A female child needs digital skills too

Digitally Skilled Children; A Necessity For the Future

When it comes to raising digitally skilled children; it is not only a good idea, rather is it a necessity for the future. As a result, there is a great need to equip them with digital skills. This is needed to prepare them for a rapidly changing future and its challenges.

One of these challenges is job hunting. The scarcity of jobs in Nigeria and the continent of Africa is a reason for concern. However, the problem started with a poor educational system.

The World Economic Forum maintains that African educational systems are struggling to keep pace with other nations globally and confess, that our curriculum needs to be geared towards more critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence.Digitally skilled female

According to the World Economic Forum, more than 60% of Sub Saharan Africa’s population is under 25 years of age and expected to continue to grow.

This goes to show that jobs will be scarce, and every child who depends on the already failing educational system would be at a disadvantage.

It is a great, if not superb idea, to ensure your child learns a digital skill today, and they can develop on that skill as time goes on.

Learning itself is a skill, and developing it is a critical driver of long-term career success. People who have mastered the mindsets and skills of effective learning can grow faster than their peers. They also gain more from all the learning opportunities that come their way. As a result, children who learn the skills of being intentional learners will thrive. This is because they see learning as an almost unconscious and reflexive form of behaviour.

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Digital Skills Children can learn

  1. Coding
  2. Data Analysis
  3. Creativity/ Creative writing
  4. Communication
  5. UX Designing

And so much more!

How to Help Children with Digital Skills

  1. Help them find what they care about, and can do for hours now, and link it to a digital skill.
  2. Connect them to a professional in the field, for coaching and mentoring.
  3. Focus on lifelong learning, that is, helping the children learn how to adapt digitally, and ensure employability.
  4. Stay connected and engaged.
  5. Work on developing a Growth Mindset. According to Stanford psychologist, Carol Dweck’s popular work on growth she suggests that people hold one of two sets of beliefs when it comes to their own abilities; either a fixed or a growth mindset.

According to LinkedIn, most recruiters who look for talented applicants to give jobs, now focus more on the skills of such a person, and not just his or their job title.[Read more about how the focus has shifted from job titles to skills.]

This guarantees that your child will be relevant in his or her field when the time for recruitment comes.

65% of students starting their first year in school this year will do jobs that don’t exist yet- World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum recently declared a reskilling emergency as the world faces more than one billion jobs transformed by technology.

It is more critical than ever before for children to learn various digital skills.

The pandemic has only heightened the urgency of doubling down on skill-building, either to keep up with the speed of transformation now underway or to manage the particulars of working in new ways.

[Read here on how the Vice President agrees]

Children who are exposed to digital skills now will be in the best position for the future.

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