Future-proof skills are skills, pieces of knowledge, and attitudes that will help you succeed in a rapidly changing world, today and in the future.

They can be both professional and generic competencies. Future-proof skills do not emerge on their own – they need to be developed systematically by integrating different areas or activities. For example, problem-solving skills, cooperation, critical thinking, entrepreneurship, and creativity can be fostered through learning by letting students from different disciplines work in teams to solve societal problems.

We have reached an agreement that the acquisition of future-proof professional skills is underpinned by generic competencies such as entrepreneurship, digital skills, maths and physics, sustainable development skills, and life skills (for example, study skills, teamwork, etc).

In the coming months, working groups of schools will develop the descriptions of generic skills and learning outcomes that every TalTech graduate must achieve. This is our commitment to students and employers alike. The working groups will be led by Sirje Ustav (entrepreneurship), Kristjan Rebane (digital skills), Alar Leibak (maths and physics), Tiia Plamus (sustainable development), and Kärt Kase (life skills). The working groups will present their results in March 2024. After that, we need to analyse our curricula to see how these competencies are currently being developed and how they could be developed in the future.

The development of programmes containing future-proof skills is also supported by the EU support measures that became available this autumn, such as ‘Green skills to support the green transition of enterprises’, ‘Skill reform for the digital transition of enterprises’, and an international EuroTeQ project where we create new study opportunities for students, lecturers, and support staff in partnership with top European universities of technology.

Karoliina Rebane, Member of the Student Council: ‘A curriculum can contain all of the professional knowledge and skills needed on the current labour market, but it is not enough. We are no longer talking about expanding our horizons, but about the clear need to keep up with changes in society to cope with life. Green skills for ensuring the sustainability of our living environment as well as self-regulation and mental health skills have a central role in this.’

Ivar Annus, Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs of the School of Engineering: ‘I believe that we got the timing right because CDIO, the International Engineering Alliance, and the EuroTeQ consortium recently proposed their models of future-proof skills. I think that we as a university need to rethink what the generic skills acquired at TalTech are that distinguish our graduates on the labour market. I consider it important that every graduate of TalTech also learns the basic knowledge, attitudes, and competencies of an engineer in addition to the current model, where all students are offered a strong knowledge base in business or IT, which would only increase the value of our specialists on the labour market.’