Best Skills for 21st Century - Check Top 10+ Skills Here

Students in the 21st century must have specific abilities to understand how the world is changing. These 12 skills are called “21st Century Skills” and are the key to success in a global society that values innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. If you haven't heard about 21st Century Skills, you soon will. More and more school districts are asking teachers to incorporate these skills into their teaching practices. But what are they? We believe it boils down to one word: communication. These skills prepare students for the 21st century and are necessary to be successful.

Why do we follow new skills?

Today's students are tomorrow's leaders. The future of their families, our businesses, and our country are directly dependent upon the quality of education they receive today. Understanding these concepts is key to putting technology in its proper place as a support tool for learning, rather than a distraction that pushes out learning. This article will provide you with a summary of the top 12 skills for the 21st century that students must learn to become successful in life. 

There has been a lot of buzz in the past couple of years over 21st-century skills and learning. It’s a hot topic that can leave teachers wondering what exactly this is all about. While we agree that it’s important for students to have strong skills, abilities, and dispositions, several things are lacking from most lists of 21st century skills and it’s time we address these issues head-on.

Top 12 Skills for 21st Century:

1. Critical thinking

2. Creativity

3. Collaboration

4. Communication

5. Information literacy

6. Media literacy

7. Technology literacy

8. Flexibility

9. Leadership

10. Initiative

11. Productivity

12. Social skills

The modern markets are changing so rapidly that having a wide variety of skills can be instrumental in staying modern. Using these skills can help you become a Jack of all trades and master them all. This can make the difference between someone who gets the job, and someone who gets that promotion they want. The following top 12 skills for the 21s century are ones that we think will help you with your career in many ways. There are many skills you may need to utilize to keep ahead of the competition. These skills are considered by most to be essential for success. The 21 st century is ever-changing and new skills are added with each new technology released.

(1). Critical Thinking - Critical thinking is the disciplined, systematic method by which we reason to give an answer or make a judgment. As a term applied to mental activity, it refers to the reflective and logical processes of weighing evidence and thinking through solutions. Critical thinking can play a key role in determining whether or not the presented information is valid. These are some of the critical thinking abilities:

➥ The best way to learn is by breaking something down into its parts, examining each part, and then putting the parts together.

➥ Comparing and contrasting is a great way to organize your thoughts, clarify your ideas, and even discover hidden relationships among concepts.

➥ A description is a statement that identifies the traits belonging to something, such as size, shape, weight, color, use, origin, value, condition, location, and so on.

➥ Explaining is showing others how to do or understand something by giving an example.

(2). Creativity - Creative thinking is an important skill. It's something that people do all the time: when they try to solve a problem when they dream up a plan when they feel happy or despondent. Yet it is also a skill that can be cultivated deliberately so that we think creatively more often and more effectively. Creative thinking and imagination are more similar to each other than either is uncreative logical thought. To think creatively or imaginatively is to invent some new arrangement of existing things. 

Creative thinking is not planning, actions or execution. It is a state of mind, an orientation to the world. The only thing you can control directly is your own mind, so being creative means achieving a particular mental set – a type of wakeful openness, where barriers between ideas are fluid and permeable, allowing different concepts and contexts to mingle and combine freely. These are some of the creative thinking abilities:

➥ Brainstorming involves imagining multiple possibilities for how to handle a problem.

➥ To create something, take the materials you have and mix them.

➥ Finding a good balance of form and function is one of the most important things to keep in mind when you're designing something.

➥ Thinking of ideas involves moving from the known to the unknown. Experiments can help us to get a more concrete sense of what's possible and what's impossible.

➥ Problem-solving is all about using your creativity and skills to figure out possible solutions before choosing one and putting it into action.

➥ Innovation is making something better or more efficient.

➥ Solving problems requires generating many ideas, eliminating the bad ones, and picking a good one for action.

(3). Collaboration - Collaboration is the act of working with others to achieve a common goal. It's said people can solve a problem more effectively by working together than by working alone. Collaboration is hard but if you gain exposure you will be able to make decisions with a group of people. Collaboration is a mindset, a willingness to work together is essential. A group of people who think they know how things should be done, and won't listen to alternatives, cannot collaborate. These are collaboration abilities:

➥ If you share basic responsibilities among a team, you'll be able to work more efficiently and develop your skills.

➥ A team is like a fair structure. Everyone has his or her set of resources and responsibilities and each member contributes to the team as a whole.

➥ Brainstorming is a technique for developing creative ideas by generating as many ideas as possible, followed by a group discussion about the merits of the ideas.

➥ The best decision-making processes are the ones where all the participants come to a consensus about what to do.

➥ Thoroughly understanding a product, process, or group will make it easier to adapt it so that it works even better.

