The World Economic Forum’s top 10 skills, and how young people learn them

Employers were asked which skills matter most in 2025 and which will matter more by 2030. Here is their list, in plain language, and what it means for a child who is two, nine or fifteen today.

What the report says

Every two years the World Economic Forum asks employers what skills their workforce will need next. The Future of Jobs Report 2025 drew on more than 1,000 employers, representing over 14 million workers in 55 economies. Its headline for parents is this: employers expect 39% of the skills workers use today to change or become outdated by 2030. The skills they rank highest are not subjects. They are ways of thinking and working that a child can begin to build long before the first job interview.

The ten skills, in the order employers rank them

1. Analytical thinkingWorking out what a problem actually is, what the evidence says and what to do next. Seven in ten employers call it essential, the highest of any skill.
2. Resilience, flexibility and agilityKeeping going when the first attempt does not work, and changing the plan without losing heart. One of the two skills whose importance has risen most since the last report.
3. Leadership and social influenceGetting a group to agree, divide the work and finish; persuading people who do not have to listen.
4. Creative thinkingComing up with ideas that are new and useful, then shaping them into something that can be made.
5. Motivation and self-awarenessKnowing what you are good at, what you still have to learn, and why you are doing the work at all.
6. Technological literacyUsing digital tools, including AI, with confidence and judgement: knowing what they are for and when not to trust them.
7. Empathy and active listeningUnderstanding what another person needs before deciding what to build or say for them.
8. Curiosity and lifelong learningAsking the next question, and being able to teach yourself something new when the job needs it.
9. Talent managementSpotting what other people do well and putting them in the right role; in a child, the beginnings of good teamwork.
10. Service orientation and customer serviceTaking a real person’s problem seriously and seeing it through to a result they can use.

Two further items are climbing fastest between now and 2030: AI and big data, and networks and cybersecurity. Both sit on top of the ten above rather than replacing them; a person who cannot analyse, adapt or persuade does not get far with either.

What the ten have in common

None of them can be learned by reading about them. Analytical thinking is built by working on a problem with a real answer; resilience by having a plan fail and trying again; leadership by being responsible for a group that has to finish something; empathy by listening to a real person describe what they need. They are learned by doing, and doing them well is a habit rather than a fact.

That is good news for families, because the doing can start early. A four-year-old who presents a model to the class is practising communication and confidence. A nine-year-old who sells lemonade and counts the float is practising analytical thinking and motivation. A fifteen-year-old who builds something for a community and tests it with the people who will use it is practising most of the list at once.

Ages 2 to 12: building the habits

CURIOOkids studios teach four Future Skills from the age of two: English Communication, Entrepreneurship, Creative Design and AI & Technology. Each is taught through projects sized for the age, with four learning behaviours developed and measured in every lesson: confidence, curiosity, collaboration and resilience. Set that against the report and the overlap is close. Curiosity and lifelong learning, resilience, creative thinking, technological literacy, leadership and empathy are all on the employers’ list, and all are practised by a child who makes something, shows it to others and improves it.

Studios run in fifteen countries through licensed partners. Find the studio network in your country.

Ages 13 to 17: one real project, finished

By secondary school the question changes from building habits to proving them. The Signature Project is a twelve-week online programme in which a student aged 14 to 17 takes one idea of their own from a plan to something real: a venture, a build or a campaign, tested with the people it is for, with a mentor and a small cohort alongside. They finish with a portfolio case study and a showcase pitch that show, in their own words and evidence, what they can do.

Map that against the report and it covers the top of the list directly: analytical thinking in working out the problem, creative thinking in designing the answer, resilience when the first version fails, motivation and self-awareness in choosing and owning the project, and leadership and empathy in testing it with real people. See how the twelve weeks work, or use the Project Finder to find a project sized for your child.

Three things a parent can do this term

First, let a project finish. A thing that is made, tested and shown teaches more than three things started. Second, ask the question employers ask: not “what did you learn?” but “what did you make, who was it for, and what happened when they used it?” Third, treat a failed attempt as the lesson rather than the end; the report’s second-ranked skill is built almost entirely on second attempts.

Source. World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2025, January 2025, chapter 3, Skills outlook. Rankings and figures are the report’s; the descriptions of each skill are ours.