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21st-Century Skills – What They Are and Why They’re Important

Credentialate

• 21st century skills , digital badges , durable skills , employability , graduate outcomes , micro-credentials , skills , soft skills , transferable skills , upskilling , workplace skills

We often hear the term, “21st-century skills.” However, it is not often clear exactly what that means and how it relates to things like employability, education, and hiring. As old jobs fall victim to automation and advancing technology, the need for transferrable skills and new knowledge and competencies has increased. In this information-rich Credentialate Guide, we examine the workplace needs of the global economy, 21st-century terms and definitions, what skills are important and how are they are taught and assessed.

Updated March 2024 – to include updated terms, impact of AI and more recent references

The Essentials: 21st-century skills

• What are the drivers behind the need for 21st-century skills? There is a skills gap across an entire generation of workers. If that gap isn’t addressed, it could have dire consequences for the new global economy. Additionally, the nature of work itself is undergoing rapid transformations, from too much specialisation, automation and the rapid rise of the digital age – particularly AI.
• What are the workforce requirements of the new global economy? The need for durable and transferable skills, new knowledge and competencies has increased exponentially. At the same time, employers struggle to find candidates with the skills their business needs. Recruiters find it hard to identify strengths, soft skills and transferrable skills that are not easily shared on a resume or through interviewing.
• Is there a difference between 21st-century, professional, workplace and soft skills? There are many terms used interchangeably to describe modern skills , including 21st-century skills, professional skills, workplace skills, durable skills, transferable skills and soft-skills. By and large, there is a common meaning across all terms to mean the same or very similar set of skills.
• What are the 21st-century skills? 21st-century skills are based primarily on “deeper learning” skills (like critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork) and are comprised of a combination of soft-skills (such as interaction, collaboration, processing information, and managing people) and hard-skills (with a mainly IT focus. Dgital literacy, media literacy, etc.).
• How do 21st-century skills help to address the skills gap? 21st-century skills are those that hiring managers value most .  Displaced workers who upskill and reskill to learn these new skills have the opportunity to progress in their roles, transition to new roles or reenter the workforce in a meaningful way, along with providing for the means for them to support themselves and their economies.
• What are the issues with teaching 21st-century and career skills? Many curricula have become standardised since the identification of these core skills. The outdated “transmission” model of learning has been replaced by more creative and freestyle type of learning. Every student learns differently, and training must be personalised. In response to this, short-form learning, skills-based learning and micro-credentials , are on the rise, along with workplace-based and real world learning. 
• How do you assess attainment of 21st-century skills? Unlike traditional assessments, where there is a definitive right and wrong answer, soft- skills are far more intangible to measure against. Performance-based or authentic assessment has arisen in response and is open ended or task-based. Learners utilise their 21st-century skills and are scored against grading rubrics that allow educators to assess without bias.
• What is the role of micro-credentials in 21st-century skill development? Micro-credentials are based on small, well-designed courses that target specific skills or subsets of skills. They are “bite-sized” compared to traditional credentials – usually available over weeks or months, not years’ – and cost less as a result. Micro-credentials are increasingly compared on the same level as traditional degrees and are validated in digital format, such as a digital credential or digital badge .
• How Credentialate provides a new perspective Credentialate is the world’s first Credential Evidence Platform. It helps you discover and share evidence of workplace skills. Credentialate is the only Credential Evidence Platform that includes a personalised qualitative, quantitative and artefact evidence record that is verified and aligned to industry frameworks, available via links from the digital badge. Educators can map and manage their skills infrastructure and track skills attainment across the institution and against existing frameworks.

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The Full Story: What 21st-century skills are, why they are important, how they are taught and assessed

What are the drivers behind the need for 21st-century skills, what are the workforce requirements of the new global economy, is there a difference between 21st-century, professional, workplace and soft skills, what are the 21st-century skills, how do 21st-century skills help to address the skills gap, what are the issues with teaching 21st-century and career skills, how do you assess attainment of 21st-century skills, what is the role of micro-credentials in 21st-century skill development, how credentialate provides a new perspective.

We often hear the term, “21st-century skills.” However, it is not often clear exactly what that means and how it relates to things like employability, education and hiring. The expression does legitimately refer to a discrete body of specific competencies. The value of these competencies came to light in a recent discovery about our global workforce: there is a skills gap across an entire generation of workers. If that gap isn’t addressed, it could have dire consequences for global economies in the first half of the 21st century.

Recent studies have shown that some professionals over the age of thirty-five follow an outdated paradigm. They learn one trade and become increasingly good at it until at some point they reach a “skills plateau.”

This specialisation isn’t necessarily negative. In fact, humankind has needed it in one form or another since the dawn of the industrial age. We’re now living in a rapidly progressing digital age. Jobs and skills have emerged in the last ten years that didn’t exist before. Rapid technological advancements have been increasingly changing the workplace, particularly since the rise in the proliferation of AI  enabled technologies, such as ChatGPT and the need for AI skills . However, job training and education in general haven’t changed enough to keep up.

Governments, employers, and educators began noticing the need for these changes in the 1980s. In 1991, a movement to address these issues emerged, even though at the time the reality of the need appeared to be long-term.

The US Secretary of Labor issued a report called What Work Requires of Schools . This report identified key fundamental skills required to survive in a modern, high-performance workplace that required more flexible and nimble workers, who could transfer skills from one position to another. They came to three primary conclusions:

• All American high school students must develop a new set of competencies and foundation skills if they are to enjoy a productive, full, and satisfying life. Whether they go next to work, apprenticeship, the armed services, or college, all young Americans should leave high school with the know-how they need to make their way in the world.
• The qualities of high performance that today characterise our most competitive companies must become the standard for the vast majority of our companies, large and small, local, and global. “High performance” means work settings relentlessly committed to excellence, product quality, and customer satisfaction. These goals are pursued by combining technology and people in new ways.
• The nation’s schools must be transformed into high-performance organisations in their own right. Transforming schools in the US into high- performance organisations, means being relentlessly committed to producing skilled graduates as the norm, not the exception.

That flexibility and willingness to take on new or additional roles underscores the skills gap possessed by previous generations. Work goals have changed significantly over the decades. The Baby Boomers sought job stability. Subsequent generations wanted less of that and focused more on finding happiness and fulfillment in their careers. This is important given, one’s career no longer means a few decades with one company, but perhaps a variety of positions that changes frequently.

Today’s generation craves job mobility ahead of job stability. Now, students and young professionals expect to change job roles and fields at least a dozen times in their careers – with a mean of 4.6 years for many workers . Professionals with more specialisation and less flexibility have trouble adapting to the dizzying pace of workplace changes. The good news is that even these workers can be retrained and transfer the skills they do possess . But they must be taught how in order to do so.

As old jobs fall victim to automation, advancing technology and AI, demand for many job skills and areas of expertise has diminished. The need for transferrable skills, with new knowledge and changing competencies has increased . Employees have long embraced the need for professional development and lifelong learning , but even those with core capability and the potential to learn skills or apply those they already possess struggle to prove their worth to employers.

Likewise, employers struggle to identify strengths and the durable and transferrable soft skills that are not easily shared on a resume or through interviewing and testing. Employees are missing out on opportunities and employers are missing potential superstar employees to fill key roles.

Practices like remote monitoring, automation and the use of AI to aid in decision making, analysis, and other tasks, have rendered many employees obsolete and further shaped the future of work . New jobs and opportunities abound, but it means a shift in thinking about job training, job seeking, human resources and hiring, and certifications like the use of micro-credentials to highlight capabilities, durable and transferable skills and competency.

The COVID pandemic saw record levels of unemployment, with many workers taking early retirement when offered rather than learning new skills or upskilling to start over in new positions.

What have we been doing wrong? Workplace reskilling and upskilling has traditionally focused on getting better at specific job tasks and meeting performance standards. This made more sense when jobs and roles were clearly defined. However, this focus on outcome-based learning rather than skills-based learning that in turn creates new competencies has missed the mark. This has resulted in a sizeable part of the workforce, an entire generation, becoming overspecialised and ill-equipped to meet new labour demands. These professionals now have no choice. They must adapt to the demands of change or go the way of the dodo.

There are many terms used interchangeably to describe 21-century skills, including:

21st-century skills – The term “21st-century skills” is generally used to refer to certain core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates believe educators need to teach to help students thrive in today’s world .

Professional skills – Professional skills are career competencies that often are not taught (or acquired) as part of traditional coursework. Professional skills such as leadership, mentoring, project management, and conflict resolution are value-added skills essential to any career.

Workplace skills – Workplace skills are the basic skills a person must have to succeed in any workplace. They are the core knowledge, skills and attitudes that allow workers to understand instructions, solve problems and get along with co-workers and customers.

Employability skills – Employability skills refer to a set of transferable skills and key personal attributes which are highly valued by employers and essential for effective performance in the workplace. Employability skills include things like good communication, motivation and initiative.

Durable skills – Durable skills include a combination of how you use what you know – skills like critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity – as well as character skills like fortitude, growth mindset, and leadership.

Transferable skills – Transferable skills, sometimes called portable skills, are the skills you have developed that can be transferred from one job to another, like communication or time management skills.

Soft-skills – Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, character or personality traits, attitudes, career attributes, social intelligence and emotional intelligence quotients, among others, that enable people to navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals with complementing hard skills.

As you can see, there’s a lot of commonality across all of the definitions used to describe these skill sets. As such, the term selected is usually determined by the market segment using it.

So what are these 21st-century skills? They are a set of knowledge, skills, and learning dispositions that prepare learners to succeed in a rapidly changing, digital world. Educators, business leaders and academics worldwide have contributed to identifying, categorising, and developing lists of these workspace skills. They aren’t primarily based on content knowledge, but on “deeper learning” skills like critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork.

