INTEGRATE 21ST CENTURY SKILLS AND MINDSETS WITH SCHOOL LIFE: QUEST ALLIANCE REPORT

In the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic, a report released by Quest Alliance in association with the H T Parekh Foundation has found that integrating 21st Century skills and mindsets into daily school life will be key for young people transitioning to the workforce.

Girl champion in DeogarhAnandsala adolescent programme

The report “Enabling Successful School to Work Transitions” released on Tuesday said that accelerated digitization and automation of processes across industries has changed workplace behaviours and industry demands in irreversible ways. It further added that the Covid 19 pandemic has added new layers of complexities to existing challenges of emerging technologies, automation of jobs and the inability of education institutes to keep up with the concurrent up-skilling needs of the market.

During the release of the report, Aakash Sethi, CEO, Quest Alliance, said “The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated several trends expected to impact the world of work, with 21st century skills emerging as indispensable across all sectors. With a large youth population poised to enter the workforce over the next decade, it is imperative that we build interventions and models to ensure successful school-to-work transitions for young people in India.”

Quest Alliance is a not-for-profit trust that equips young people with 21st century skills by enabling self-learning, while The H T Parekh Foundation is the philanthropic arm of HDFC Limited.

The report identifies 11 key skills required in a 21st century workplace, which includes skills like, Learnability, Innovation, Entrepreneurial skills, Critical Thinking, Digital Skills, Communication, Collaboration, Resilience, Problem Solving, Empathy and Creativity and calls to integrate 21st Century skills into the secondary school ecosystem.

Ziaa Lalkaka, CEO of H T Parekh Foundation during the release of the report said, “Although Covid-19 has added complexity to the future of work, we see an opportunity to equip young people with 21st century skills that are more aligned to these shifting paradigms. This report is a step toward designing a systems approach that brings together participants in the education space, including local governments and corporates, to understand the future of work and how we can create real change on the ground.”