Future-Ready Skills
The Commission believes that to enhance American prosperity and ensure American competitiveness, the civic, education, and workforce systems must transform to create a collaborative ecosystem of multiple paths to thriving in adulthood and empower learners to choose the best postsecondary path for themselves. These strategies ensure that learners receive guidance throughout college, service, and work and that they continue to learn, earn industry-valued credentials, and advance civically, personally, and professionally.
The rapidly shifting demands of the global economy and American labor market mean that learners and employees will need to be increasingly adaptable. Developing durable skills and core competencies can help learners be “AI-proof” and provide stability through adaptability while also building their agency in the use of AI that may lead to greater innovation.1 As the evolution of AI continues to disrupt career pathways, educators should focus on embedding durable skill development through competency-based experiences both in and out of the classroom alongside fostering learners’ digital and AI literacy.
K-12 administrator in Indiana
“Are [employers] looking at their English and math grades or whatever to determine if that’s a successful student ... To me, it’s about the employability skills, collaboration, critical thinking, the resilience, the durable or soft skills. The current K-12 system doesn’t measure or have any way of indicating what success looks like within that.”
Related recommendation:
Validate and Demonstrate Essential Knowledge and CompetenciesStackable credentials are a sequence of portable, industry-recognized certificates, badges, or licenses that allow learners to validate skills incrementally and “stack” them over time toward higher-level qualifications, such as an associate or bachelor’s degree. Designing such credentials to validate learners’ durable skills and align to industry standards in high-demand occupations would better prepare learners to pivot in their careers. As labor market and business practices shift with technological advancements, the skills most in demand for employees will also continually change. A collaborative education and workforce ecosystem will allow for timely and responsive feedback loops about these changes and will support learners’ development of valued skills.
Related Promising Practices
QA Commons’ Essential Employability Qualities Certification
The Essential Employability Qualities certification provides students with the skills, knowledge, and attributes most sought by employers.
- WV
- UT
- TX
- PA
- MO
- MD
- LA
- KY
- KS
- IA
- IL
- CO
- AL
- Durable Skills
- Validate Competencies
- Employers
- Higher Education Leaders
- Philanthropists
New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership in North Carolina
New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership is a collaborative effort to address healthcare workforce recruitment, training, and retention.
- NC
- Break Down Silos
- Validate Competencies
- Early Exploration
- Non-Linear Pathways
- Financial Aid
- Employers
- Higher Education Leaders
- K-12 Educators & Leaders
- Philanthropists
Virginia Community Colleges FastForward
FastForward at Virginia Community Colleges is a short-term training program for high-demand industries, skilled trades, and education.
- VA
- Validate Competencies
- Non-Linear Pathways
- Advising and Mentoring
- Employers
- Higher Education Leaders
- Policymakers
Endnotes
- 1
Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie, Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the Age of AI: Experts Call for Radical Change Across Institutions, Social Structures (Imagining the Digital Future Center, Elon University, 2026), https://imaginingthedigitalfuture.org/reports-and-publications/human-resilience-in-the-age-of-ai.
