According to a recent analysis by LinkedIn which measured the most sought-after skills required by companies in 2019, they found that certain soft skills mattered just as much as various hard skills to prospective employers. So, how does this affect our teens now and in the future? Simply put, it allows us to make smart choices for the future and enjoy an increased quality of life now.
Whenever I am in a presentation with over 100 teenagers, it’s always surprising at how many of our young people are terrified of failure. We haven’t taught our kids that failure is necessary to learn.
Many teens fear failure to the point of not wanting to experience a new activity for fear of failing or not being the best. This same fear holds many back from taking the risk of exploring their potential in various areas of life which often leads to feelings of depression and loneliness. Failure happens. Our ability to learn from our mistakes and do it better the next time is what keeps us moving forward.
Let’s face it we all have bad days and our share of ups and downs. Bring in the hormones and some of the current performance pressures both socially and academically and teens often feel magnified emotional experiences which can be confusing and often lead to a feeling of loneliness and self-doubt. By training emotional fitness, teens learn that firstly it’s okay to experience a range of different emotions while also gaining some ability to “bounce back”.
I always tell my teen clients as a golden rule, that if they are not in a great emotional space; that’s okay; but don’t make any important life decisions while being in that state of emotion.
What’s also helpful to understand is that many teens are in the process of discovering, or rather creating an identity for themselves and how they fit into the world. Much of this involves trial and error (this process isn’t always fun, especially for mom and dad).
The exciting part is that once a teen starts to gain some certainty and self-confidence, many of the “symptoms” such as performance, self-doubt, loneliness and confusion tend to lessen. Sometimes quite dramatically.
The idea that all teens by the end of Grade 9 (when subject choices for matric are made) need to know what they want to do with the rest of their lives is, well quite frankly absurd.
Yes, there are some who do know, and this is great, but for the many who do not yet know, this should not be seen as a shortcoming in any way.
Other skills such as effective communication (both with ourselves and others), collaboration, critical thinking, managing social media and empathy are a few more skills which once practiced, stand to improve the quality of a teen’s current experiences as well as arming them with a set of skills which are not only effective in managing ourselves and our relationships, but are also seeing increasing demand in the workplace internationally.
Touching more on the “hard skills” side is entrepreneurship training for teens especially when it’s engaging and designed to teach through gamification and experience.
Certain traits of entrepreneurs such as tenacity, communication, grit and resilience to name a few, are skills which would also benefit many teens in their current environments and in the future. (regardless of their chosen career path.) It also doesn’t hurt for teens to learn how to start a business without raising capital and to understand certain concepts such as cashflow which otherwise may include some painful experiences as the teacher later in life and business.
Education does not guarantee any specific future for our teens however it does offer choices. The more diverse the education our teens receive during their teenage years, the more choices they will have moving forward.
In the meantime, however, wouldn’t it also be good for our teens to enjoy being teens and realising that this is all a process of self-discovery and the opportunity to realise, that while it’s great to fit in, it’s also fine to stand out.