Whatever term you choose to use, these skills are a combination of “soft skills” and “hard skills”. The hard skill component focuses on digital literacy, which is in increasingly high demand. Soft skills are people skills that involve interaction, collaboration, processing information, and managing people. The latter is known as “enablement skills” or “power skills” because they are transferable to different roles and positions and durable in that they are used in a variety of employment environments.

According to EdGlossary , while the specific skills deemed to be “21st century skills” may be defined differently, the following identifies the knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits commonly associated with 21st century skills:

• Critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing information
• Research skills and practices, interrogative questioning
• Creativity, artistry, curiosity, imagination, innovation, personal expression
• Perseverance, self-direction, planning, self-discipline, adaptability, initiative
• Oral and written communication, public speaking and presenting, listening
• Leadership, teamwork, collaboration, cooperation, facility in using virtual workspaces
• Information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, media and internet literacy, data interpretation and analysis, computer programming
• Civic, ethical, and social-justice literacy
• Economic and financial literacy, entrepreneurialism
• Global awareness, multicultural literacy, humanitarianism
• Scientific literacy and reasoning, the scientific method
• Environmental and conservation literacy, ecosystems understanding
• Health and wellness literacy, including nutrition, diet, exercise, and public health and safety

Using a popular framework , these can be further categorised into:

The American Association of Colleges and Universities recognised some of these 21st-century skills in existing programs and, over time, recommended other goals to form part of essential learning outcomes for students.

Essential college and career skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication are the skills that hiring managers value most above and beyond specific content knowledge.

However, these skills are often not explicitly taught as part of college curricula, nor are they reflected on a college transcript . While content knowledge is a requisite part of a student’s education, it alone is insufficient for a student to thrive academically and professionally.

On a global scale, 21st-century skills have gained recognition and adoption into traditional education models.

Half of all available jobs today remain unfilled because people don’t have the needed skills for them. Many businesses can’t grow because they can’t get the workforce needed to grow. The skill gap remains, and it is preventing economies from developing. The old adage of “location, location, location” now refers to the local availability of talent and appropriately educated and skilled workers as anything else, and many companies offer incentives to employees to move in order to join their teams.

Many workers are able to adapt to working remotely have been able to thrive, and companies who seek to take advantage of that have expanded their workforce far beyond any geographic location. This requires a certain “digital literacy” and those able to take advantage of this development have found new freedom from the ability to work from anywhere.

How do we impart those skills to those who don’t have them, though? How do we close the skills gap and enable displaced workers to upskill, retrain, and re-enter the workforce in a meaningful way?

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We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented in order to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet.

Education in 21st-century skills has been a work in progress in many countries. The methods of instruction vary as personalised teaching methods dictate how learners achieve competencies in the classroom. Thankfully, many curricula have become standardised since the identification of these core skills. Modern teachers replaced the outdated “transmission” model of learning. But teaching these skills is a challenge, because every student learns differently, and training must be personalised to their needs and learning style .

Success using these teaching methods has varied. Educators can facilitate effective learning as long as they follow some key precepts. Students are empowered to guide their own learning. Learners flourish in an inquiry-based classroom environment. They’re encouraged to collaborate, and they’re given the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills. Each course is designed to bring out the learners’ creativity.

The sticking point is that much of this effective learning focuses on K-12 education. There are fewer options for adult learners seeking to develop 21st-century skills. Many professionals cannot put their lives and jobs on hold so that they can return to classroom learning. Soft skills and digital literacy need to become a part of ongoing personal development, but there are challenges to overcome.

Adult learners need upskilling that does not take a full two years to complete. The valuable competencies are needed now, not 24 months from now. They need learning methods that won’t cut into their normal job hours and won’t tie them down to a physical classroom location. Adult students need to benefit from the methods that have made achievement successful for secondary and post-secondary students.

One solution is a new kind of job training, based on frameworks that highlight capability, transferable skills, and result in new competencies. Since this kind of training does not result in a “degree” or “certification” in the traditional sense, learners must also be able to “prove” their skills and validate their learning through another means, one that is more robust, specific, and verifiable and verifiable in modern formats, such as micro-credentials or digital badges.

And as the shift towards shorter, skills-based and employment-focused micro-credentials builds momentum, education providers must strategically evolve their credentials and curriculum to meet demand.

Interest is shifting towards shorter, skills-based and employment-focused micro-credentials. Businesses know this, and some are bypassing degrees and developing their own micro-credentials to create a talent pool with the precise skills needed to fill designated roles. Further, most adult learners are primarily motivated to acquire a credential, micro or macro, in order to secure meaningful paid employment, or more broadly, career advantage. But if credentials of all sizes are a bridge between education and work, then providers need to consider that if work has changed, then so has employability, and so must credentials and curriculum.

Employability, however defined, must be related to empirically observable employment outcomes . Future research is needed to determine:

• The factors that affect a graduate’s likelihood of success in finding, creating and retaining work over a lifetime;
• Whether those factors can be influenced and if so, how; and
• Which factors can be influenced during a learner’s enrolment, regardless or age or stage?

Rethinking employability in higher education has the potential to bridge across the intersection between the need for development of durable and transferable skills such as 21st-century skills, to deliver better employment outcomes .

Given that the need for 21 st -century skills is clear, the question of how to assess a learners’ attainment of these essential skills becomes the next challenge. Unlike traditional multiple choice assessments, where there is a definitive right and wrong answer, performance tasks allow an opportunity for a much more authentic experience.

In a five-year study into using performance-based assessment to measure “those skills our students need to thrive as 21st century learners, workers, and citizens”, it was discovered that measuring outcomes such as critical and creative thinking was somewhat of a tall order.

• Creating performance tasks to measure students’ critical-thinking, problem solving, and written communication skills
• Generating rubrics to score the responses, and
• Developing and implementing a viable scoring process

After refinement and pilot testing, they were able to validate that  performance tasks could be used to make valid inferences about their students’ 21 st century skills and abilities.

A mission-driven, non-profit organisation, CAE develops performance-based and custom assessments that authentically measure students’ essential skills and identify opportunities for growth. CAE’s flagship assessments – CLA+, CWRA+ and SSA+ – evaluate the skills educational institutions and employers demand most and which are predictive of positive college and career outcomes: critical thinking, problem-solving and written communication.

Micro-credentials are based on small, well-designed courses that target specific skills or subsets of skills. They are “bite-sized” compared to traditional credentials like university degrees. You would expect to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and 2-4 years of your life on a college education. A micro-credential can be earned in weeks or months for a fraction of the cost of college – or in some cases the costs of a single college course.

This method of learning has found favour with employees and employers in recent years. It addresses specific needs brought by the rapidly changing times. More employers are removing degree requirements , and some have developed their own internal frameworks for establishing and verifying micro-credentials. They have shifted to hiring practices that target specific, transferable skills, or skill sets. These qualities make it an excellent vehicle for earning 21st-century skills.

Innumerable work veterans need inexpensive, time-flexible ways of learning new skills that will get them new jobs. Alternatively, they need a reliable method of surfacing evidence of those skills if they already have them. A LinkedIn survey of global talent trends validated what these skills were.

It revealed that companies struggle to assess those skills without a formal process, and this is really where micro-credentials and the frameworks being developed around them shine.

Credentialate is a secure, configurable platform that assesses and tracks attainment of competencies and issues micro-credentials to students backed by personalised evidence at scale. By automatically extracting data from existing platforms and using an organization’s own assessment rubrics, we can objectively measure awarding criteria and validate its evidence.

By this same method we can automate the assessment, monitoring, promotion and validation of evidence-backed skills. For an institution, we provide the data and insights required to track skills and competencies across courses and entire programs.

Finally, we have decades of collective experience in educational technology and long-standing ties with global educational powerhouses. These solidify our ability to produce credible digital badges.

Credentialate assesses, monitors, promotes and validates learners’ attainment of evidence-backed skills, supporting the transition from learner to earner. It is a secure, configurable platform that assesses and tracks attainment of competencies and issues micro-credentials to students. If you’d like to learn more About Us and how we can work together, contact us or Schedule a Demo and let’s discuss!

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Credentials just got personal – Unleash the power of your skills data and personal credentials

Credentialate is the world’s first Credential Evidence Platform that helps discover and share evidence of workplace skills. Launched In 2019, it was initially developed in close collaboration with leading design partner, UNSW Sydney, in support of a multi-year, cross-faculty community of practice and micro-credential research project. Credentialate has continued to evolve at an accelerated pace, informed in partnership with educators and industry leaders from around the world. Credentialate provides a Skills Core that creates order from chaotic data, provides meaningful insight through framework alignment and equips learners with rich personal industry-aligned evidence of their skills and competencies.

Find out more at:  edalex.com/credentialate

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How do we teach 21st century skills in classrooms?

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, esther care , esther care former nonresident senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education @care_esther helyn kim , and helyn kim former brookings expert @helyn_kim alvin vista alvin vista former brookings expert @alvin_vista.

October 17, 2017

This is the first in a six-part blog series on teaching 21st century skills, including  problem solving ,  metacognition , critical thinking ,  collaboration , and communication in classrooms.

Over the past several decades, there has been increased demand for formal education to include the development of generic skills as well as traditional academic subjects, i.e., to include competencies for ways of thinking, ways of working, tools for working, and skills for living . These skills for today’s rapidly changing society, such as communication, problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking, are being acknowledged increasingly all over the world. The big challenge, however, is knowing how to support and teach these skills in schools and classrooms.

