Why skills win over knowledge?

Are universities and colleges teaching skills needed in technology based economy?

Maybe yes, they teach critical thinking, problem solving, research skills, and encourage original thinking, just the skills needed in today’s work force. But have we ever evaluated if that’s suffice to meet the ever-growing need of skilled professionals in the country?

Our job today is the pure exploration of new knowledge and ideas and pass on the acquired knowledge to the new generation. If any of it rubs off in the commercial world, we are good.

The introduction of specialized courses has sparked a debate as to whether it is more important to make students job-ready or give them a strong academic foundation. Skills have a powerful role play in our professional lives which fills the gap even for knowledge sometimes. Skills win over knowledge to catch up with the professional transitions:

• Skills puts a priority list in place:

The purpose of the skills-led approach is to prioritize and develop transferable skills like knowledge sharing, collaboration and empathy. The content studied is not as important as transferring their skills to any content or text, whether books, articles or multi-modal media.

• Skills people posses enhances their sense of self-worth, security and belonging:
• For many people, the acts of learning and mastering new skills are important in themselves. Possession of skills can be integral to a person’s sense of belonging and self-worth: many people define themselves by what they can “do”, not only in employment but elsewhere in life.

• Skills relate directly to employment decisions & career choices:

Those with relatively few educational qualifications & more learned skills are likely to be better employed and, on average, have good incomes when in work. This affects people’s economic standard of living as well as their security and ability to make choices about their lives. Skills are important for gaining access to services and for understanding and exercising civil and political rights.

• Employers are often looking for skills that go beyond qualifications and experience:

While your education and experience may make you eligible to apply for a job, to be successful in the role you will need to exhibit a mix of skills: ‘employability skills’.  This means that the specialist, technical skills associated with different roles may be less important than the ‘soft skills’ that can be transferred between different jobs and different employment sectors.

For employers, getting the right people means identifying people with the right skills and qualities to fulfill the role and contribute to the organization’s success.  Candidates may have the qualifications and ‘hard skills’ needed to be able to manage the job role but, without a well-honed set of ‘soft skills’, employers are less inclined to hire.

For leaders who are prepared to fill their digital skills gaps and ease the pressure on their companies by ensuring all professionals have a working knowledge of digital, this will be a period of opportunity and growth.