Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Americans are deeply concerned that the United States is not preparing young people with the skills they need to compete in the global economy.

That simple statement — arising from public opinion research — is the reasoning behind our collaboration with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a leading advocacy organization for bringing 21st-century skills into education.

A report called 21st Century Skills, Education & Competitiveness, which we helped sponsor, indicates that Americans understand the economy has changed and that, without skills that reflect today's workforce demands, young people may face tougher challenges earning a living wage and maintaining U.S. competitiveness than previous generations did. Skills such as global literacy, problem solving, innovation and creativity are becoming increasingly important in today's society and economy.

Skills for the future

The report identifies skills that all Americans will need as the 21st century unfolds:

• Thinking critically and making judgments about the barrage of information that comes our way every day. Critical thinking empowers us to assess the credibility, accuracy and value of information, analyze and evaluate information, make reasoned decisions and take purposeful action.
• Solving complex, multidisciplinary, open-ended problems. The routine challenges workers face every day don’t come in a multiple-choice format and typically don’t have a single right answer. Businesses expect employees at all levels to identify problems, think through solutions and alternatives, and explore new options.
• Creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. Many of the fastest-growing jobs and emerging industries rely on workers’ creative capacity — the ability to think unconventionally, question assumptions and imagine new scenarios. Likewise, Americans can create jobs for themselves and others with an entrepreneurial mindset.
• Communicating and collaborating across cultural, geographic and language boundaries. In diverse and multinational workplaces and communities, all Americans must be skilled at interacting competently and respectfully with others.
• Making innovative use of knowledge, information and opportunities to create new services, processes and products. The global marketplace rewards organizations that rapidly and routinely find better ways of doing things. Companies want workers who can contribute in this environment.
• Taking charge of financial, health and civic responsibilities and making wise choices. From deciding how to invest their savings to choosing a health care plan, Americans need more specialized skills as options become increasingly complex.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills provides a resource called Route 21 that allows users to create a vibrant community where they can react to, and propose, implementations of 21st Century skills in their own state. They can users tag, rank, organize and collect content of interest to them.