In the absence of well-established, evidence-based approaches that demonstrate how to teach the skills and show how students have benefited from the process, countries are selecting a variety of paths to explore optimal models. For example, the “ Singapore Swiss Roll ” approach, which is starting to be implemented across the core curriculum, adopts a value-centric framework that incorporates 21st century competencies, including civic literacy, global awareness, and cross-cultural skills; critical and inventive thinking; communication, collaboration and information skills; as well as social and emotional competencies. Syllabi provided by the Ministry of Education offer guiding principles for the variety of teaching approaches that teachers can implement to enhance learning. Australia’s national curriculum of 2010 identified seven general capabilities , which teachers are expected to integrate throughout their teaching. They are guided by online resources provided by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority.

In Costa Rica, with the understanding that the education system needs to progress to respond to the changing demands for skills, the National Development Plan for 2015-2018 and a new curriculum being rolled out in 2018, aims to emphasize the development and application of key 21st century skills and attitudes, such as socioemotional, communication, critical thinking, citizenships, and problem solving. Similarly, Kenya is currently developing their new competency-based curriculum , which is designed to integrate seven competencies within and across all subject areas, to ensure a comprehensive approach to skills development.

A major recommendation from an Asia-based review of the challenges facing countries as they adopt or integrate “21st century skills”, was to undertake in-depth research into the nature and development of the skills themselves. If we don’t understand what skills actually “look like” as children and adolescents at different levels of competence demonstrate them, then expecting our subject-based and trained teachers to teach them is an unfair impost at best and destined for failure at worst. We have historically taught children based on curricula—roadmaps to learning. These curricula have outlined the substance of what is to be taught, sequences to follow to ensure movement from the simple to complex, and expectations about the quality of anticipated student performance or knowledge.

Where are the curricula for skills? Surely, in order for teachers and students to know what simple forms of communication through to sophisticated look like, they need a roadmap . This roadmap then provides the guidelines for how educators can integrate development of student skills within existing and reform subject-based curricula. Creation of these roadmaps requires us to think developmentally, to identify how we develop the competencies. An important component is to identify what demonstration of these competencies might look like and how to elicit or stimulate performance so that we know what the individual is ready to learn.

In this new blog series, we will highlight classroom practices that provide concrete examples of how just a few different 21st century skills could be seamlessly integrated throughout the school day—not as a subject area, but by making it part of the classroom culture. We start with our next blog on problem solving, while the following one will be focused on a more “social” skill. Each blog will provide concrete examples of how professionals in teaching and research can pool their resources and expertise to demonstrate activities that can be undertaken with children in classrooms here and now.

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21st Century Skills Development

Introduction, the essential 21st century skills, activities for skill development.

The 21st century is considered to be the century of media, information, and technology. The world around us is very different from what it was in the days before – it is evolving at an alarming rate. Students need to keep up and ride the wave of change if they wish to become successful and stay relevant. The school program has to change and adapt as well.

Modern teachers have to realize that they no longer hold the monopoly on dispensing information – they are no longer its primary source. Modern students can find anything on the internet nowadays. The role of the teacher is changing – from a source of knowledge, they need to become its filter and teach students the skills they need to discern the information on their own. This paper is dedicated to analyzing the activities that would help in developing some of the essential 21st-century skills.

The skills required to be successful in the 21st century can be split into six different areas. These are:

• Communication – the ability to convey ideas to others.
• Collaboration – the ability to work with others and be part of the team.
• Analytical thinking – finding similarities and differences, planning, classifying and prioritizing.
• Problem Solving – the ability to analyze issues and finding solutions to them.
• Finding and evaluating information – being able to find and discern credible information from dubious, and use it.
• Creation and Innovation – the ability to generate original content.

There are numerous activities a teacher can incorporate into his or her practice to help the students develop these necessary skills and qualities. Here is a list of possible suggestions that could be incorporated into a standard curriculum:

• Group projects. These can be used to promote interpersonal communication, collaboration, and problem-solving. Learning to work with one another is an important skill to have, as modern businesses and organizations involve large group efforts.
• The Socratic method. It is an ancient and effective way of teaching students to think critically. It is a dialectical method that involves asking and answering questions. This method is also good for teaching students to ask questions – something that not many can do nowadays.
• Creative tasks. Creativity is often born where there is a lack of instruction on how to accomplish certain tasks. Set up a goal before the students, but leave out the part on how to reach it. Lack of constraints and freedom of choice would inspire unusual and creative ways of solving problems.
• Advanced information gathering. Many students nowadays know how to use Google and other search engines. However, they often have no idea about advanced search techniques. A teacher could explain how to use the engine properly, and weed out the sources deemed untrustworthy.
• Presentations. Instead of silently submitting their work to the teacher for a review, the students should present and defend it in front of the class. This would influence their communication and critical thinking skills, as they would not only learn to convey their thoughts to others but also answer questions posed by the audience.

The teacher is the paramount building block of our society. The goal of any teacher is to make sure their students leave the classroom with a well-developed set of skills that would help them in college and later in adult life. Incorporating these techniques into the curriculum would ensure that the students develop all six areas of skills required in the 21st century.

Created by the Great Schools Partnership , the GLOSSARY OF EDUCATION REFORM is a comprehensive online resource that describes widely used school-improvement terms, concepts, and strategies for journalists, parents, and community members. | Learn more »

21st Century Skills

The term 21 st century skills refers to a broad set of knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits that are believed—by educators, school reformers, college professors, employers, and others—to be critically important to success in today’s world, particularly in collegiate programs and contemporary careers and workplaces. Generally speaking, 21 st century skills can be applied in all academic subject areas, and in all educational, career, and civic settings throughout a student’s life.

It should be noted that the “21 st century skills” concept encompasses a wide-ranging and amorphous body of knowledge and skills that is not easy to define and that has not been officially codified or categorized. While the term is widely used in education, it is not always defined consistently, which can lead to confusion and divergent interpretations. In addition, a number of related terms—including applied skills , cross-curricular skills , cross-disciplinary skills , interdisciplinary skills , transferable skills , transversal skills , noncognitive skills , and soft skills , among others—are also widely used in reference to the general forms of knowledge and skill commonly associated with 21 st  century skills. While these different terms may not be strictly synonymous, and they may have divergent or specialized meanings in certain technical contexts, these diverse sets of skills are being addressed in this one entry for the purposes of practicality and usefulness.

While the specific skills deemed to be “21 st century skills” may be defined, categorized, and determined differently from person to person, place to place, or school to school, the term does reflect a general—if somewhat loose and shifting—consensus. The following list provides a brief illustrative overview of the knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits commonly associated with 21 st century skills:

• Critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing information
• Research skills and practices, interrogative questioning
• Creativity, artistry, curiosity, imagination, innovation, personal expression
• Perseverance, self-direction, planning, self-discipline, adaptability, initiative
• Oral and written communication, public speaking and presenting, listening
• Leadership, teamwork, collaboration, cooperation, facility in using virtual workspaces
• Information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, media and internet literacy, data interpretation and analysis, computer programming
• Civic, ethical, and social-justice literacy
• Economic and financial literacy, entrepreneurialism
• Global awareness, multicultural literacy, humanitarianism
• Scientific literacy and reasoning, the scientific method
• Environmental and conservation literacy, ecosystems understanding
• Health and wellness literacy, including nutrition, diet, exercise, and public health and safety

While many individuals and organizations have proposed definitions of 21 st century skills, and most states have adopted learning standards that include or address cross-disciplinary skills, the following are three popular models that can serve to illustrate the concept and its applications in education:

• Framework for 21 st Century Learning  (The Partnership for 21 st Century Skills)
• Four Keys to College and Career Readiness  (David T. Conley and the Educational Policy Improvement Center)
• Seven Survival Skills  (Tony Wagner and the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education)

For related discussions, see content knowledge and learning standards .

Generally speaking, the 21 st century skills concept is motivated by the belief that teaching students the most relevant, useful, in-demand, and universally applicable skills should be prioritized in today’s schools, and by the related belief that many schools may not sufficiently prioritize such skills or effectively teach them to students. The basic idea is that students, who will come of age in the 21 st century, need to be taught different skills than those learned by students in the 20 th century, and that the skills they learn should reflect the specific demands that will placed upon them in a complex, competitive, knowledge-based, information-age, technology-driven economy and society.

While 21 st century skills are relevant to all areas of schooling and academic study, and the skills may be taught in a wide variety of in-school and outside-of-school settings, there are a few primary ways in which 21 st century skills intersect with efforts to improve schools:

• Teachers may be more intentional about teaching cross-disciplinary skills in subject-area courses. For example, in a science course students might be required to learn research methods that can also be applied in other disciplines; articulate technical scientific concepts in verbal, written, and graphic forms; present lab results to a panel of working scientists; or use sophisticated technologies, software programs, and multimedia applications as an extension of an assigned project.
• States, accrediting organizations, and schools may require 21 st century skills to be taught and assessed in courses. For example, states can adopt learning standards that explicitly describe cross-disciplinary skills, and assessments may be designed or modified to evaluate whether students have acquired and mastered certain skills.
• Schools and teachers may use educational approaches that inherently encourage or facilitate the acquisition of cross-disciplinary skills. For example, educational strategies such as authentic learning , demonstrations of learning , or  project-based learning tend to be cross-disciplinary in nature, and students—in the process of completing a research project, for example—may have to use a variety of applied skills, multiple technologies, and new ways of analyzing and processing information, while also taking initiative, thinking creatively, planning out the process, and working collaboratively in teams with other students.
• Schools may allow students to pursue alternative learning pathways in which students earn academic credit and satisfy graduation requirements by completing an internship, apprenticeship, or volunteer experience, for example. In this case, students might acquire a variety of practical, job-related skills and work habits, while also completing academic coursework and meeting the same learning standards required of students in more traditional academic courses.

