Workplace skills
AN interesting conversation recently revealed the common belief in our society that academic progress has nothing to do with workplace skills. To us, academic progress means success in exams, pocketing certificates and chasing opportunity. Assessments are the primary focus of all teaching and learning across our schools while the rest of the world has moved on to thinking about what students can do rather than what they are learning.
Demonstration of learning outcomes is monitored closely in societies that view education as an experience of the real world. When math is taught, progress is tracked not only through conceptual understanding but skills that are embedded in math teaching — logic and reasoning, problem-solving and data analysis, decision-making, etc. These are skills that can translate into marketable competencies at work and they start from the get-go. We don’t have to wait for specialist degrees at the higher education level to build foundational skills for life.
It’s not a surprise that we fail to prioritise skills. Schools do not ignore skills intentionally. The system rewards grades, especially as financially burdened parents want to see value for the money they invest in their child’s education. The larger society values compliance and discipline. Hence, the pathway of rules is set for a rigid prescription of regurgitating what is taught. Any kind of thought process off the beaten path finds no leverage within the power structures of board exams, top positions and parents’ expectations.
Our students coming through these systems find innovation risky. There hasn’t been enough room for exploration and discovery, mistakes and failure. There hasn’t been sufficient opportunity to go beyond the curriculum. Thinking processes, behavioural patterns and the will and ability to execute depends on what was learned on the breeding ground. How are students who have always been told what to do expected to act without instruction or approval? The nexus that produces straitjacketed thinking is the one that demands results as these students step into professional lives.
As students enter the workplace, ideas won’t be enough.
A common fear among schools in exam-driven systems is that focusing on skills will dilute academic rigour and bring down results. In fact, the opposite is true: skills-based learning, when intentionally designed, boosts conceptual understanding and improves exam performance. Skills and exams need not be rivals. When aligned thoughtfully, skills become the vehicle through which academic content is mastered more deeply, retained longer and applied more accurately in exams, and later, at the workplace. Content can be taught through skills. Students need skills to examine content on their own.
There are easy steps teachers can use to gauge success in skills. A critical question to ask is ‘how well are the students engaging with content?’ This can be encouraged through communication skills — students can be asked to explain their thinking out loud, write short reasons for critical thinking questions, and justify their conclusions in discussions with their peers.
As students enter the workplace, ideas and content won’t be enough. They will need to express their thoughts with logic, structure and clarity. They will be expected to solve problems, not merely follow instructions. They will need to teach themselves how to navigate complex technological tools and use them to improve productivity. Above all, they will influence their peers to think better and collaborate on teamwork. Teamwork is ranked among top employer priorities and requires listening, negotiating and shared responsibility.
These skills are not built in a day on the job. Students need to be groomed into skill-based thinking in their foundation years and refined through school and university levels. Simple lessons learnt early pay dividends for life. Meeting deadlines, timing and prioritising tasks, and working independently are core professional expectations. These skills take root through work patterns taught in school.
The new generation entering the workplace is often seen as easily distracted, chaotic thinkers, lacking a strong work ethic. However, they have also grown up in a digital, unstable, fast-changing world and that chaos lends itself to a different set of abilities that their education has not fully supported. So they learn skills from a parallel, online world. They have the ability to find, filter and cross-check information fast. If schools could capitalise on these abilities and frame their lesson designs within these parameters, students would march into the future rather than stumbling into the workplace.
The writer is a teacher educator, author and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK. The views expressed are her own and do not reflect those of her employer.
X: @nedamulji
Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2026