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"One of the hardest parts of building a career in 2019 is making sure you stay ahead of the curve. It can be hard to anticipate what skills the economy of tomorrow will require and which jobs will disappear thanks to technological developments. In order to make sure that workers stay in high demand among employers today and in the future, they need to constantly be learning new skills. LinkedIn analyzed hundreds of thousands of job postings in order to determine which skills companies need most in 2019. They found that employers are looking for workers with both soft skills and hard technical skills, and matched these skills with LinkedIn Learning courses that are free for the month of January. The most in-demand soft skill in 2019? Creativity. For those looking to cultivate this skill, LinkedIn recommends the following courses: Creativity Bootcamp, The Five-Step Creative Process, and Creativity: Generate Ideas in Greater Quantity and Quality."

"Ask anyone which professional skill is most in demand right now, and they'll likely say coding. But ask LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, and he'll give you a different answer. As head of the world's largest professional-networking site, Weiner presumably has access to more, and more detailed, employment information than any government. He knows what jobs people post, what jobs people have, and what jobs people want. And the biggest skills gap he says he sees in the United States is soft skills. What most employers want, Weiner says, are written communication, oral communication, team-building, and leadership skills. Never mind that salaries for coders (a median $103,560 in the US in 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) indicate that it's technical chops that are valued right now. Soft skills have staying power."

"If we collectively want to keep our jobs we must change the way we look at hard and soft skills. We have to find a way to redefine what they are, what is intensely human and what will remain our competitive advantage over the year in the advent of AI and job-threatening-robots.  With research showing that less and less importance is placed on conventional intelligence and with studies indicating that it can actually be counterproductive at work to employ too much of one's IQ while at the same time having organizations move away from formal education, what role does knowledge still play in this brave new world of soft skills and humanity? Professionals who attach a lot of their self-esteem to their intelligence will get bored easily, will get frustrated repeatedly and will feel less inclined to be truly engaged with their colleagues. What's the answer to that? Should they all aim lower to fit in? Is playing dumb a success condition? We have enough trouble getting passion and courage into ourselves and our people - if we now decide knowledge is superfluous what are we left with?"

"As anyone who's ever spent hours hunched over Candy Crush can attest, there's something special about games. Sure they're fun, but they can also be absorbing, frustrating, challenging and complex. Research has shown our brains are "wired for pleasure," and that games are an effective way to learn because they simulate adventure and keep our brains engaged and happy. But what exactly do we learn from them? In an era consumed with teaching 21st-century soft skills, are games any good at building critical thinking or collaboration skills? The answer is likely yes, but, much like games themselves, it's complicated. "What you'll find from the research is that it's very much dependent on, 'under certain types of conditions, certain types of skills seem to be developed,'" explains game designer and theorist Katie Salen, a former executive director at the nonprofit Institute of Play. "I never want to make claims that games writ-large for any kid-under any circumstances-teach these sort of skills.""

"In today's day and age, Google, Twitter and Pinterest are three of the largest employers in the United States and internationally. Are students gaining the skills that one might need to eventually apply to one of those tech giants, if they chose to do so? In the year 2017, what hard and soft skills should students be developing in order to succeed in the 21st century workplace? What about in the year 2020? 2050? Let's stick with the "now," for a moment. In a recent interview, EdSurge explored which skill sets lead to career success for students-but we didn't talk to anyone in K-12 or higher education. In fact, we interviewed three individuals-Alexandrea Alphonso, Ryan Greenberg, and Trisha Quan-from each of those aforementioned tech companies. While the thoughts and feelings of each of the folks we interviewed do not represent the opinions of their employers, each of these technology leaders offered their thoughts in this exclusive Q&A on equity and access, areas that formal education didn't prepare them for, and their advice for teachers working to prepare students for an ever-changing workplace."

"Although there are significant differences between giving a business presentation and performing as an actor, there is one huge similarity: rehearsal is the key to success. While this might seem obvious to you now, it's easy to put off rehearsal as more immediate concerns demand your attention. But you simply can't expect to give a powerhouse presentation when you haven't rehearsed sufficiently. So, let's consider smart lessons learned from an acting workshop and how to adapt these to create a concrete process for rehearsing your next presentation, sales pitch or speech."

"As society anticipates a future filled with artificial intelligence, experts are theorizing ways that we humans can outperform the computers that are being programmed to perfection. Some believe educators should focus on building soft skills like empathy and interpersonal communication so humans and robots can complement one another. However, other education thought leaders are ready to beat computers at their own game by teaching people to think like intelligent machines. Why do so many of our kids struggle with math problem-solving? Because they don't know where to start; they don't know how to decompose the problem. Heidi Williams The term for getting humans to think like computers has been coined Computational Thinking, and the idea is taking off. Author Heidi Williams can attest to its popularity after her book on the subject, No Fear Coding Computational Thinking Across the K-5 Curriculum, sold out at the International Society for Technology in Education conference. Inside the book, Williams breaks down computational thinking standards into four parts: 1. Formulating problems through data analysis, abstract models and algorithmic thinking; 2. Collecting, analyzing and presenting data; 3. Breaking down problems into parts and extracting information to understand the system in place; and 4. Using algorithmic thinking to develop sequences and testing automated solutions."