While there is broad agreement that today’s students need different skills than were perhaps taught to previous generations, and that cross-disciplinary skills such as writing, critical thinking, self-initiative, group collaboration, and technological literacy are essential to success in higher education, modern workplaces, and adult life, there is still a great deal of debate about 21 st century skills—from what skills are most important to how such skills should be taught to their appropriate role in public education. Given that there is no clear consensus on what skills specifically constitute “21 st century skills,” the concept tends to be interpreted and applied in different ways from state to state or school to school, which can lead to ambiguity, confusion, and inconsistency.

Calls for placing a greater emphasis on cross-disciplinary skills in public education are, generally speaking, a response to the perception that most public schools pay insufficient attention to the postsecondary preparation and success of students. In other words, the concept has become a touchstone in a larger debate about what public schools should be teaching and what the purpose of public education should be. For example: Is the purpose of public education to get students to pass a test and earn a high school diploma? Or is the purpose to prepare students for success in higher education and modern careers? The push to prioritize 21 st century skills is typically motivated by the belief that all students should be equipped with the knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits they will need to pursue continued education and challenging careers after graduation, and that a failure to adequately prepare students effectively denies them opportunities, with potentially significant consequences for our economy, democracy, and society.

A related debate centers on the distinction between “knowledge” and “skills,” and how schools and teachers may interpret—or misinterpret—the concepts. Some educators argue that it’s not possible to teach cross-disciplinary skills separately from knowledge and conceptual understanding—for example, students can’t learn to write well if they don’t have ideas, facts, principles, and philosophies to write about. The basic idea is that “21 st century skills” is an artificial concept that can’t be separated out from subject-area knowledge and instruction. Other educators may argue that cross-disciplinary skills have historically been ignored or under-prioritized in schools, and the push to give more emphasis and attention to these skills is simply a commonsense response to a changing world.

The following list provides a few additional examples of representative arguments that may be made in support of teaching 21 st century skills:

• In today’s world, information and knowledge are increasing at such an astronomical rate that no one can learn everything about every subject, what may appear true today could be proven to be false tomorrow, and the jobs that students will get after they graduate may not yet exist. For this reason, students need to be taught how to process, parse, and use information, and they need adaptable skills they can apply in all areas of life—just teaching them ideas and facts, without teaching them how to use them in real-life settings, is no longer enough.
• Schools need to adapt and develop new ways of teaching and learning that reflect a changing world. The purpose of school should be to prepare students for success after graduation, and therefore schools need to prioritize the knowledge and skills that will be in the greatest demand, such as those skills deemed to be most important by college professors and employers. Only teaching students to perform well in school or on a test is no longer sufficient.
• Given the widespread availability of information today, students no longer need teachers to lecture to them on the causes of the Civil War, for example, because that information is readily available—and often in more engaging formats that a typical classroom lecture. For this reason, educators should use in-school time to teach students how to find, interpret, and use information, rather than using most or all of the time to present information.

The following list provides a few examples of representative arguments that may be made against the concept of 21 st century skills:

• Public schools and teachers have always taught, and will continue to teach, cross-disciplinary skills—they just never gave it a label. The debate over “content vs. skills” is not new—educators have been talking about and wrestling with these issues for a century—which makes the term “21 st century skills” somewhat misleading and inaccurate.
• Focusing too much on cross-disciplinary skills could water-down academic courses, and students may not get “the basics.” The more time teachers spend on skill-related instruction, the less time they will have for content-based instruction. And if schools privilege cross-disciplinary skills over content knowledge , students may be denied opportunities because they are insufficiently knowledgeable. Students need a broad knowledge base, which they won’t receive if teachers focus too much on skill-related instruction or “learning how to learn.”
• Cross-disciplinary skills are extremely difficult to assess reliably and consistently. There are no formal tests for 21 st century skills, so the public won’t know how well schools are doing in teaching these skills.

Alphabetical Search

How to Thrive in the 21st Century

• Posted November 22, 2016
• By Heather Beasley Doyle

When Fernando Reimers , a professor of international education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), talks and writes about what he wants children around the world to learn, the conversation runs deep and reaches far. Individual success, he says, increasingly depends upon students’ interpersonal dexterity, creativity, and ability to innovate. And our collective success — our ability to navigate complexities and to build and sustain a peaceful world — also hinges on these kinds of skills. Together, these skills form the basis of an emerging set of core competencies that will influence education policy and practice around the world.

In Teaching and Learning for the Twenty-First Century , Reimers and his co-editor, HGSE lecturer Connie K. Chung , explore how school systems in six countries are defining and supporting these global competencies. Their aim is to develop a shared framework for promoting the skills students will need in order to thrive as global citizens in a sustainable world in the decades ahead.

“Young people are in a context where they’re saturated and inundated with issues from around the world,” says Chung. Between new technologies, multiplying media, and layers of intercontinental connection, “global citizenship education is a ‘must have’ and not a ‘nice to have’ — for everyone,” says Chung.

Reimers and Chung used the National Research Council’s 2012 report, Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century , as a jumping off point for their investigation of policies and curricula that are best positioned to nurture global citizens. That report (read the research brief here) identifies three broad domains of competence: cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. “This is not just talking about knowledge,” says Chung. Rather, it includes such strengths as intercultural literacy, self-discipline, and flexibility in social and work domains.

The Cognitive Competencies

As Chung suggests, the 21st-century global citizen’s cognitive skill set includes traditional, testable basics such as math and literacy, but extends beyond that to encompass a particularly strong emphasis on the world in which we live. “Current events highlight some of the fears around otherness,” she says. The key to informed citizenship is getting to know other cultures — and valuing them.

In addition to rounding out kids’ knowledge base to include a nuanced understanding of world geography and cultures , schools must teach them the skills to use this knowledge as active and engaged citizens.

That means being able to:

• Communicate effectively and listen actively
• Use evidence and assess information
• Speak at least one language beyond one’s native tongue
• Think critically and analyze local and global issues, challenges, and opportunities
• Reason logically and interpret clearly
• Become and remain digitally literate, including the ability to “weigh and judge the validity of the content that’s in front of you,” Chung says.

In some ways, digital literacy is a linchpin of the other competencies. “Technology gives us humans the possibility to collaborate in ways that are unprecedented, to think and produce things no one could produce individually,” Reimers says.

The Interpersonal Competencies

Empathy is a cornerstone 21st-century global competency. We’re all familiar with empathy between individuals: someone’s hurt, and another person deeply understands the pain. But Reimers and Chung envision the concept on a global scale. Empathy resides in the ability to consider the complexity of issues , Chung says — in an interconnected worldview that recognizes that “what we do impacts someone else.”

Anchored in tolerance and respect for other people, interpersonal intelligence breaks down into several overlapping skills, including:

• Collaboration
• Teamwork and cooperation
• Leadership and responsibility
• Assertive communication
• Social influence

As Reimers says, “We need to make sure that we can get along, and that we can see our differences as an opportunity, as a source of strength.” Both regionally and nationally, students need the skills to transcend the limits of fragmentation, “where people can only relate to those who they perceive to be like them.”

The Intrapersonal Competencies

A particular blend of honed personal characteristics underpins the cognitive and intrapersonal competencies. Reimers points to an ethical orientation and strong work and mind habits, including self-regulation and intellectual openness , as traits that 21st-century educators must nurture in their students.

The world is less predictable than it used to be: “People know that half of the jobs that are going to be around 10 years from now have not been invented,” Reimers says. That means teaching young people in such a way that makes them flexible and adaptable . It means enabling them to think of themselves as creators and inventors who feel comfortable taking the initiative and persevering — the skills necessary for starting one’s own business, for example.

Instilling in students the value of thinking beyond the short term will give them the best chance to tackle some of the world’s most daunting challenges, including climate change. For example, educators in Singapore were challenged to imagine their country not five, 10, or 15 years down the road, but 30 years in the future, Chung says. Encouraging students to think on that kind of a time scale helps them to grasp the reverberations of their actions and decisions.

Values, Attitudes, and Moving to Pedagogy

In Teaching and Learning for the Twenty-First Century  (which has been published in Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish editions as well), Reimers, Chung, and global colleagues interviewed education researchers and stakeholders in Chile (in a chapter by Cristián Bellei and Liliana Morawietz), China (by Yan Wang), India (by Aditya Natraj, Monal Jayaram, Jahnavi Contractor, and Payal Agrawal), Mexico (by Sergio Cárdenas), Singapore (by Oon-Seng Tan and Ee-Ling Low), and the United States (by Chung and Reimers). They explored curriculum frameworks, seeking to understand how values and attitudes unique to each country and region were informing policy goals and ultimately shaping students’ learning opportunities.

Drawing on that survey of 21st-century competencies and the frameworks for their support, Reimers, Chung, and their digitally connected global network of educators are now teasing out a pedagogy for educators everywhere. Reimers and Chung co-authored (with Vidur Chopra, Julia Higdon, and E.B. O’Donnell) another new book, Empowering Global Citizens, which lays out a K–12 curriculum for global citizenship education called The World Course. Its aim is to position students and communities to thrive amid globalization — to lead, to steward, and to safeguard this complex world in the current century and beyond.

Additional Resources

• The Think Tank on Global Education , a professional education program with Fernando Reimers that invites teachers to experiment with a new curriulum on empowering global citizens
• The Global Education Innovation Initiative , a multi-country exploration of education for the 21st century, led by Reimers
• The introduction [PDF] of Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century , which describes the rationale for the book’s comparative study
• Fifteen Letters on Education in Singapore , in which U.S. educators visit Singapore to learn how that country’s education innovations have fueled a prosperous knowledge economy — and what lessons may apply. (Available as a f ree Kindle book .)
• Reflections on turning students into global citizens
• Creating a Course for the World  (a Harvard EdCast exploring the new global curriculum)

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How to develop 21st-century skills in students

It is becoming more and more important for students to showcase skills and achievements outside of the classroom to reflect the changing requirements from universities and workplaces. Here’s some ways in which counsellors can support that

Nayantara Handa

• More on this topic

In today’s ever-changing world, students applying for an undergraduate degree must showcase more than just academic achievement to stand out to university admissions. 