➥ To manage your time effectively, you need to be able to assess how you should allocate spare time to various tasks.

➥ Team building is a facilitated process of working together toward a common goal.

(4). Communication - Communication is a key skill for any business person because of the diverse personalities that make up any organization. Communication is also much more than just speaking and writing. You have to look at the different ways that people receive information, then consider how they will best understand your message. 

Communication is the ability to clearly convey ideas to another person, in such a manner that there is little or no chance of misunderstanding what has been said. At its most basic level, it also includes listening to another person and understanding the meaning of what has been said. These are the communication abilities:

➥ To analyze the situation, you need to think about the subject of the message, its purpose, who sent it, who received it, what medium was used to send it, and what context is involved.

➥ The most appropriate way to deliver a message depends on its audience and purpose.

➥ For truly effective communication, you must engage actively with the ideas being communicated.

➥ Speaking involves conveying ideas through the use of words, tone of voice, body language, gestures, facial expressions, and visual aids.

➥ Writing is a process of encoding messages into words, sentences, and paragraphs to communicate with someone.

The 3 categories of 21st-century skills:

• Learning skills 
• Literacy skills 
• Life skills 

1. Learning Skills 

A key to learning effectively is developing the right mindset. This means believing that you can learn the material, that you're willing to take the time and effort to study, and that you'll give it your best effort. It also means that you understand you must practice what you've already learned to retain it over the long term. You can improve your learning skills to organize your time and energy more effectively and efficiently, enabling you to learn more in less time, with better results. 

Learning skills consists of 4 C’s:

    (a). Critical thinking 

    (b). Creativity 

    (c). Collaboration 

    (d). Communication 

2. Literacy Skills 

Literacy skills are the type of skills that let us read, write, listen, speak and help us to communicate. It is increasing in importance to every person's overall competency. Literacy skills are valued across all employment sectors, and in its general form, it is not limited to a specific profession or trade. Literacy skills are communication tools that allow us to apply logic and reasoning to the ideas we encounter in everyday life.

Literacy skills consist of:

    (a). Information 

    (b). Media 

    (c). Technology 

3. Life Skills 

Life skills are a set of competencies, habits, and practical abilities needed to live a happy, healthy, and successful life. They help us manage the challenges of everyday life. A well-developed set of skills helps us achieve our personal goals, build relationships, and contribute to our communities. Life skills are the general mental abilities that help you accomplish everyday tasks.

Life skills consist of:

    (a). Flexibility 

    (b). Leadership

    (c). Initiative 

    (d). Productivity 

    (e). Social skills

21st Century Skills are important for students to learn well, there are top12 Skills for the 21st century that speak directly to the future. As employers look to hire and as schools look to support their students, these are what drive everything. Let’s look into each category briefly:

Category 1: Learning Skills (the four C’s)

The four C’s are the most popular & best 21st century skills. These skills are also called learning skills. These skills are critical for success in the workplace and in life. The four C’s are Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity.

The Four C's of 21st Century Skills are:

1. Critical thinking 

2. Creativity 

3. Collaboration 

4. Communication 

Category 2: Literacy Skills 

The three skills comprise IMT(information, media, technology) and these are concerned with different digital comprehension. 

These are the three 21st century literacy skills:

1. Information 

2. Media 

3. Technology 

(1). Information - information literacy skill is more than anything, a mindset. It’s an ability to “read” the internet like it’s an informational text and to evaluate information sources critically. It gives them the skills to identify what's true and untrue. Identifying honesty online is crucial, for students to be able to discern between reliable and unreliable sources of information. As a result, they might spread false information for malicious reasons. Students must be taught to deal with information on their own, to evaluate it, and use it. Independent research is valued in academia, and structured information literacy practices can help students develop much-needed skills. 

Information literacy is a broad collection of skills that help you find, understand, and evaluate information from a wide variety of sources. You need these skills to fulfill the tasks required of you in your academic courses, to conduct effective research beyond class requirements, and to locate the information you will need in your job searches and personal life.  It is the ability to use information effectively by knowing where and how to find it; how to assess its authority, accuracy, usefulness, and completeness; and how to apply it appropriately in research, learning, healthcare, problem-solving, or creative expression.

(2). Media - "Media literacy" means something like 'the ability to consume and create media.' Media refers to information technologies as diverse as books, television shows, cell phones, software, and social networks. People who are literate in media understand the technologies in which we engage every day. They know how these technologies work. They also have a set of tools to evaluate the messages contained in media representations. Media literacy is the ability to consume media and to recognize when it is being used to influence thought.

To be media literate about a topic means to know how to sort through publications on that topic to find out what’s right, what’s wrong, and who’s credible. It also means knowing where to look. publications are like icebergs – the portion above the water is small compared with what’s below. Media literacy means knowing how to deal with this mismatch.

