Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Skills aren’t soft or hard — they’re durable or perishable

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This article offers an alternative to the classification of skills as 'soft skills' and 'hard skills'. It's an especially attractive alternative to 'hard skills' thought of as content knowledge and the place where we ought to put most of our efforts. Matthew Daniel uses the tree as a metaphor to introduce is to 'durable' (formerly 'soft') skills and perishable (formerly 'hard') skills. "If we only train team members for perishable skills such as how to use the latest version of a platform or how to navigate our newest process," says Daniel, " we're ultimately limiting how effectively our talent can move between roles and job families... The heavy focus on short-term ROI and the delivery of narrow skill sets oft-evangelized in L&D circles may well be the very source of the "skills shortage" industries face today.\"

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 22, 2024 3:16 p.m.

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