Universities are looking for students who are constantly challenging themselves, who will actively contribute to a diverse undergraduate community, and who have a well-rounded personality with strong interpersonal skills.

It is becoming more and more important for students to develop skills and interests outside of the classroom in order to ensure that they are preparing themselves, not just for university, but also for the world of work. 

University applications

A qualitative application to a university includes a personal essay that reflects a student’s academic strengths and relevant choice of subjects. Importantly, it must be a true reflection of themselves. The essay plays a crucial role in telling a student’s story about “who they really are”.

The most organic essays will “show rather than tell”. Succinctly written, they will demonstrate qualities currently at the forefront of the undergraduate landscape. These include empathy, leadership and integrity and reflect a student’s inner voice through an authentic story, learning or incident that has been instrumental in shaping them.

Academic ability is important, but universities are also looking for evidence of interdisciplinary skills, which will eventually enable students to adapt to new age careers and rapidly changing workplaces.

Detailed and evidence-based letters of recommendation serve to enhance a student’s academic and extracurricular strengths. Academic ability is important, but so are interdisciplinary skills, passion, initiative and a true desire to be the best at what a student chooses to do.

Last, but not least, are a student’s achievements and interests outside of school: universities are looking for accomplishments that show a student is willing to stretch the boundaries of their knowledge both inside and outside of the classroom.

This could be, for example, a student identifying a need in the community and responding through a community service project or innovating a solution. Initiative, compassion and a genuine respect for diverse cultures and communities are crucial in today’s interconnected world.  

How to develop students’ skills

The key lies in focusing on a student’s inherent strengths, managing their time well and choosing subjects in high school that are both reflective of their academic abilities and interests, as well as being relevant to university choices. 

The student, for their part, must look beyond the rankings in a quest to find a university where they will flourish and come into their own. The right fit between a student and a university lays the foundation for   personal success. 

A university guidance counsellor on their part can ensure that students develop these skills during their high school journey. Planning out a road map so that a student can build on their interests and skills could, for example, include active participation in school clubs, seeking out student council positions to build leadership skills, debating and MUN opportunities to build public-speaking skills and performance opportunities such as the school choir to build on creative skills.

Creating a realistic timeline with achievable academic and extracurricular goals helps students develop into well-rounded individuals with strong interpersonal and communication skills.

21st Century Skills

• First Online: 09 September 2020

Cite this chapter

• Teresa J. Kennedy 3 &
• Cheryl W. Sundberg 4  

Part of the book series: Springer Texts in Education ((SPTE))

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“21st Century Skills” have become part of the lexicon in education. In 1997, the National Academy of Sciences in the United States released the report, Preparing for the 21st Century: The Education Imperative . The papers contained within the report examined challenges in education for the upcoming century. As we entered the 21st century, several new reports emerged over the next two decades that set out to define the 21st century skills needed to prepare students for success in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Although the 21st century skills listed in these reports varied, there were a number of overlapping skills deemed essential. At the center of all the recommendations was a solid education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In addition to a strong STEM education, 21st century skills also include several soft skills and dispositions including cross-cultural skills, collaboration skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving. A central theme in the literature is the need for creativity and innovation, and one of the major recommendations truly unique to the 21st century is the need to prepare students for the digital age. Although there is general agreement that 21st century skills are essential for all students, there is much debate surrounding the role of K-12 education on how to help students learn these skills. This chapter highlights 21st century skills as presented in various international policy documents. The focus to date has been on the identification of 21st century skills. It may be time to move past identifying skills by refocusing research and policy efforts on better aligning standardized assessments to include 21st century skills, evaluating the level of implementation of 21st century skills in the classroom, and building expertise in the pedagogies that support their inclusion.

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Kennedy, T.J., Sundberg, C.W. (2020). 21st Century Skills. In: Akpan, B., Kennedy, T.J. (eds) Science Education in Theory and Practice. Springer Texts in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43620-9_32

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Ten 21st-century skills every student needs

Don't get left on the shelf ... brush up on your collaboration, communication and problem-solving skills Image:  REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

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The gap between the skills people learn and the skills people need is becoming more obvious, as traditional learning falls short of equipping students with the knowledge they need to thrive, according to the World Economic Forum report New Vision for Education: Fostering Social and Emotional Learning Through Technology.

Today's job candidates must be able to collaborate, communicate and solve problems – skills developed mainly through social and emotional learning (SEL). Combined with traditional skills, this social and emotional proficiency will equip students to succeed in the evolving digital economy.

21st-century skills for students

An analysis of 213 studies showed that students who received SEL instruction had achievement scores that averaged 11 percentile points higher than those who did not. And SEL potentially leads to long-term benefits such as higher rates of employment and educational fulfillment.

Good leadership skills as well as curiosity are also important for students to learn for their future jobs.

Another Forum report, The Future of Jobs , launched during the Annual Meeting 2016 in Davos, looked at the employment, skills and workforce strategy for the future.

The report asked chief human resources and strategy officers from leading global employers what the current shifts mean, specifically for employment, skills and recruitment across industries and geographies.

Policy-makers, educators, parents, businesses, researchers, technology developers, investors and NGOs can together ensure that development of social and emotional skills becomes a shared goal and competency of education systems everywhere.

Have you read? What does the future hold for your job? 10 skills you need in the Fourth Industrial Revolution More on Employment, Skills and Human Capital

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21st-Century Skills That Every Learner Needs

You’ve probably heard about the importance of critical thinking, teamwork, creativity, and other “21st-century skills.” These skills are acknowledged to be essential to thrive in today’s world. However, you might be asking what those super skills are and how you can master them.

In this article, we’ll discuss which 21st-century skills are necessary and how they can benefit your studies, interpersonal communication, and personal growth. After all, your academic performance and working experience might not be enough for success in modern times. Get ready to learn everything about 21st-century skills! For more interesting topics and tips, check out our free essay database .

• 🌐 What Are 21st-Century Skills?
• 🤝 21st-Century Skills Types
• 🛎️ The Ultimate List of Skills

👩‍💻 How to Develop 21st-Century Skills

• 🏁 Conclusion

🔗 References

🌐 what are 21 st -century skills.

The term 21st-century skills encompasses a broad set of knowledge, habits, and character traits that educators, employers, and others find essential to succeed in today’s world. The list of 21st-century skills includes critical thinking, collaboration, leadership, and many other abilities needed in collegiate programs and modern workplaces.

21 st -Century Learning

The role of 21 st -century education is to help every student learn how to learn. Modern learning encourages collaboration, inspires creativity, and rewards critical thinking. It teaches students how to make sense of the never-ending flow of information and use it wisely. By providing students with these fundamental abilities, 21st-century education helps them thrive in the workplace.

Here are some critical features of 21st-century learning:

• It aims to develop creativity in students . The more complex the world becomes, the more creative solutions people need to overcome its challenges.
• It is highly individual. In modern society, people value individuality and authenticity. 21st-century education seeks a unique approach for every student.
• It uses technologies. Books used to be the primary source of information for people. However, nowadays, you can develop 21st-century skills with the help of workshops, online courses, and even YouTube.
• It highly values students’ progress . A 21st-century education isn’t about making students memorize information to get an A+ on their assignments. Modern learning systems adhere to the idea that average standardized scores shouldn’t measure a student’s success.

Why Are 21st-Century Skills Essential?

The modern world is characterized by globalization, rapid technological development , and social diversity, making 21st-century skills more essential to students than ever. These processes require educators to create a framework for successful studying methods and to ensure young people can prosper in a world of constant transformation. Opportunities for 21st-century students are also expanding. They include international study programs , global knowledge exchanges, and projects organized by companies with the possibility of obtaining a job, etc.

The 21st-century workplace has also become more innovative and competitive. To succeed in modern information-age jobs, students need to solve problems creatively, work in teams, communicate on social media, learn to use new technologies, and deal with a flood of information. Top managers highly value employees who can meet these standards and have the energy to expand their skills, even if they lack some academic or working experience. Hence, 21st-century skills have become a must for anyone who wants a well-paying job in a modern company.

Who Needs These Skills?

The 21st century has experienced significant economic changes and breakthrough discoveries. We now have cryptocurrency, driverless cars, and blockchain technology, among other inventions. And with these innovations, we need to learn: 1) how to use them and 2) how to adapt to unpredictable circumstances.

21st-century skills are essential for high-school and college students just now entering the corporate world. Numerous new careers are appearing in today’s labor market: for example, cybersecurity experts, SMM specialists, and many others. New professions, as well as the jobs of the future, are full of unknown challenges. Consequently, employers seek creative and observant candidates with skills to deal with unpredictable aspects of work. So, our advice is to prepare yourself for new technologies and careers that might not yet exist.

🤝 21st-Century Skills – Main Types

Usually, experts divide 21st-century skills into three groups: learning skills, digital literacy skills, and life skills. These groups contain hard and soft skills that help workers adapt to the modern world’s changes and trends. Let’s discuss each group in more detail.

1. Learning Skills

Modern learning involves much more than memorizing materials before an exam. Instead, it is a life-long journey where every new experience can turn into a valuable lesson. These 21st-century skills are essential for a person to become capable of growth and change. Often these skills are called the 4C’s: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication:

• Critical thinking Critical thinking is essential in both business and science to achieve success. It enables you to think outside the box and form your own ideas.
• Creativity Creativity is key to innovation. People who think creatively can see things from different angles. This skill can help you find easier solutions to more complicated tasks.
• Collaboration Collaboration might be the most challenging skill to master among the 4 C’s. However, once you learn to work with others, you learn to compromise and achieve the best results from teamwork.
• Communication Effective communication is essential for building lifelong connections with other people. Employers highly value good communicators that can approach people with different personality types.