(3). Technology - A definition of Technology Literacy I like to use with my students is, the ability to use technology creatively and effectively to develop solutions for personal, social, professional, or global issues. Or another way of looking at it is Technology Literacy involves having the knowledge that allows you to safely and appropriately use technology so that you can develop solutions to problems or issues that affect your life. Technology illiteracy is a growing epidemic. Being literate is just more than being able to use technology properly. It's about knowing how to adapt and constantly improve, it is also a mindset and a life skill. 

Category 3: Life Skills

Life skills are the final category. These types of skills are called FLIPS (Flexibility, leadership, Initiative, Productivity, Social Skills). This kind of skill falls into the personal life category but also pertains to professional settings, like job interviews or a performance review. 

Five 21st-century life skills:

1. Flexibility 

2. Leadership 

3. Initiative 

4. Productivity 

5. Social 

(1). Flexibility - Flexibility is the ability or power to adapt to new ways of thinking or to change one's behaviour accordingly. It means being open-minded and non-judgemental. It is one of the most important traits anyone can develop to survive and succeed in today’s business world. Being flexible allows you to not only adapt but it also helps you see new opportunities that may otherwise be overlooked. 

A stronger ability to admit you’re wrong is a skill that makes you a valuable asset to your colleagues. If you think having this skill will make your peers think less of you, it won’t. They will respect you for it and appreciate that you are willing to share your opinion knowing that it could change at any point.  The flexibility that comes from being able to adapt is something of immense value.

(2). Leadership - *Leadership is a set of skills, values, and talents that are essential in leading people to achieve their goals. Leadership is about guiding the organization to get something done. And it¹s not just setting high goals, it's making sure those goals get followed through with. It’s not enough to just set out a vision and get others committed to it; you need to stay there, holding people accountable when they fall short.  

(3). Initiative -  Initiative is the skill of starting things and following through. It takes initiative skills to start a discussion, and persistence skills to finish one. It takes initiative skills to start a project of your own. The initiative is also a kind of social proof: when you take initiative, you're telling other people what they should be doing. And in social settings, people will often follow your lead. That's why it usually takes more initiative

(4). Productivity - Productivity skills are the practical skills you need to create value. Productivity is an individual's ability to take action. It is the rate at which that person produces outputs.  Productivity is an important part of everyday life. Most jobs require workers to be productive because time is money. In school, students should learn the basic skills needed to get work done quickly and accurately. Productivity has become a soft skill in the 21st century.

(5). Social - Social skills are your ability to collaborate with other people in pursuit of common goals. They're not the same thing as socializing, which is just going out together as friends. The purpose of socializing is fun, whereas the purpose of social skills is accomplishing things that require more than one person. Social skills are both a specific set of behaviors and a general strategy for getting what you want.

Best Skills for 21st Century:

1. These skills are the skills we need to live our lives today and work in tomorrow's digital world. Some of them have always been in use, but a lot of them are new and have been developed as we came to realize how different today is from yesterday.

2. They refer to the skills and knowledge that a student needs to be successful in school and work. These include critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, self-direction, and more.

3. These skills include the ability to learn on your own, communicate effectively, work in groups, and solve problems creatively.

4. 21st-century skills are the abilities that help us solve problems, adapt to a fast-changing world, and be successful in a knowledge economy

5. Top 21st century skills include fluent communication, engaged & passionate learning, effective collaboration, responsible decision-making, innovative thinking, and imagination, and authentic performance and presentation.

Today, the demands on our time are greater than ever. The ability to work on the platform of our choice has never been further advanced. But with this comes a greater need for skills to succeed in a hyper-connected world. What skills should you learn to survive in this new era? In the 21st century, having knowledge and skills in a wide array of areas is the key to success. The skills you learn can be applied practically anywhere in the world. But there's something special about the digital world – it’s where technology meets creativity, and imagination meets new ways to approach problems. Through the Top 12 skills for the 21st century, you can create, learn, share, collaborate and succeed.

And that is why for an individual, it’s very necessary to learn top skills for the 21st century. The skills we'll be learning today will enable you to work effectively with technology in ways that are as diverse as they are vital. And the benefits of learning 21st century skills will be great for many career fields.

Top 21st Century Skills?

The term 21st Century Skills refers to the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and dispositions that are needed for students to succeed in the 21st century. These skills set out many desirable goals for all students—individuals who will be prepared not only to meet a changing work environment but also prepared to lead lives of social and civic responsibility. In essence, these are goals that all learners need to be successful in. 

The phrase "21st Century Skills" has been widely applied to education reforms and practices all across the globe. These skills are often broadly defined as the acquisition and utilization of knowledge, information, communication, and/or technology--with the premise that a common set of skills exists within this descriptively broad range.