Meta-skills are untaught, timeless, higher order skills that create adaptive learners; able to succeed whatever the future brings.
From birth, children use and develop Meta-skills as they test and explore the world around them. They provide the keys to unlock the acquisition of other transferable and technical skills.
As children and young people progress through their education, it is essential that people nurture and develop their Meta-skills so they can navigate a world which is increasingly complex and unpredictable.
The learning environment should make Meta-skills explicitly visible for all learners and create opportunities for them to recognise, understand, articulate and record their skills development.
Skills 4.0
The Skills 4.0 model from Skills Development Scotland proposes 12 Meta-skills organised under three themes:
Self-Management: Manage the now
Coping with on-going change to support wellbeing, growth, performance and productivity.
Social Intelligence: Connect with the world
Connecting and collaborating with others to effectively navigate and negotiate complex social relationships and environments.
Innovation: Create our own change
Defining and creating significant positive change.
Each uses their own, often subtly different, skills language, but what is clear is that all these models describe the same underpinning themes as the essential skills for the future. The ability for self-management, to build and maintain complex relationships and to be creative in identifying, analysing, and solving problems. Each meta-skill should not be considered in isolation. The many interdependencies between them mean each one supports the development and draws on the application of others across the model. For example, an individual needs the capacity to focus on a challenge to allow for creativity and innovation in coming up with solutions. They will then need initiative to make their ideas become a reality. Concepts such as emotional intelligence, enterprise and confidence are all constructed from selected underlying meta-skills.
