The Era of S.E.C.T. Skills
I am often asked all sorts of questions about the energy industry, including what skills are required to get in and thrive within? And, it is a question I love to address. So, you bet I could not miss the invitation to speak at the Capacity Building Conference, organized by the Youth Wing of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Rivers State Chapter, and targeted at helping young people build the right capabilities, skills and networks in a post-pandemic world. It held on 24th July (Yes! My birthday…#Smiles) in the Garden City of Port Harcourt.
I have answered that question on multiple occasions, but this time was different — I was speaking to people of the fold (Christians… if you are not familiar with the term), under the theme, Reset for the Future of Work, and after some interesting leaders — the likes of Prince Uche Secondus (The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP), and Rev. Biodun Fatoyinbo (Senior Pastor and Founder of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, COZA).
Speaking at the event, I did mention that the world woke up to another huge societal challenge following the pandemic, which is the future of work and the need to prioritize talent — attracting, reskilling and upskilling talents to seize the opportunities presented across different productive sectors — from health and social care, to food/agriculture, education, transport, delivery services, and utilities. And, there is now ultimate focus on building resilient & sustainable capacity — or developing skilled workers, who can help reimagine and reshape our global economy, strengthen our civic and social infrastructure to manage our response to future crises or system shocks, lead smart — not just big — governments, amongst other priorities in the new and emerging world of work.
Whilst governments, private sector and civil society are collaborating to rethink and reset capacity development, deploying solutions that address this talent challenge — including defining taxonomies of the skills citizens will require in this new world of work, as well as reviewing and updating curricula to expand the focus beyond technical skills — it is imperative that individuals take the initiative and commit to driving their capacity-development journey.
Beyond that, they must fundamentally make a shift in their learning and development, to focus strongly on social, emotional, cognitive and technological (what I like to call S.E.C.T.) skills.
Social Skills: generally cover communication, interpersonal and teamwork effectiveness skills (one skill that I find very interesting, particularly in an increasingly diverse and global world, is cultural intelligence; look it up!).
Emotional Skills: include skills for managing self and external relationships; the likes of empathy, self-control and behavioral regulation, self-motivation, resilience, etc.
Cognitive Skills: cover a broad range of skills like critical thinking, creativity and mental agility, time management and prioritization, problem-solving, etc.
Technological Skills: a mix of technical, digital and computational skills; this certainly covers digital literacy, data analysis, software use, engineering, science, etc.
These skills are, and will increasingly become, critical to long-term success, as automation, robotics and other frontier technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution take hold. And the truth is, when you are on the edge of an era that is going to be, feel and read like nothing humanity has ever known before, with mind-blowing pace and scale of learning and attendant transformation, you do not stay stuck in the old ways of doing things, or particularly rest on your technical skills!
