AI-generated summary
The future of work is being shaped by rapidly evolving technologies, which continuously transform professional skills requirements. A recent Future Trends Forum with experts like Tammy Erickson and Jason Wingard highlights that automation could eliminate up to 12 million jobs by 2040 in Europe’s largest economies, especially affecting medium-skilled roles involving routine tasks. However, soft skills—such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility—will become increasingly valuable, as these interpersonal abilities cannot be replicated by machines. This shift calls for collaborative work environments integrating both human talents and AI.
To thrive professionally, individuals must develop a balanced skill set combining digital, technical, and social abilities, with continuous learning being paramount. According to expert Jeff Selingo, 14 key skills fall into three categories: personal/interpersonal (communication, creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, analytical thinking), business (data interpretation, digital process design, project and business process management), and technology (data management and analysis, programming, software development, computer security). These align with the World Economic Forum’s emphasis on critical thinking and problem-solving for the next five years. Preparing for this future requires lifelong learning and initiatives like the Akademia program, which helps university students bridge the gap between academic knowledge and market demands by fostering problem-solving, trend awareness, and networking. Lastly, a distinction is made between skills (acquired abilities) and competencies (mastery through experience).
Artificial intelligence and robotization are taking over the performance of many tasks and functions. Which competencies are safeguarded? Are you growing them?
The future of work is conditioned by the constant evolution of technologies and the use we make of them, which is constantly modifying professional skills. This is the conclusion of the Future Trends Forum meeting that we held a few months ago, with international experts such as Tammy Erickson, Alper Utku and Jason Wingard , whose conclusions you can read in The Future of Work: A Challenge to the Present.
According to Forrester’s latest forecast for the future of work, up to 12 million jobs will be lost in Europe’s five largest countries as a whole – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK – by 2040 due to automation. Medium-skilled jobs that consist of simple, routine tasks are the most at risk of being automated.
On the other hand, the so-called soft skills or interpersonal competencies, such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility – something that neither robots nor algorithms will be able to have – will be highly valued for the new jobs that will arise. And that will require working in collaborative environments between people and machines.
As we pointed out in our report The Future of Work: A Challenge of the Present, in order to have a good professional future, it is necessary to develop and strengthen the differentials of human beings in the face of AI
What are the skills that are going to be most in demand?
Professionals are going to need to make a double effort: both in digital and technical skills and in social skills, with the ability to learn new things becoming the most relevant.
In the article What will be the most in-demand skills in the Digital Economy?, we summarize the keys provided by the expert of the Future Trends Forum, Jeff Selingo. The 14 skills that must be cultivated to successfully face our professional future, grouped into three groups: personal and interpersonal skills, business skills and technological skills, are, according to this expert:
Personal and interpersonal skills:
1. Communication Skills
2. Creativity and innovation
3. Critical thinking
4. Teamwork Skills
5. Analytical thinking
Business Skills:
6. Ability to interpret data for decision-making
7. Digital Process Design
8. Complex project management
9. Business Process Management
Technology skills:
10. Managing large amounts of data
11. Analyzing Large Amounts of Data
12. Programming in low-level languages
13. Software Development
14. Computer Security
This list has points of agreement with that drawn up by the World Economic Forum, where critical thinking and problem-solving top the list of skills that will grow in importance in the next five years.
And how to prepare?
Lifelong learning throughout one’s professional life is going to become the norm. This is what the rector of the European Leadership University, Alper Utku, calls Upskilling and Reskilling.
Regarding university students, according to this expert, they also face the challenge that the curricula do not adapt to what the market demands.
With the aim of eliminating the gap between what the company demands and the skills and competencies of the students, there are cutting-edge initiatives such as our Akademia program, which is aimed at students in their final university years, offering them:
- Learn to solve problems in innovative ways
- Understand the trends that are changing the world, and
- Start building your own network.
The power and goodness of the Akademia program is endorsed by the testimonies of the alumni.
“Akademia is an explosion of cognitive load that makes you rethink many things”
José Manuel Ausín, alumni of the Akademia program, university professor, entrepreneur and CEO of Neurocatching
Skills or competencies?
Finally, a clarification, given that sometimes skill and competence are used interchangeably, when they are not entirely equivalent terms. The ability is prior to the competition; First you acquire the ability to perform a task, and after a lot of practice, you master that skill, and you are said to have competence in it, that is, experience and knowledge in the subject. ????
Fundador de European Leadership University
