How did you learn how to solve a problem? Do you think you were taught it in school where problems are presented for you to solve, for example in exam papers, and where you were supposed to use the knowledge you had acquired to produce the ‘right’ answer? But what about real life were often the problem is new and there is no single correct answer? Do you then just settle for the first apparent solution which occurs to you – or do you first try to ascertain what the problem actually is and what are the relevant options for addressing it? asks Professor Simon Bridge.

Clearly problem solving is a useful in life not just in business. But is it nevertheless something that is not formally acknowledged by the education system as a skill to be acquired – and consequently are most people just left to pick it up as best as then can?

It is said that two consequences of the industrial revolution are contracts of employment and compulsory education. In areas like textile manufacturing, before the advent of steam powered machines and factories, much work such as spinning and weaving was ‘put out’ for people to do in their own homes at times of their choosing and for which they were paid, not for the time they spent, but for the work they completed.

But the new machines had to be located in factories where the power was and, to justify the investment in those factories, the machines needed to be operated in shifts to maximise their utilisation. So contracts of employment were introduced to formalise the agreement of people to come to the factories punctually to work in that way.

And compulsory education tried to ensure that there was an adequate supply of people able to undertake such work.

It is also said that the education system we have is essentially still based on that Victorian development – but does it prepare people to navigate life and work today? As well as traditional school subjects like maths and history, does it cover skills like problem solving, decision making, and critical thinking.

Instead of the work skills needed now, is it focused more on imparting knowledge to help students to go on to further or higher education, where many of them will further refine their knowledge acquisition, than on helping them to thrive in life where the ability to work with others, to participate in and contribute to society and even to manage themselves, are things that (almost) everyone needs but which don’t lead to exam passes and therefore are not valued as educational outcomes.

Navigating life requires a range of such skills, abilities and/or competencies as well as knowledge. The difference between a skill, a competency and an ability can be debated and many suggestions have been made for what they should include. However there is considerable consensus that, if people are to thrive in life, including being ‘work-ready’, ‘skill sets’ such as the following are very helpful:

Working with people (which involves empathising and communicating with them)
Self-management (being able to manage yourself)
citizenship (understanding and following society’s accepted rules and practices)
Critical thinking (the ability to question what you are told from a variety of sources)
Problem solving (because in life there often isn’t a single correct answer).
Decision making (again when you can’t just look up the right answer)
Creativity (which is about devising things which haven’t been done before)
Digital literacy (and safety)

The value of such ‘transversal’ skills (to borrow a label used by UNESCO) is now widely acknowledged and they are acquired, not by absorbing knowledge, but through practice – ideally combined with some guidance. Like sports skills, which many schools do address, they are not learnt while sitting in a classroom, but by actually trying to do them – and also they need to be assessed by performance in practical applications.

So, if you have a business, are these the skill sets you and your employees would like to have? But are they deliberately covered in our formal education? If not, why not – and what can you do to encourage their inclusion?