By Naomi Boyer, Senior Vice President, Digital Transformation, Education Design Lab
What’s in a name? As it turns out, quite a lot.
Companies are increasingly placing a premium on “soft skills,” like communication, empathy, and critical thinking. As many as 97 percent of employers say soft skills are as important as — or more important than — hard skills. Or, at least they used to. The phrase soft skills is increasingly falling out of fashion, with critics saying the moniker is too diminutive to convey the skills’ value. The critics are right.
Coined more than five decades ago by the U.S. Army to highlight the non-mechanical skills essential for soldiers, the term has long failed to capture the breadth and urgency of the competencies to which it’s referring. A range of alternatives have been suggested — real skills, power skills, 21st century skills. But these, too, aren’t quite right. These indispensable skills are not any more or less real than technical ones, and they do not come with an expiration date. When the 22nd century arrives, they’ll remain just as relevant as they are today, if not more so. That’s why a growing number of employers, institutions of higher education, and workforce organizations are embracing yet another term: durable skills.
What we call certain sets of skills may seem like a trivial matter, but the absence of a shared vocabulary is holding back progress. It’s difficult to fully engage in the nuance that conversations around skills development require when each party is entering the discussion through a different door. Or, think of it this way: companies, colleges, training providers, learners, and workers need to sing from the same songbook. By rallying around the term “durable skills,” we can finally put the debate over terminology to rest and shift our collective focus toward the task of helping all workers obtain these vital competencies.
Durable skills span a wide variety of cognitive, emotional, and social capabilities that are critical for success in any job. They include collaboration, creative problem-solving, critical thinking, empathy, initiative, intercultural fluency, oral communication, resilience, and self-directed learning, Within these competencies is a complex network of interconnected sub-competencies, from active listening to identifying patterns. These skills are as foundational as they are dynamic. Each is transferable across various jobs, industries, and sectors, making them indispensable in all corners of the workforce.
At a time when technology — especially the rapid rise of artificial intelligence — is quickly transforming the economy, durable skills are more important than ever. Routine tasks are being increasingly automated, and AI is growing more and more capable of handling complex processes. According to Goldman Sachs, 300 million jobs could soon be disrupted or replaced by generative AI. Having long threatened blue-collar jobs in industries like manufacturing, automation is now swiftly encroaching on roles that require a college degree as well. Durable skills, meanwhile, remain irreplaceable — and in high demand.
One recent study found that while business leaders are now widely using generative AI, they are placing greater emphasis on the value of what they consider to be uniquely human skills. That’s because many of these skills are not only qualities that machines are not yet capable of replicating but are also critical for successfully integrating AI and other technologies into the workplace.
At the same time, “durable” should not be confused with “static.” In an increasingly AI-driven world, workers will need to master these core competencies while also learning how to apply these skills in an ever-evolving workplace — and in tandem with new and emerging technologies. Critical thinking, for example, now requires understanding how best to leverage AI tools to make better decisions. Resilience might involve confidently navigating through a company or industry’s many digital shifts throughout a career. Creative problem-solving means taking stock of the vast array of potential technological solutions now available.
The Lab, too, is adapting to these shifts as well, as we are proposing a new, leveled competency framework. Durable skills grow and change over a career as a person’s job responsibilities become more complex and independent. The leveled competency framework helps measure these skills throughout a career, adding a layer of specificity through three dimensions: autonomy, influence, and complexity. It works with the Lab’s existing durable skills framework to better assess skills at different stages of professional growth.
Responding to this nuanced need at scale is only possible with a unified language. More clearly identifying and developing durable skills will allow businesses, education leaders, and training providers to better equip learners and workers for the challenges and immense opportunities ahead. Standardizing our terminology is also crucial for accurately assessing and validating these skills, empowering providers and employers to recognize and leverage the competencies in ways that set individuals up for success and propel the workforce forward.
The shift toward durable skills is rooted in a deeper understanding of what it means to be prepared for the workforce of today and tomorrow. To emphasize the enduring strength of these skills is to acknowledge that the most valuable parts of any organization will always be its people and their ability to work together, innovate, and lead. Embracing the term “durable skills” is not just a matter of semantics but a strategic imperative for the country’s future.
