Introduction [English for 21st century skills]

Abstract

Even though education can never fully predict what young people will require in the future, it would be an ineffectual form of education if no attempt were made to pre-empt the kind of expectations that the world of work and society in general were to have of students. Moreover, due to the fact that education at times finds it hard to keep up with the rapid developments that young people face on a daily basis, it is imperative that current and future realities are addressed by what students engage with in the classroom. For this reason, it is widely agreed that contemporary school systems need to prepare young people to be successful participants in a rapidly changing and globalised world; this goal goes beyond the integration of traditional curriculum content to include skills and competencies that can enable young people to thrive both in the present and in the future. The current relevance of 21st century skills – also referred to as global skills or the ‘4C’s in education, i.e., communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity – is largely linked to advances in technology, socioeconomic developments, new geopolitical realities, and increased diversity and mobility. All this has made it possible for people to connect, learn, create and share in ways that would be unimaginable even as recently as the turn of this century. This has not come about without daunting challenges, however.