Critical Core Skills - What They Are And Why They Matter

This article was written with reference to the inaugural Skills Demand for the Future Economy Report that was published in 2021. A latest report has been published in 2022. Click to read the latest Skills Demand for the Future Economy Report 2022 and an updated article on Critical Core Skills.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of technology, pushing the Singapore economy towards rapid transformation. With the increase of digitalisation and adoption of technology at the workplace, there has never been a more important time to take stock of your skills.

So, what are the key skills needed to thrive, be it in a growing or sluggish economy? In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on soft skills as part of the future work in the digital era. 

Interested to understand what exactly soft skills are, and how they can benefit your career? Read on to find out more.

Soft skills are broadly defined as a set of observable transferable behaviours that can be applied across sectors, functional areas and job roles. In one of SkillsFuture Singapore’s webinars "Skills in Demand at Workplace for Now and Future", Charlene Tan, Regional Sales Director from Workday highlighted how soft skills represent a person’s emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) and social intelligence. 

In today’s competitive labour market, individuals who demonstrate a combination of soft and hard skills are seen as talents in demand. Hence, it is important to complement your soft skills with technical skill sets to become an all-rounded individual. It is also noteworthy to highlight how soft skills have grown in importance, and are now regarded as critical core skills. 

To support holistic workforce skills development, SkillsFuture Singapore has consulted closely with local industries to formulate sixteen Critical Core Skills (CCS) competencies which are soft skills that are deemed essential in the workplace.

Individuals who need to equip themselves with critical core skills to remain relevant in their current job role. These critical core skills will come in handy when acquiring the technical skills needed for job roles that they serve in and provide the platform to help them seize new career development opportunities. 

Employers who are looking to train well-rounded employees and have them equipped with critical core as well as technical skills. Critical core skills will enable organisations to stay nimble and agile by reskilling and upskilling their employees.

Under the Singapore Skills Framework, these are the top five critical core skills valued at work:

• Communication (Basic)

• Developing People (Basic)

• Digital Fluency (Basic)

• Collaboration (Intermediate)

• Problem Solving (Intermediate)

While these five soft skills may be highly prized, learning about these five merely scratches the surface of soft skills understanding. There are a total of sixteen soft skills under CCS that can be picked up and applied across all industries. 

Grouped into three clusters of skills, here’s a breakdown on each of these critical core skills and how they can help you in your career. 

This cluster sums up the cognitive skills needed for broad and creative thinking. These skills help individuals see connections and opportunities. Cognitive skills are the root of technical skills development and progression.

Creative Thinking
considers and connects multiple ideas and information to form solutions or develop new ways of working. Known to champion innovation and creativity, these individuals tend to be experimental and enjoy thinking outside the box - pushing boundaries and reshaping current processes at work. 

Decision Making
involves the process of implementing a structured decision or course of action from multiple sources of information. This skill helps in analysing risks, possibilities and determining the ideal solution that aligns with the organisation goals. 

Problem Solving
refers to the ability to handle difficult or unexpected situations by generating effective and efficient solutions. These individuals are quick to identify problems and collaborate with others to evaluate and capitalise issues into new opportunities.

Sense Making
interprets and analyses information to identify or recognise patterns and opportunities. People with sense making skills are able to link disparate information to form actionable insights and conclusions. 

Transdisciplinary Thinking
applies concepts from multiple disciplines to supplement their knowledge to make decisions and solve problems. Transdisciplinary Thinking allows individuals to establish connections and synthesise information extracted from different disciplines to develop new insights. 

The ‘Interacting with Others’ cluster has all to do with people relations. Learning from other individuals is one of the most effective ways to acquire new skills and ideas. 

Effective interaction with others means putting others’ needs first, being open to exchanging ideas and building a shared understanding of a problem or situation. 

Building Inclusivity
represents the skill to manage relationships across diverse groups within an organisation. Individuals with this skill are sensitive towards the differences in diversity dimensions and perspectives such as race, religion, gender orientation, age and more. These individuals seek to establish a common ground among stakeholders and often seek out their best interests.

Collaboration
is being cooperative and a good team player. Collaborative individuals create synergies with others and build effective relationships across the organisation. They are accommodating to different working styles and often seek out win-win outcomes to achieve goals.

Communication
encompasses the art of conveying and exchanging information effectively and clearly. People who are well versed in communication skills can synthesise their responses to suit different audiences through various mediums and approaches. They are able to facilitate two-way interactions, identify and overcome communication gaps as well.

Customer Orientation
is the ability to build relationships with customers, both internal and external, to anticipate their needs and solicit feedback to deliver an effective customer experience. These are individuals with great interpersonal and problem-solving skills. They are often able to identify areas of improvement and appropriate service recovery interventions. 

Developing People
demonstrates a leadership quality that seeks to empower themselves and others to learn, and develop their strengths to enhance performance. People with this skill take delight in coaching and supporting co-workers to foster a conducive environment of enablement. They do so with the end motive of achieving personal or organisation goals.

Influence
comes from the ability to demonstrate empathy and communicate well. These individuals tend to have high emotional intelligence. They are able to build effective relationships with people and influence behaviours, beliefs or attitudes to achieve desired outcomes.

This cluster is all about effective self-management and staying on top of trends. The skills needed are tied closely to trends impacting work and living that provide strategies, direction and motivation for technical skill development. 

Adaptability
is the ability to exercise flexibility in behaviours or approaches to respond to changes. Stemmed from a level of self-awareness, adaptable individuals typically respond well in the face of uncertainty. With this awareness, they are often able to identify potential development areas in their work performance and skill up. 

These people are collaborative, quick on their feet to come up with risk mitigation or management strategies to deconflict and resolve issues.

Digital Fluency
is knowing how to use the right digital tools, technology and software across work processes and activities to problem solve, drive efficiency and make information sharing easy. 

Digitally fluent individuals champion digital culture and encourage digital implementation at work. They adopt a digital mindset and take advantage of emerging technology tools to improve work productivity. 

Global Perspective
demonstrates an awareness and understanding of global challenges and opportunities. It is the ability to identify barriers to workplace diversity and inclusion and work well in a cross-cultural environment.

Learning Agility 
has to do with continuous learning. People with learning agility are able to deploy different learning approaches to facilitate continuous career development. They are receptive towards knowledge sharing and champion self-reflection and the importance of feedback among team members.

Self Management
is about taking ownership of one’s effectiveness, personal brand and well-being. Individuals who can self manage exercise a high level of self-awareness and practise self-care. They are able to identify red flags such as potential workload, stress triggers and mitigate such situations.

Here are steps you can take to equip yourself with Critical Core Skills to stay ahead.

1. Sign up for courses to close your skills gap

Click here for a list of courses for Critical Core Skills.

2. Learn more about the 16 Critical Core Skills

To learn more about the Critical Core Skills that matter to you:

• Find out specific details about the 16 critical core skills here.
• Check out SSG’s Skills Demand for the Future Economy Report 2022.