Beyond Qualifications: How do we build the skills people need to thrive?
Education systems around the world devote enormous attention to what children and young people know. Employers, meanwhile, often focus on what people can actually do: communicate effectively, work with others, solve problems, adapt, and navigate increasingly complex workplaces.
What would it take to make these essential skills a normal part of education and workforce development rather than something people are expected to acquire by chance?
This conversation will bring together educators, employers, governments, funders, and impact organizations to explore the connection between skills, employability, and opportunity. As economies and workplaces change, how can we provide a powerful foundation for all young people by making these capabilities a normal part of classroom practice? How can we turn these appealing but broad and potentially vague skills into practical teaching, learning and assessment, and develop a shared language between education and employment with which to describe them?
The discussion will also examine questions of access and equity. Opportunities to develop essential skills are not distributed equally, yet these capabilities can influence who succeeds in education, enters employment, progresses at work, and exercises leadership. If we believe everyone has the capacity to build these skills, what would it take to make that opportunity genuinely universal?
Drawing on Skills Builder Partnership's experience developing a shared approach to essential skills with educators, employers, and other partners, the session will invite perspectives and learning from different countries and contexts. The aim is to explore the opportunities and challenges in ensuring that one day, every learner everywhere is building the essential skills to thrive as part of a normal education.
What to expect
A participatory conversation bringing together perspectives from education, employment, government, and social impact. Participants will compare how essential skills are understood and developed in different contexts, where gaps between education and employment persist, and what approaches are showing promise.
The discussion will create space for organizations working on skills and employability around the world to find points of connection, share experience, and explore opportunities to work together.
Who this is for
This session is for educators, employers, policymakers, funders, workforce development practitioners, social entrepreneurs, and others interested in skills, employability, education-to-work transitions, and creating more equitable pathways for people to thrive.
What you will get out of it
New perspectives on which essential skills matter across education, work, and life
Insights into how educators, employers, and governments can develop a more shared approach to skills
A deeper exploration of the relationship between essential skills, employability, and equitable opportunity
Lessons from different contexts on embedding skills development into existing systems
Connections with organizations around the world working on skills and employability
Hosted by
Skills Builder Partnership