Employers look for social skills more than degrees in workers

Social and emotional learning has become more important than traditional education values. (SPA)

JEDDAH: A study has shown that social skills such as cooperation, communication, and the ability to solve problems are much more important to employers than the traditional values of good grades and high educational qualifications.
A report by the World Economic Forum highlighted the importance of teaching children social and emotional skills to succeed in their future workplace, noting that such jobs will not primarily depend on reading, writing and mathematics, a local publication reported.
The study confirmed that the digital economy has changed the mechanisms of labor markets, meaning that social and emotional learning has become more important than traditional education values.
The report released by the World Economic Forum emphasized the important skill of "adaptation" to allow employees to be flexible when they are entering a new profession.
The report added that social and emotional skills also give children the opportunity to demonstrate creativity, problem solving aptitudes, communication and social interactivity, stressing the fact that of the sixteen skills identified as 'very important' for the 21st century, twelve of them involve social and emotional aptitudes.
Regarding the teaching of these skills, the report explained that in the classroom children can learn how to cooperate, learn from their peers, solve problems, think critically and about how to use technology. Outside of the classroom, children can be encouraged by their parents to develop their social and emotional skills by creating a safe educational environment for them.
The report emphasized the increasing interest of investors in focusing on technological learning as the level of private investments in technological learning across all age groups increased globally by 32 percent, from $1.5 billion in 2011 to $4.5 billion in 2015.