2. Digital & Information Literacy Skills

There’s no doubt that social media and technology have become an important part of almost every aspect of modern life. This set of skills is a must for people to create and share digital information. The top three 21st-century literacy competencies are:

• Information literacy Information literacy means finding, evaluating, organizing, and using information in its various formats efficiently. It also enables a person to differentiate facts from fiction. Nowadays, finding valuable information can be a real challenge since the Internet is full of misleading content.
• Media literacy The amount of time people spend online has dramatically increased over the past decade, making media literacy a vital skill. This ability strengthens your ability to analyze, create, and interact with online messages and sources. It also lets people find the most effective methods of creating and sharing information.
• Technology literacy Technology literacy is a hard skill connected with computers, cloud computing, and mobile devices. Once you master technology literacy, you’ll have a core understanding of how gadgets work and the chance to work as a data scientist.

3. Life Skills

Life skills allow people to find new ways of thinking and problem-solving and develop greater self-awareness. Even when students do their best to improve their grades, many still struggle to gain this set of skills. At the same time, employers consider life skills just as necessary as academic performance, making these competencies a great advantage when applying for a job.

Consider these examples of life skills:

• Flexibility Flexibility is someone’s ability to adapt to changes and the unknown. Many people find it hard to adjust to new circumstances and people. However, flexibility is essential for long-term success in your career and personal life.
• Leadership Leadership is a vital skill for entrepreneurs and everyone who aims to achieve their goals. Leading a team can be stressful, but good leaders are highly valued in all situations.
• Social skills Networking has never been more significant than in today’s world. Effective communication, empathy, and active listening can significantly contribute to success.

🛎️ The Ultimate List of 21st-Century Skills – 2024

The list of 21st-century skills goes beyond the categories discussed above. Most of them are universal and can benefit various aspects of your life. However, others can be applied to specific spheres like business, politics, or science.

Here is the extended list of top 21st-century skills.

• Cultural literacy.
• Global awareness.
• Creative thinking.
• Adaptability.
• Presentation skills.
• Risk management.
• Cooperation.
• Time management.
• Problem-solving.
• Self-direction and social responsibility.
• Productivity .
• Oral and written communication.
• Planning and time management.
• Leadership.
• Active listening.
• Initiative.
• Networking.
• Stress management.
• Decision-making.
• Willingness to learn.
• Punctuality.
• Sense of style.
• Negotiation skills.
• Media literacy.
• Multitasking.
• Emotional intelligence.
• Delegation.
• Deductive and inductive reasoning.
• Attention to detail.
• Storytelling.
• Motivation and support.
• Logical thinking.
• Prioritizing.
• Technical literacy.
• Positive attitude.
• Project management.
• Engagement.
• Self-reflection.
• Stress resistance.
• Dealing with new media.
• Analytical skills.
• Confidence.
• Language knowledge.
• Improvisation.
• Self-management.
• Situational awareness.
• Assertiveness.

Not all schools and colleges teach students contemporary skills. Luckily, there are several ways you can master these competencies yourself. Consider these tips if you want to boost your 21st-century skillset and become the best version of yourself.

• Prioritize the skill you want to develop. It’s better to advance in your learning process step-by-step. Focus on one skill at a time to master it. You will need to spend time on research and practice.
• Ask others for feedback . Self-reflection can be challenging for some people since we are usually not our best judges. It’s a great idea to ask your friends, classmates, or colleagues to highlight your strengths and weaknesses.
• Step outside your comfort zone. New experiences can bring the most valuable life lessons. Say “yes” to the opportunities appearing on your way if you want to discover new things about yourself.
• Stay aware of new technologies and media . Using different kinds of media and technologies can significantly improve your digital literacy. Luckily, plenty of courses are available online.
• Take leadership positions . At first, you might feel pressure, but your confidence will grow over time. Taking a leadership position, even temporarily, will boost your interpersonal and management skills.

📍 Conclusion

21st-century skills focus on what it is like to live, study, and work in today’s society. They prepare people to take on any challenges they might face in the future. Such skills are a great advantage when applying for college or a job. Besides, they can significantly benefit your academic performance.

There is no doubt that 21st-century skills are essential for everyone, and fortunately, there are plenty of ways to develop them. Our final advice is to regularly go out of your comfort zone and take all the opportunities available to challenge yourself. Remember that learning is a life-long journey!

❓ Soft Skills FAQ

What are 21st-century skills.

21st-century skills are the set of competencies considered to be crucial to thriving in today’s world. Experts divide them into three categories: learning skills, digital literacy skills, and life skills. These competencies help deal with modern challenges and are highly valued by employers.

What are 21st-century skills in education?

Modern education focuses on 21st-century skills because they teach students how to learn, work, and live in the world. Current education systems help students learn how to learn, spark their creativity, and encourage them to collaborate.

Why are 21st-century skills necessary?

21st-century skills provide a foundation for college studies and ensure that students will succeed in their adult lives. These competencies concern real-life challenges, technological development, and their future workplace. 21st-century skills help to prepare students for the unknown.

What are the 4 C’s of 21st-century skills?

The “four C’s” are often considered the most essential of all 21st-century skills. They are critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. These four skills help students to succeed at school and in the workplace.

How to develop 21st-century skills?

Most colleges understand the importance of 21st-century skills and implement them in their curriculum. However, there are numerous ways to master these competencies yourself. Our advice is to ask others for feedback on your strengths and weaknesses, develop one skill at a time, and volunteer for leadership positions.

• What Are 21st Century Skills?
• What Are the 4 C’s of 21st Century Skills?
• What Is Digital Literacy? 5 Skills That Will Serve You Well | Rasmussen University
• Life Skills: Definition, Examples, & Skills to Build – The Berkeley Well-Being Institute
• 21st-Century Skills: Definition and Examples | Indeed.com
• How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning? | EducationWeek
• Globalization, Educational Trends and the Open Society | Stanford University, 2005
• 25 Websites for Students: Smart Spending, Education, Productivity, & More! | Blog StudyCorgi.com
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Exploring the Intersection of Science Education and 21st Century Skills: A Workshop Summary (2010)

Chapter: 6 science teacher readiness for developing 21st century skills, 6 science teacher readiness for developing 21st century skills.

This chapter addresses the workshop guiding questions focusing on science teachers: What is known about how prepared science teachers are to help students develop 21st century skills? What new models of teacher education may support effective teaching and student learning of 21st century skills, and what evidence (if any) is available about the effectiveness of these models? It summarizes a commissioned paper addressing these questions and the following discussion.

HOW TEACHER EDUCATION WILL HAVE TO EVOLVE

Mark Windschitl (University of Washington) presented a paper on science teacher readiness for cultivating 21st century skills (Windschitl, 2009). He opened with a comparison between the learning goals of reform in science teaching and the learning goals of 21st century skills, suggesting that most of the latter can be taught in the context of scientific inquiry or project-based learning. However, achieving this potential will require “ambitious” teaching, which:

features learning how to solve problems in collaboration with others;

engages students in productive metacognitive strategies about their own learning;

places some learning decisions and activities in the hands of students that were formerly determined by the teacher; and

depends for success on monitoring of student thinking about complex problems and relies on ongoing targeted feedback to students.

Windschitl warned that this type of ambitious teaching is unlike instruction in which most teachers have participated or even witnessed. Past efforts to reform teaching have had only a “modest track record,” he said, and the broad trends in science classrooms today suggest that improvements are needed. Classes often focus on activity rather than sense-making discourse (Roth and Garnier, 2006, 2007; Weiss et al., 2003); teachers rarely press students for explanations, use questioning effectively, or take into account students’ prior knowledge (Baldi et al., 2007; Banilower et al., 2008).

In the face of these disturbing trends, Windschitl said, it is important to consider what the research tells us about how teachers learn to teach science. First, content knowledge is very important, and is related to student learning (Magnusson et al., 1992). Teachers with strong content knowledge are more likely to teach in ways that help students construct knowledge, pose appropriate questions, suggest alternative explanations, and propose additional inquiries (Alonzo, 2002; Brickhouse, 1990; Gess-Newsome and Lederman, 1995; Lederman, 1999; Roehrig and Luft, 2004; Sanders, Borko, and Lockard, 1993). Second, he said, preservice teachers come into preparation with deeply engrained theories about what counts as good teaching and what counts as learning. These theories can be resistant to change and may filter out learning of new approaches to science instruction, unless teacher educators surface the theories and work actively to counter them.

Model Teacher Preparation, Induction, and Professional Development Programs

Teacher preparation programs capable of addressing these learning challenges have several characteristics, Windschitl said. They center on a common core curriculum grounded in substantial knowledge of child or adolescent development, learning, and subject-specific pedagogy. They provide students with extended opportunities to practice under the guidance of mentors (student teaching), lasting at least 30 weeks, that reflect the program’s vision of good teaching and are interwoven with course work. Short-term interventions have shown little capacity to change teacher preconceptions (Wideen, Mayer-Smith, and Moon, 1998), but longer term approaches that explicitly seek to elicit and work with novice teachers’ initial beliefs have shown some success in fostering reform-based teaching (Fosnot, 1996; Graber, 1996; Windschitl and Thompson, 2006). Other characteristics of effective teacher preparation programs include extensive

use of case study methods, teacher research, performance assessments, and portfolio examinations that relate teachers’ learning to classroom practice (Darling-Hammond, 1999).

