning, our moral assessment is not realistic and does not lead us to make an ethical decision. We must also pay attention to the source and reliability of the information and, above all, we must be able to assess people and their sincerity, where intuition can help us.

Before making a final decision, let us ask ourselves whether we could live with ourselves making this decision? Would you be willing to publicly announce your decision to others? Would you feel worse or better about yourself? Would you feel guilty? Would you be ashamed? Would you feel proud and would like others to do the same in similar circumstances? Would you like everyone to act as you did?

#8 Skills to focus on customers

A well-done service means a promotion for the whole company. The best ad is the one going from mouth to mouth, so it is worth considering what kind of a person to put in the position to work with customers. The focus on service is the ability and desire to predict, identify and meet the needs of others, sometimes even before these needs are expressed. An employee who knows how to focus on customers will be able to offer a range of services that fit the person, know how to assess the situation and well-being of the individual, and the suitability of the conversation. Such people are constantly looking for better solutions, new ideas and are able to put themselves in the shoes of their customers.

#9 Negotiation skills

They say people with well-developed negotiation skills get through life better, and indeed that is true. What you don’t ask for, you don’t get. There are only two types of people: those who negotiate and those who do not. And that is why there are two prices for everything: one is for those who negotiate, the other is for those who do not.

If we negotiate with customers or long-term business partners, maintaining a relationship is essential. To maintain a relationship, it is more important HOW we indulge than WHAT we indulge in. There are other valuable features in the game too, such as emotional intelligence, ethical judgment and people management.

#10 Cognitive flexibility

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to switch between thinking about two different ideas or thinking about multiple ideas at the same time. Many people cannot cope with such a way of thinking and experience it as stress. To develop cognitive flexibility, we advise you to consider the following tips:

Let's change our daily routine – if we go to work taking the same route every day, find a different one this time or think about going by bus. Even the smallest changes can help us build and strengthen new neural connections.

Let's find new experiences – every time we experience something unusual or learn something new, the brain creates new synaptic connections. New and interesting experiences are triggering the release of dopamine, which not only increases motivation, but also improves memory and learning.

Think creatively – one way to build cognitive flexibility is unconventional and creative thinking. By “thinking outside the box” and “from another point of view” we will be able to transfer the knowledge we have gained in completely different areas of business and private life.

Let's choose a more difficult path – if we go to a location to which we do not know the route, let's try to orient using a map and ask for directions instead of using Google Maps.

Let's meet new people – meeting people from different cultures and social backgrounds, whose perspectives and attitudes differ from ours, can help us be less uptight in our thinking and make us realise that there can be more than one “right” way.

Let's put our knowledge in another context – without the ability to transfer knowledge and skills into new contexts, our learning will not have a great deal of importance. The research showed that although children on the street were able to carry out complex mathematical calculations when selling their products, they were unable to answer the equivalent problems they were asked about at school.

Let us challenge our ethics – situations that test our ethics and reveal different beliefs, values and expectations can lead to a better understanding of a culturally different perspective and help us become more open in our thinking.

Sources:
Future of jobs report, World economic forum
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