21st century skills is an era of globalisation, networking, technological advancements and digitalization of all global platforms. To meet the growth criterias of this century, everyone needs to learn, acquire and develop specific skill set. These special competencies are called “21st century skills“.
These skills include critical thinking, interactive and collaborative thinking, digital literacy, problem solving approach, analytical skills, communication and leadership. Students and new learners must be taught to adapt and implant these skills in their social and economic development.
The highly competent and developmental era of 21st century is itself a challenge for the students and employees to make their distinguished existence. Success is not an easy task now but it needs fully organized planning direct from the schooling upto the achievement of career goals. Without parallel personal growth along with the advancement in technology, one can not imagine the accomplishment of his life goals.
To clearly understand about the skills, these are further classified in three categories:
-Literacy Skills:
These skills come under the criterias of digital learnings. Information literacy, media literacy and technology literacy are the foundational skills to learn, process and utilise informational data. Digital literacy helps students to understand basic and advanced concepts of digital technology and to work in fast growing network industry. These skills can be taught by digital programming courses of basic and advanced level.
-Learning Skills:
These include the 4C’s of 21st century ie. communication, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. These can be taught by adapting creative tests in schooling. Communication skills can be developed by organising inter school or inter college seminars or professional events amongst corporate industries.
Collaboration skill can be achieved by providing group tasks to the students. Where they need to sacrifice their personal ideas and learn to adapt new ideas to get success in task results. Collaboration develops the team spirit and yields better professionals to create new destinations in industry.
Critical thinking skills help the students to get fruitful results under critical situations of extreme work pressure or severity of situation for example in health sector. These skills can be taught to students by critical thinking elements like interactive math problems,physics paradoxes,difficult problem solving riddles.
-Life Skills:
These skills specially represent personal qualities and are equally important in professional growth. These include *Flexibility to adjust as per the need of plan.
*Leadership to guide and motivate a team.
*Initiative and decision making approach on independent level.
*Productivity to emphasize and promote ensured results.
*Social skills to coordinate with others to get mutual success and collaborative success.
These skills are a requisite to get established and recognised in global market. Although there is no specific age criteria to learn these skills but it would be great to teach the students at middle or high school level. Today’s developmental learning would create tomorrow’s miracles in the student’s professional and social platforms.