1. 1
Essential Skills for the 21st
Century Workplace
– steps to reaching the top ©
Presented by: Earl Okezie
MD/CEO, WordmartNigeria
080-33-196-190, earl.okezie@gmail.com

2. Agenda
 As it was in the
beginning, isn’t so now
 Why workplace skills?
 Essential skills for the 21st
century workplace
 Where do I go from here?
- Self audit
- Set goals
- Constant reviews

3. Why Workplace Skills?
 Provides foundation for learning all other skills
 Provides a cornerstone for life-long learning
 Your education, training and career options are limited
without these essential workplace skills
 Provides essential keys to a brighter future
“It takes more to be successful in the workplace and in overall society”.

4. Workplace Skills Before Now
 Reading
 Writing
 Arithmetic
 Brawn
Very perfect for the industrial age
“it takes more to be successful in the workplace
and in overall society”.

5. Essential skills for the 21st Century
Workplace
 Reading
 Document use
 Numeracy/computational thinking
skills
 Effective oral & written
Communication skills
 Critical thinking/problem solving
skills
 Working with others
 Digital technology/computer literacy
 Continuous learning

6. Reading Skills
Ability to
read, understand and
interpret work-related
documents:
 Reports, financial
statements
 e-mails, memos
 manuals, product
information,
 tables, charts, diagrams,
schedules and maps

7. Document Use
 Finding and using the
information you need or
putting information in where
it’s needed -
 Documents – reports, user
manuals, financial
statements, proposals
 Memos, letters, forms
 Charts, tables, graphs, tech
nical drawings
 Books, journals, newsletter
s

8. Numeracy/Computational thinking
Ability to use numbers and
think mathematically:
 To measure
 Calculate
 To estimate
 To analyse
 To work with money
 To draw up/interpret
budgets

9. Effective oral/written communication
Skills
“Communication skills are extremely
important. Unfortunately, both
written and oral skills are often
ignored in engineering schools, so
today we have many engineers with
excellent ideas and a strong case to
make, but they don’t know how to
make that case. If you can’t make
the case, no matter how good the
science and technology may be,
you’re not going to see your ideas
reach fruition.”- George Heilmeier,
corporate executive of Bellcore, in
Educating Tomorrow’s Engineers,”
ASEE Prism, May/June 1995, p. 12.

10. Critical thinking/Problem solving skills
 Critical thinking –
ability to look at a
situation, take it apart,
and put it back
together in a new way
 Problem solving –
ability to look at a
problem from different
perspectives, and
come up with a unique
and workable solution

11. Critical thinking skills

12. Working with People
 Are you a team player?
 Do you work for the good of the
team?
 Are you able to carry others along?
 Are you a good listener?
 Are you an effective communicator?
 Can you transfer/share
information/knowledge?
 Do you hoard information?
 How do you handle criticism?
 Do you respect other peoples’
opinions/views?

13. Computer Literacy/Digital Technology -
1
“Computer literacy, the ability to
use computers to perform a
variety of tasks, is becoming
fundamental to the learning
process. The "information age"
perhaps best describes the
twentieth century; the next
century has been described as
the "information processing"
age. A wide variety of computer
skills are useful and, in some
cases required, as an essential
part of college learning and
employment for most
individuals...” – University of
Minnesota

14. Computer Literacy/Digital Technology -
2
 Do you know how to operate a
computer?
 Can you evaluate your ability to
use e-mail and Internet to
communicate and locate
information?
 Can you evaluate your word
processing ability?
 Can you assess your ability to
create a worksheet using
spreadsheet software?
 Can you assess your skills for
creating and manipulating a
database?
 Can you evaluate your skills for
creating and manipulating graphic
files?
 How can you apply general

15. Continuous Learning
“Never become so much of an expert
that you stop gaining expertise. View
life as a continuous learning
experience.’ - Anonymous
“If you work on always getting better and
staying on top of new technologies
and information you will do great no
matter what level of education you
complete or where your degree
comes from. So definitely get in your
fancy book Learnin’, but also keep
your eyes open to all types of learning
opportunities. ” – Justin Himebaugh
“it takes more to be successful in the workplace and in overall society”.

16. Where Do I Go From Here?
 Conduct a self-audit of your
workplace skills set to enable
you uncover gaps
 Determine the critical gaps you
need to cover in order of priority
 Ask yourself what you need to
do to cover these gaps
 Set goals and targets for
acquiring these skills
 Constantly Review your goals
and targets to ascertain levels
of progress.

17. “To succeed in today’s
workplace, young people
need more than basic
reading and math skills. They
need substantial content
knowledge and information
technology skills; advanced
thinking skills, flexibility to
adapt to change; and
interpersonal skills to
succeed in multi-cultural,
cross-functional teams.”
- J. Willard Marriott, Jr.,
Chairman and CEO, Marriott
International, Inc.