Stakeholder’s Perspectives of the Twenty-First Century Skills

Abstract

Today, the shift toward technology industries has made the applicable skills in high demand in the workforce. However, job training and education in general have not changed enough to keep up with the on-going trends. Concerns over the skills gap in our global workforce have exploded. In response to the demands of labor market and to close the skills gap, educational institution should focus on supporting skill development to cultivate the competencies that students need, making education in twenty-first century skills essential to prepare the students for the new and unknown in this fast-changing world of technology. This research aims to investigate the importance of twenty-first century skills for the employability of undergraduate students. The findings indicate that twenty-first century skills are the needed employability attributes, which transcend beyond qualifications and experience, that employers are looking for. It is also discovered from this study that the most effective way to attain twenty-first century skill is to focus on integrating twenty-first century knowledge and skills into the education support systems for our nation to realize its goal of successfully meeting the challenge of the twenty-first century.