To cultivate a productive future workforce, schools must teach socio-emotional skills

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As we move towards an era that is increasingly digitised, we are witnessing a renewed focus on building leaders with capabilities that are uniquely human. Educators will increasingly play a key role in adjusting school curriculum that will develop the necessary skills in students to deal with challenges that arise due to the automation age.

Current educational and workforce training models as well as business approaches focus on developing cognitive skills and do not emphasise 'soft skills'. Increasingly, research suggests that apart from focusing on cognitive skills, education must include curriculum around emotional intelligence development such as emotional awareness and social skills that provides them with the ability to co-operate and collaborate with others, and to deal constructively with conflict. To build leaders who are future-ready, schools need to equip children with higher-level cognitive skills, particularly critical thinking, creativity, and complex information processing.

Emory University and its Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-based Ethics have developed a Social, Emotional, and Ethical (SEE) Learning Programme, grounded in the idea that education must be expanded to foster values and competencies that lead to greater happiness for both individuals and society, at large. With science behind compassion training (cognitive-based compassion training), the framework focuses on self, others, inter-dependence and systems. This would help people relate to and depend on each other, enabling them to navigate an increasingly complex world.

SEE Learning teaches attention and self-awareness, self-compassion, and self-regulation and helps develop greater self-confidence and self-acceptance. This creates the foundation for navigating emotions, accepting criticism, and dealing with setbacks constructively and with resilience and prevents incidents leading to excessive self-criticism or loss of self-worth that is often the reason for job dissatisfaction.

Gaining insights into how attitude and behaviour supports or hinders compassionate response, helps develop empathy, understand others’ emotions in order to generate a better understanding with less reactive judgment and use this to relate positively and constructively towards others. Training to attend to others, is an important component of empathy and willingness to make an effort to understand the viewpoints and emotions of others, even if their views differ from one’s own. It signals a willingness to collaborate with others, learn and respect from others’ perspectives, opinions, knowledge and experiences.

Interpersonal awareness helps us appreciate how we share social emotional needs, greatly impacts how other individuals affect us and how we affect them. It enables one to recognise and appreciate differences, while acknowledging underlying similarities such as a basic wish for happiness and well-being, creates a nuanced understanding of self and others that is an important aspect of relationship skills. SEE Learning can help build skills to navigate the relationships to a successful outcome, helping team building that is another vital component for corporate success.