In their first two years on the job, new teachers often are caught up in a frantic cycle of planning, teaching, and grading, with the result that they often shelve advanced teaching strategies developed in their teacher preparation programs. Windschitl said that induction programs can counter this cycle, providing an excellent opportunity to maintain a focus on 21st century skills in collaborative professional settings. One of the most promising practices for both induction and professional development involves bringing teachers together to analyze samples of student work, such as drawings, explanations, essays, or videotaped classroom dialogues. Based on principled analyses of how students are responding to instruction, the teachers change their instructional approaches. This collaborative analysis of evidence of student learning is used in several Asian nations whose students perform very well in international comparisons of mathematics and science achievement (Lewis and Tsuchida, 1997; Ma, 1999; Marton and Tsui, 2004; Yoshida, 1999).

Windschitl then identified several features of professional development that can support reform-based teaching and teacher understanding of how to cultivate 21st century skills:

Active learning opportunities focusing on science content, scientific practice, and evidence of student learning (DeSimone et al., 2002);

Coherence of professional development with teachers’ existing knowledge, other development activities, existing curriculum, and standards in local contexts (DeSimone et al., 2002; Garet et al., 2001);

The collective development of an evidence-based “inquiry stance” by participants toward their practice (Blumenfeld et al., 1991);

The collective participation by teachers from the same school, grade, or subject area (DeSimone et al., 2002); and

The importance of time needed for planning and enacting new practice.

Windschitl clarified that coherence with existing knowledge does not mean tailoring instruction to what teachers already know, but rather taking into account their deeply engrained theories about “good” teaching and learning. There is a broad consensus in the research, he said, that “reform-oriented” professional development (activities such as teacher study groups) results in more substantive changes in practice than “traditional” professional development (workshops or college courses) (Loucks-Horsley et al., 1998; Putnam and Borko, 2000). He then summarized his recommenda-

tions for teacher preparation, induction, and professional development (see Table 6-1 ).

Turning to his own research, Windschitl said the goal of the Teachers Learning Trajectory Initiative is to create systems capacity for continuous improvement in teachers’ ability to foster 21st century skills. To learn more about how novices become experts, his research team followed 15 teachers for 3 to 4 years, through their preservice preparation and into their first or second year of teaching. In the preparation program, the future teachers were instructed in reform-based teaching, and, once on the job, they participated in an induction program focusing on review and analysis of student work. Over the course of the study, about one-third of the teachers developed “expert-like” teaching practice.

Windschitl reported that, when his team developed some “rudimentary tools” to assist the novice teachers, they were amazed at how well they improved their instruction (Windschitl, Thompson, and Braaten, 2009). The researchers hypothesized that the widespread use of the tools was attributable to the fact that they were tailored specifically to the needs of novices for planning, teaching, and assessment. For example, they observed that teachers were giving an assessment tool directly to their students to use in classroom conversations. It appeared that the teachers saw value in the tool and thought students could themselves benefit from it, by using the language in the tool to make their own judgment of their personal levels of explanation. This observation led the team to recognize that well-structured tools, especially those acting in a coherent system of support for ambitious teaching, could be very valuable. Based on this new understanding, the team

TABLE 6-1 Supports for the Teaching of 21st Century Skills

was funded by the National Science Foundation to develop such a system of tools. 1 Windschitl described the new suite of tools as follows:

Video-enhanced learning progressions for teachers, incorporating specific techniques of high-quality science instruction. For example, one tool illustrates three levels of increasing sophistication in the technique of pressing students for the evidence supporting their explanations.

“Big idea” tools, which help teachers take many different ideas presented in the curriculum and reconstruct them around a few big ideas. These tools could help foster nonroutine problem solving.

Rubrics to help teachers imagine certain kinds of student performance and to assess students’ thinking, which was listed as a criterion in the rubric.

A suite of discourse tools to support teachers in developing complex communication skills. Windschitl described these tools as especially valuable in light of findings from the longitudinal study that teachers struggle with classroom discourse. One tool presents strategies to elicit students’ initial hypotheses about important scientific ideas. Another focuses on ways to engage students in sense-making reflection on activities, and a third demonstrates how to press students for evidence-based explanations.

A set of tools and routines for teachers to use in collaboratively analyzing the effectiveness of their instruction, based on evidence of student learning.

Windschitl then described the challenges involved in moving toward teaching of 21st century skills (see Figure 6-1 ). He observed that the skills are not clearly defined, yet they call for “a fundamentally different vision of what counts as good teaching and what counts as learning.” Developing expertise in teaching 21st century skills, he said, will require many years of coherent teaching, reflection, and professional development experiences that build on one another. He also said that efforts to promote such teaching will require reengineering of many interrelated components of the education system. Drawing an analogy between the education system and a food web made up of interdependent organisms, Windschitl asked whether there was any part of the education system that would not have to change, in order to foster students’ 21st century skills. The answer, he replied, was no.

FIGURE 6-1 Challenges of teaching 21st century skills.

SOURCE: Windschitl (2009).

RESPONSE: THE VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM

Elizabeth Carvellas (National Research Council) thanked Windschitl for his paper, saying its messages were very welcome after her many years of science teaching. Reflecting on the paper’s summary of research knowledge about effective teacher professional development, preservice education, and ongoing support for teachers, she asked why this knowledge was not reaching teachers. In order to rapidly change teaching to develop 21st century skills, she said, it will be increasingly important for teachers to be able to easily access and apply research on teaching and learning. Next, she pointed out that teachers need time to prepare for these major changes in teaching. Some teachers, she noted, are responsible for teaching science to as many as 180 students. In the course of a school day, these teachers have three time periods for preparation, and deliver instruction to six classes. Although teachers are willing to teach in a different way, they need time and support to do so.

Carvellas then identified several other changes in the education system that she sees as necessary for many teachers to adopt 21st century teaching styles. First, she reminded audience members that they had heard the previous day about the importance of support from administrators. In addition to support, she suggested that administrators provide a guiding vision of 21st century teaching and learning. Second, she said, interdisciplinary work

is required across the curriculum, not only in science. Third, she called for increased collaboration between science programs and teacher preparation programs in colleges and universities. She suggested that teachers could take the science content lessons from their science programs and use it in preservice education seminars and discussions with experts in child and adolescent development and learning, in order to translate the content “into something that works for kids.”

Fourth, Carvellas said that science teachers, especially those who teach outside their field of undergraduate study, require ongoing support and professional development around the big ideas and concepts of science. In rural high schools, she said, a single teacher may be responsible for teaching chemistry, earth science, physics, and biology, requiring strong content knowledge of all four subjects. Fifth, after agreeing with Windschitl on the need for ongoing, long-term professional development, she proposed careful design of it to meet the needs of teachers in particular subjects with particular groups of students. She observed that many elementary and secondary school teachers are currently working hard to provide differentiated instruction to meet the needs of individual students (Tomlinson, 2003), yet these same teachers receive “one size fits all” professional development. Carvellas suggested that online teacher professional development might be the best way to support teachers in moving toward 21st century teaching, as discussed in a recent report by the National Academies’ Teacher Advisory Council (National Research Council, 2007b). Finally, she expressed strong agreement with Windschitl about the value of engaging teachers in collaboratively analyzing the effectiveness of their instruction, based on evidence of student learning.

Reflecting on the presentation and response, moderator William Sandoval observed that both speakers called for a fundamental restructuring of teachers’ daily schedules, with more time for planning and collaborative analysis of student work. Noting that such changes are currently taking place in only a handful of schools, led by a far-sighted principal or group of teachers, he asked the speakers how to make this kind of restructuring more systemic. Windschitl responded that this kind of major change requires new policies to convert teaching into a profession, rather than simply a job. Echoing earlier comments by Anderman (see Chapter 3 ), Windschitl said that policies in Asian countries recognize and support teachers as professionals. For example, he said, teachers in Japan and Singapore use lesson study to help plan, test, and revise lessons, and lesson study is “built into” their identity as teachers (Lewis and Tsuchida, 1997). Teachers in these nations have time off from instruction during the school day, so they can observe other teachers. In Singapore, Windschitl said, teachers can win a

grant to support travel abroad to visit an outstanding school or teacher (Darling-Hammond and Cobb, 1995).

Carvellas suggested returning to the earlier workshop discussions that focused on thinking about education as a system (see Chapter 3 ). Because teachers are “part and parcel” of the system, she said, it is important to involve them and obtain their views about proposed changes. Sandoval replied that, as a researcher, he welcomes this advice, because it is always difficult to obtain the resources necessary to implement collaborative lesson study, and teachers can advise researchers on how to obtain these resources.

Following the panel discussion, Sandoval invited the workshop participants to use their notebooks to write down two concrete recommendations to support rapid development of 21st century teaching. After several minutes, he asked for volunteers to share their recommendations. One participant suggested starting high school classes an hour later, both to accommodate adolescent sleep schedules and to provide an hour of planning time to teachers. Another recommended changing undergraduate introductory science classes to include 21st century skills, as a model for future science teachers. Windschitl responded that changing undergraduate science courses would require a major reorganization of the curriculum, along with retraining of faculty members and other instructors. Carvellas observed that the large size of many undergraduate introductory science classes makes it difficult for instructors to engage students in discourse and develop their 21st century skills.

Bruce Fuchs offered a “radical” proposal to close half the schools of education, because, he argued, the annual number of new bachelor’s and master’s graduates with education degrees is greater than the number of vacancies. One result, in his view, is that people who never really wanted to become teachers end up in the classroom.

Jay Labov (National Research Council) suggested helping science graduate students, who will become the next generation of faculty, become aware of the research on undergraduate science learning and teaching. At the high school level, he said, the College Board is currently revising the Advanced Placement (AP) Program in response to a National Research Council report (2002), and these changes may support development of 21st century skills. Labov recommended engaging undergraduate science faculty, in collaboration with AP teachers, to consider how best to prepare AP teachers to deliver the innovative science curricula that develop 21st century skills (see Chapters 4 and 5 ).

