8 Crucial Skills for Today’s Students to Succeed

8 skills students will always need to succeed

Nov 05, 2021

TOP-10 digital skills every student needs in 2018 | #GrowingLeader

Being a student is so much more than just being good at what you study. In order to be well educated and successful, and to thrive in the digital economy, students need to master the skills of the digital age.

Our education to a large extent may or may not help us to adapt to a fast-paced working environment. This is why it is crucial for the educational system, to teach the skills required along with imparting high-quality knowledge as well as a proper value system.

Therefore, I am about to share with you eight valuable skills that will not only prepare you to get ready for the future of work but also enable you to learn more effectively and efficiently in your studies, besides making you more suitable for a complex and challenging work environment.

🔑Critical thinking & problem-solving

Unfortunately, many students who encounter a problem in their life do one to two things: either stop and quit or copy someone else’s work. Therefore, assisting a problem and figuring out how to deal with it is such an important skill that students need to learn. Problem-solving is such an indispensable ability that helps students to see problems from different angles and perspectives, formulate their own solutions, and implement the change required.

In fact, knowledge is not adopted for the sake of mere learning and getting good grades. Knowledge has to be applied to manage tasks, use it in real-life situations, and solve problems. Therefore, I believe that teachers have a huge role to teach students these skills. Teachers should teach their students, not just what will come in the exam, but more importantly where and how students can apply the knowledge and what they can do with it.

Another valuable skill related to problem-solving is critical thinking, which is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. To put it in a more simple way, critical thinking is a focused careful analysis of something to better understand it. Meaning that everything that is said to you doesn’t have to be right even if the words are coming from your teacher or professor. So you need to be criticizing and analyzing everything you see, hear, and read in order to form the right judgment. Critical thinking will enable you to better express your thoughts, ideas, and beliefs. Ultimately, being able to think critically and follow through with the change will all bode well for your future.

🎯Decision-making

Decision-making is a process of selecting a formal choice among the given options and determining which option will suit that particular situation. When a situation arises where taking decisions is an optional way, students must be able to take a good decision rather than wavering.

Decision-making plays a vital role in the life of students. It diverts the students from falling into the trap that manages the students and saves their career life. Being able to navigate tricky situations and make an educated decision on the best course of action is a life skill that will benefit them greatly as they grow into their future careers.

In today’s world, it is a tremendous need for good decision-makers, meaning that if you improve your decision-making skills now, you will increase your value in your future jobs, families, and communities.

Process Flow to Improve Decision-Making Elements in College Students: Graphical Representation by Author: Prof Dr.C.Karthikeyan

👨‍💻Learning how to type fast

In school, typing is such an essential part of almost everthing we do. Our tasks and exams include typing, and by learning how to type fast you will free up so much time and cognitive energy so that you can focus more on the ideas instead of just the language required to articulate them. Moreover, typing fast makes you so much more productive to complete all of your tasks as well as it improves your postures be reducing the amount of time you sit down at your desk. A fun fact it that people become really impressed when they see you typing fast.

After I committed myself and took the time to learn how to type fast, I can tell you that it has been a game-changer since then as I became at least twice as productive.

Last but not least, by typing fast you can find so many more opportunities because it is such a useful skill that boosts productivity which will give you more opportunities when applying for a job.

🤷‍♂️Where to go❓

* Firstly, I encourage you to watch Ali Abdaal’s video about how he types 156 words per minute.

* The platforms that I used to learn how to type fast are The Typing Cat, TypingClub, and Typing.com

🔎Learning how to search the internet

In school, we are constantly required to search for information, but we are never taught strategies to how to search for information the right way, and to how we get to what is needed more quickly.

It is crucial to find the right information more quickly and to find exactly what you are looking for as it saves you much time. Developing your search skills will enable you to get the most out of online searching and help you to find more relevant information on a specific topic, as well as, exploring different aspects of that topic.

Knowing is NOT the most immportant thing. To be able to FIND OUT is more important than knowing - Sugata Mitra

Where to go❓

I recommend you to watch The Bright Side’s great video on 15 ways to Search Google.

👨‍🏫Agility and adaptability

Agility and adaptability is the ability to show flexibility and to be willing to adapt and respond according to the situation or the changes. Students should have the resilience and ability to cope with different problems that they face. Students should be able to take control over their environment and resources and thereby avoid dynamics that can lead to failures, uncertainty, anxiety, and procrastination. Additionally, being able to adapt to new situations will make you a better leader and you will have more opportunities presented to you in your professional career.

🤷‍♂️How to practice agility and adaptability❓

In order to improve your adaptability skills, you need to be willing to ask questions and to make mistakes as this is how you manage the aftermath that counts.
Teachers can create a dynamic environment within the classroom to help to prepare students for different solutions by applying varied teaching strategies, guidelines for group work, or homework that can help students learn to adapt.
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The students of the future will demand the learning support that is appropriate for their situation or context. Nothing more, nothing less - Marcus Specht

👩🏾‍🤝‍🧑🏻Communication & Collaborating

With the great development in technology that we have today, many students interact more with their phones than with people in person. I am not against digital communication, on the contrary, it is so important and relevant in our today’s world, but we still also need to value in-person communication to the extent that we can as it is such an essential skill that never diminishes in importance.

We have a lot of oral presentations in school, but we are never taught once to do a successful presentation so that we can communicate and share our ideas the way we want. I see many students reading their entire presentation from a sheet of paper and the reason for that is a lack of communication skills. Students should otherwise learn how to speak as confidently and freely as possible. Things like speed, volume, gesture, eye contact, and body language are extremely valuable skills to master. Being a good communicator means that you will find it easier to make friends have meaningful work relationships in the future

Anytime you become a better communicator, you’re going to beome a more successful individual - Sherly Block

🤯🙄Curiosity & Imagination

Curiosity is such an important factor for success. It leads you to ask questions, gain new learning experiences, learn from others and find ways to do the job better.

Curious people have the drive to understand, explore all the possibilities that can come out of one idea, and make an effort to know everything about what the teacher is saying and why and how that fits into the bigger picture. When a curious person has a setback, they tend to analyze the reasons for it and do better when they try again.

when curiosoity is alive, we are attracted to mnay things; we discover many worlds

💯Developing an entrepreneurial spirit

In the 21st century having an entrepreneurial mindset is extremely important. Being entrepreneurial means having the ability to make lemonade out of lemons, and mastering this skill is going to set you apart from your peers.

Entrepreneurship allows students to gain more knowledge than their field of study and to learn more skills like innovation, creativity, and risk-taking, which will lead to increased productivity, better problem-solving, and fresher ideas. Moreover, Entrepreneurship helps students to become more connected with the networks and friendships which will prepare them for long-term success.