Social and emotional skills have become «trendy» in the field of skills policy. There is reason to believe that these skills will be even more in demand after the corona crisis.

Skills needs are about more than school brightness and are not easy to predict.

Statistical projections of supply of and demands for formal education are widely used in analyses of skills needs (Cappelen, Dapi, Gjefsen, Sparman, & Stølen, 2018). An objection to using such projections is that there is no automation in using what has happened in the past to predict what will happen in the future (Øverland & Koch, 2019). In recent years, artificial intelligence has gained a greater place in the analysis of skills needs, as have social and emotional skills (Ministry of Education, 2020).

It has been said for a long time that changes in the labour market have never happened more frequent than now and these days this is gaining more meaning, becoming more true with each day passing. Covid-19 is not included as a condition in the skills projections of Statistics Norway but is an example that statistical prognosis of needs and demands for educational levels is not enough to make a complete projection of a society’s skills needs. When the corona crisis is over, many companies will re-build and in Norway, as well as in other countries, more capacities than cognitive skills will have to be evaluated and used.

When the corona crisis occurred, it felt like being in a state of war and this may give associations to World War II. History books tell us that in Norway, the post-war period was characterised by unity and consensus. The country was to be re-built and people realised that the only way to do this, was to stand together. Using the skills policy perspective of our times, we may say that social and emotional skills were highly valued at that time. There is good reason to expect that the same will happen in a future – hopefully – not too far away from us.

Social and emotional skills are important for the Norwegian labour market.

Research on emotional and social skills shows – among other things – that such skills can be taught, and that they have a huge impact on individuals’ job career, as well on school achievements (Heckman & Kautz, 2013). Deming found evidence that social and emotional skills have become important in the tasks that robots cannot replace (Deming 2017).

The OECD has also done research on social and emotional skills, based on the Big Five model of psychology (OECD 2015). In the Spring 2019, the Norwegian market research agency Opinion performed a telephone survey on behalf of Skills Norway’s employer survey. In this survey, we asked Norwegian business leaders about social and emotional skills, and a range selection of skills operationalised from the Big Five model (Berg, Bjønness & Tkachenko, 2020). The respondents replied that these skills were very important for their companies. We cannot know this since we don’t have the data, but we guess the respondents would have evaluated these skills as even more important if we have run the same survey these days.

The ability to think in new ways is vital in times of change

Some of the professions that suddenly have been threatened these days, are among those professions that have received gloomy predictions due to new technology and automation. Perhaps some managers now will defy the arrival of robots and allow employees to do manual and routine-based tasks and retain their jobs? And which skills will the business leaders see as important when Skills Norway performs the same employer survey in spring 2021? This is for those are still alive then, to see!

Sources

Berg, L. B., Bjønness, A. M., & Tkachenko, O. (2020). Virksomhetsbarometeret 2019. Arbeidslivets kompetansebehov handler om mer enn fagkunnskap Business barometeret 2019. Oslo: Kompetanse Norge.

Cappelen, Å., Dapi, B., Gjefsen, H. M., Sparman, V., & Stølen, N. M. (2018). Framskrivinger av arbeidsstyrken og sysselsettingen etter utdanning mot 2035. Oslo/Kongsvinger: SSB. 

Deming, D. J. (2017). The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol 132(4), ss. 1593-1640.

Heckman, J. J., & Kautz, T. (2013). Fostering and Measuring Skills: Interventions That Improve Character and Cognition. NBER Working Paper No. 19656. Chicago: NBER.

Kunnskapsdepartementet. (2020). NOU 2020:2. Fremtidige kompetansebehov III. Læring og kompetanse i alle ledd . Oslo: Kunnskapsdepartementet.

OECD. (2015). Skills for Social Progress. The Power of Social and Emotional Skills. Paris: OECD.

Øverland, E. F., & Koch, P. (2019, oktober 28). Vi må tenke nytt i forsknings- og innovasjonspolitikken. Hentet fra Forskningspolitikk: https://www.fpol.no/vi-ma-tenke-nytt-i-forsknings-og-innovasjonspolitik…

Berg, L. B., Bjønness, A. M., & Tkachenko, O. (2020). Virksomhetsbarometeret 2019. Arbeidslivets kompetansebehov handler om mer enn fagkunnskap. Oslo: Kompetanse Norge.