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Coding or communication - which skills will the job market of the future require?
Photo: Marina Cavusoglu / Moment RF / Getty Images
The half-life of knowledge is getting shorter and shorter.
Many qualifications that people acquire in training or studies are outdated a few years later.
When certificates and courses say less and less: What do employers pay attention to when they hire people?
And what does nobody get ahead with today?
We asked an energy provider, an education researcher, an automotive company and an education center.
Bongartz:
»We pay particular attention to the personality of the applicants.
Curiosity, ambition and the desire to help shape things are almost more important than professional background and experience in specific job profiles.
Competencies can be built up if the personal drive is there to further educate oneself.
The culture in our company is very open, the hierarchies are flat.
Proactivity is therefore a crucial criterion.
We want people who have ideas of their own accord and don't wait for instructions on what to do.
"Many are no longer looking for profit maximization, but for the feeling of doing something useful."
Hans Bongartz
A hard skill that we do need is digital competence.
Everyday work is changing, we communicate a lot via video calls.
Above all, however, we are developing more into a green tech company - it is important to be able to use technology confidently.
We are also an international company - that means that we talk to each other more and more in English.
This also includes preparing presentations.
You don't have to come to us and speak perfect English.
But we are already asking ourselves: Is there a willingness to learn?
Then we are happy to help with courses.
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The aim of LichtBlick is to change the energy market and make it more sustainable.
That is why the applicants' value orientation is also important to us.
Most of the people who come to us meet them.
Many are no longer looking for profit maximization, but for the feeling of doing something useful.
You want to have a say and help shape from a young age.
That is very important to us. "
De Haan:
»Hard skills like programming are not that crucial, because most applicants have a basic understanding of digital technology anyway.
With the tools and courses that are available today, you can learn how to program a self-driving car in two months - in the future, most programs will write themselves anyway.
The so-called 21st Century Skills are therefore more important: creativity, communication skills, collaboration.
Studies have shown that the overall intelligence of a group is higher, the more heterogeneous it is.
So there is no point in packing the supposedly smartest people together - diverse groups are more productive.
And then you bring your respective skills to bear in these teams.
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Most of the time, someone has to know how to code, but not all of them. Someone else doesn't understand anything about this, but can pitch projects and structure the joint work. Therefore, a central competence of the future is to be able to work with people from different backgrounds - this also includes a kind of moderate humor and the ability to express sympathy. Lone fighters: it will be harder and harder inside.
Another skill that will become important is a basic understanding of data. We are in what is known as the fourth paradigm of science. First came the empiricism, then the theory, followed by the simulation - and now the fourth paradigm of data sets prevails. And that's basically what climate research does: processing huge amounts of data. You don't have to be able to do that yourself, but you should already understand how it all works. Because being able to act in the context of sustainability is becoming more and more important. "
Rosendahl:
»In the transformation that the entire automotive industry is currently undergoing, future-oriented skills are becoming increasingly important - for example, digital key competencies such as media skills, application know-how and a fundamental understanding of digitization and IT.
But also the development of new forms of work that require new skills in social and methodological skills.
What is central here: Everyone should be ready for lifelong learning and lifelong change.
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There is no such thing as one perfect résumé - our colleagues come from a wide variety of backgrounds.
More important for us is: who is the person behind the application?
What inspires our applicants?
What are you particularly strong at and what are you committed to?
Personal exchange with potential candidates is therefore important to us.
For this we use career and university fairs or recruiting events, for example.
We are currently relying more and more on digital formats - from digital trade fairs to digital hackathons with students. "
Scharf:
»We help young people get training.
Many of them have no straight résumés or did not do well in school - but that's only one side of the story.
The companies we work with tell us that they are looking for very classic soft skills: Basics such as reliability, punctuality and a sense of self-efficacy.
"We often see young people canceling an event two minutes before the start of an event."
Eva Scharf
First of all, this also requires a certain honesty: What do I bring with me, what can I do? And what else do I have to learn? We support young people in recognizing their resources and encourage them to communicate these openly in their job interviews. This applies to both competencies and gaps in the résumé. Having the courage to be honest then also means saying: ›I haven't done anything here for a year - and that's a good thing. Because now I am here and I know what I want.
We often see young people canceling an event two minutes before the start of an event. You have the feeling that this is perfectly fine - and it is with us too. But we prepare them so that this will not go down well in job interviews. What the young people all bring with them are spontaneity and flexibility, they are always available. At the same time, however, it is becoming more and more important to suggest social skills such as punctuality and commitment to them again. "