Kenneth Kay offered two policy strategies that he said would complement the agenda for teacher preparation and professional development proposed by Windschitl. First, he proposed that every state adopt new teacher certification requirements incorporating 21st century skills, as

North Carolina has done. Second, he suggested that states and districts provide performance incentives to teachers who demonstrate the capacity to teach 21st century skills.

Eric Anderman agreed with Windschitl about the value of extended student teaching experiences, lasting at least 30 weeks, but called for improved monitoring of the teacher mentors who supervise the student teachers. He recommended that mentors be selected carefully and provided with monetary compensation, rather than continuing education credits. Carvellas heartily agreed with this suggestion, observing that expert teachers with 20 or more years of service do not need continuing education credits. She asked for improved compliance with existing guidelines that require that mentors do much more than simply “drop by once a week,” adding that compensation for these mentors is critical.

Reflecting on the topic of mentoring student teachers, Sandoval mentioned the national problem of low teacher retention rates, as many teachers leave the profession after just a few years. Windschitl responded that current education policies often focus on producing new teachers, instead of retaining high-quality teachers. Many new graduates with education degrees, he said, are not prepared adequately in classroom management, in responding to linguistic and cultural diversity in the classroom, or in teaching science. As a result, he said, many leave teaching within 3 to 5 years.

Joyce Winterton (Office of Education, National Aeronautics and Space Administration) suggested that her agency collaborate with the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation to create externships for teachers. In these positions, teachers would participate in research projects at national laboratories and in industry.

Rodger Bybee questioned the usefulness of “radical” recommendations because, in his view, the education system will reject such sweeping change. He recommended instead building on the tools for teachers developed by Windschitl, which support smaller, more achievable change. Sandoval agreed that it is important to try to build on models of positive change.

Raymond Bartlett (Teaching Institute for Excellence in Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) said, in his years of work in industry and with a state board of education, he learned that it is possible to make major changes in the education system. For example, a change in teacher certification requirements will dramatically change the whole system. He suggested that, rather than talking to each other about science education and 21st century skills, participants begin discussions with key organizations in Washington, DC, such as the Association of State Boards of Education, which are positioned to support and implement major changes in education policy.

An emerging body of research suggests that a set of broad "21st century skills"—such as adaptability, complex communication skills, and the ability to solve non-routine problems—are valuable across a wide range of jobs in the national economy. However, the role of K-12 education in helping students learn these skills is a subject of current debate. Some business and education groups have advocated infusing 21st century skills into the school curriculum, and several states have launched such efforts. Other observers argue that focusing on skills detracts attention from learning of important content knowledge.

To explore these issues, the National Research Council conducted a workshop, summarized in this volume, on science education as a context for development of 21st century skills. Science is seen as a promising context because it is not only a body of accepted knowledge, but also involves processes that lead to this knowledge. Engaging students in scientific processes—including talk and argument, modeling and representation, and learning from investigations—builds science proficiency. At the same time, this engagement may develop 21st century skills.

Exploring the Intersection of Science Education and 21st Century Skills addresses key questions about the overlap between 21st century skills and scientific content and knowledge; explores promising models or approaches for teaching these abilities; and reviews the evidence about the transferability of these skills to real workplace applications.

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Demystifying Learning Frameworks: The P21 Framework

The P21 Framework is a model for incorporating 21st century skills into learning. It was developed by a coalition of the US Department of Education, businesses including Apple, AOL, Microsoft, Cisco, and SAP, and organizations involved in education such as the NEA. Collectively, this coalition is known as the Partnership for 21st Century Learning. It was first published in 2006 and has been continuously updated, most recently in 2015.

Overall Goal

This framework was created to combine a set of competencies that emphasizes 21st Century Skills for students and supports teachers in teaching those skills. It uses core academic subjects as a vehicle for  teaching life and career skills, learning and innovation skills, and information and media skills. These skills allow students to be better-prepared for today’s highly collaborative, innovation-focused workforce. For this reason, student outcomes in this framework are often described in terms of the future impact they will have for students when they seek employment.

P21 has the advantage of being a very general framework. It covers a lot of subjects and many potential strategies to train teachers and influence student outcomes. Its broad base allows it to be easily adaptable for both in-school and out-of-school activities. Details on the components of each of these outcomes are available on the P21 website.

Theoretical Basis

Much of the P21 Framework’s basis comes from a belief that children need the proper opportunities and avenues to gain the skills for careers.The coalition formed in an attempt to better prepare children for the challenges of the modern working world, and this framework is motivated by a desire for college and career-oriented education. The skills that the P21 lists are considered crucial for success in the workplace by all sectors.

The foundation believes that work environments are more complex in today’s society, so students must be able to integrate the traditional academic core with interdisciplinary skills that are more reflective of those complexities. They will gain these skills by integrating core content and interdisciplinary themes, and engaging in activities that promote Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration–the P21’s research-based 4C’s . Many of these opportunities for integrating core knowledge and critical thinking skills stem from technological literacy and related areas like media literacy. These literacies are translated into a list of competencies that students should master by the time they leave school.

Competency Basis

The core academic subjects include traditional subjects (Language arts, math, science, history, etc.) as well as a cluster of interdisciplinary subjects including  Global Awareness, Financial, Economic, Business, and Entrepreneurial Literacy, Civic Literacy, Health Literacy, and Environmental Literacy. These competencies measure the outcomes of student learning.

P21 recommends that instruction in these subjects incorporate opportunities for students to also gain additional competencies critical for success in the 21st century:

• Learning and Innovation Skills (the so-called 4Cs) are Creative Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. These skills were picked for their use in complex work environments. Many of these skills have a design thinking flavor to them.
• Information, Media, and Technology Skills are the tools that students will learn to master both digital and non-digital media. Media is used as a creative tool, but also as an object to be evaluated for accuracy, effectiveness, and ethical considerations.
• Life and Career Skills are the habits and mindsets that students should develop when they learn from this framework. Some of these skills are internal, while others are based on interactions with others. These skills include accepting feedback, working in teams, and adapting well to change.

Instructional Approach

This framework is primarily directed toward in-school interventions, but it can be applied to out-of-school activities as well.

Support systems are the portion of the P21 Framework designed to give teachers the tools to influence student outcomes. They include guidelines for assessments, professional development, and learning environments to ensure teachers are prepared to work within the framework.These systems are designed to encourage teachers to create lessons and assessments based on the key subjects, while involving technology, and inquiry- and problem-based learning in lesson delivery to help students build 21st century skills.

P21 highlights Exemplar Schools who are evaluated based on their implementation of the core content, use of engaging teaching methods, and presence of the following support systems.

• Standards and Assessments focus on the skills associated with 21st Century content and measure mastery through standardized testing, inquiry- and project-based learning, and portfolio development. Assessments can also be enhanced by technology to provide students with a new medium for creative expression and feedback from the teacher.
• Curriculum and Instruction teaches 21st Century Skills as both individual competencies and as tools to be used to navigate the core curriculum.
• Professional Development gives teachers the skills to integrate 21st century themes into core content through projects and inquiries and to support that integration with technology.
• Learning Environments support teachers who collaborate and create relevant learning experiences for students involving 21st century skills. Well-planned environments encourage group work and provide equitable access to technology.

Method of Assessment

P21 advocates for a variety of assessments, including standardized testing and project and problem-based assessments. Additionally, P21 assesses schools by allowing districts to apply to be considered Exemplars.

Example: Avonworth School District

The P21 Framework awarded Avonworth School District with the title of “Exemplar School” thanks to their effective use of the framework in curriculum design. Tom Ralston, Superintendent, says the framework “has helped our educators to view learning through an important lens that embeds collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication into learning experiences for children.” He saw its adoption as a way to make sure the district’s students are trained as the problem solvers and self-guided learners that are needed in today’s workforce. The district has created experiences that introduce teachers to community members working in fields related to their content area to help them create innovative, relevant lessons. Ralston has helped create an environment where teachers feel they can take risks in their lessons to help students develop the positive characteristics that will help their students succeed. “The acknowledgement that Avonworth High School has been recognized as a P21 Exemplar School is a wonderful affirmation of the educational program that our teachers and administrators facilitate for students,” says Tom. The P21 Exemplar status has been a source of pride for the district, and it has helped them work to prepare students for the future.

External Resources

• A list of P21 competencies
• Evaluation criteria for P21 Exemplar Schools
• Roadmap for 21st Century Learning Environments
• P21 YouTube Channel
• A Parent’s Guide to 21st-Century Learning
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills Resource Library

Home / Essay Samples / Education / Study Skills / Thriving in the 21st Century: Essential Skills for Success

Thriving in the 21st Century: Essential Skills for Success

• Category: Sociology , Life , Education
• Topic: Communication Skills , Skills , Study Skills

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• Learners at the centre: It is important that the learners are recognized as the core participants, and are encouraged to engage actively and develop an understanding of their own activity, so as to maximize the effectiveness of the learning outcomes.
• Recognizing individual differences: We also should ensure that differences of each student are taken into account in the 21st Century skills-set so that each of them is empowered for their full potential.
• Assessment of learning: The learning environment should also operate with clarity of expectations through proper assessment strategies, and a strong emphasis on constructive feedback to facilitate smooth learning of individuals.

21st Century Skills and My Teaching

The most important skill for students’ success.

• Choi, A. (2015, December 22). What the best education systems are doing right. 
• 7 Principles of 21st-century learning and eLearning. 
• Guiding Principles for learning in the 21st Century. 
• World Bank. (2018). Ch 2: The great school expansion- and those it has left behind. In The World Development Report 2018: LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise. 

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