Developing Social and Emotional Skills in an Automated World

We’ve all heard it before: Technology is disrupting the world of work, eliminating “low skill” jobs and harming the future of the trades. Daunting? Sure. But there’s also growing demand for a specific type of worker. One with the ability to problem solve, lead, collaborate, communicate, and adapt to the ever-evolving world of work. In other words, there is a growing demand for strong social and emotional skills. The problem is, there is a gap between the demand for these skills and the skills Canadians acquire through education and training.

So, what exactly are these social and emotional skills? Why are they needed and why are we behind? What are our post-secondary systems doing to prepare future employees, and how do we ensure Canadians can “keep up” with changing demands throughout their careers? In our first episode of Season 1 of the Future Skills Centre podcast, we start to answer these questions through conversations with Steve Higham (The Conference Board of Canada), Maria Giammarco (The Conference Board of Canada), Paul Brinkhurst (Futureworx) and Jennifer Adams (OECD).

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FSC—The Future is Social and Emotional (Online Experience):
https://www.conferenceboard.ca/research/the-future-is-social-and-emotional

FSC—The Future is Social and Emotional (Impact Paper):
https://www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=10628

Karanga (Jennifer Adams is Chair):
https://karanga.org/

Futureworx (Paul Brinkhurst’s Organization):
https://futureworx.ca/