This comes via my inbox:
But what is it employers want?
If we accept the argument that jobs are transforming faster than ever before and many of our graduates will be in jobs that don’t even exist today, how are we to prepare them?
For us, part of the answer lies in developing ‘soft’ skills that complement the formal knowledge streams and intellectual foundations of learning and teaching.
A recent Deloitte Access Economics Report highlighted that future skills sets include a growing reliance on communication, teamwork, problem-solving, ethics, digital literacy, leadership and global citizenship. These are traditionally called ‘soft’ skills but the reality is that they are hard because they require a systems view and a strong level of empathy and emotional intelligence.
The report makes interesting reading in part because it reflects the future-oriented perspective we are in the process of bringing to our students.
Businesses in Australia spend more than $11 billion a year finding and training the right people. RMIT graduates that have the requisite flexibility, responsiveness and agility in the form of soft skills that can be applied across a broad spectrum of work tasks will be there to meet the needs of future employers.
