5 future skills our students will need

Ken Beatty
A silhouette of several buisness people stood by a desk, in the background are skyscrapers.

Elevator to the future: English skills

“Would it be safer to take the stairs?”

The question came to mind in Montreal last week when I visited a 1929 apartment building and came face-to-face with its equally ancient caged elevator. An elderly woman shooed me inside the polished brass and oak confection and, as we ascended, confided that there was still an elevator operator when she first moved into the building.

Ah, an elevator operator – it’s a career and skill set we’ve almost forgotten. But just as hard as it is for us to imagine doing a job that only involves opening and closing doors and pressing buttons, an elevator operator from 50 years ago would find it impossible to imagine much of today’s work. And, in turn, we may not be able to imagine the jobs our students will have in the coming years. Fortunately, imagining the education that will take our students there is less difficult.

To educate today’s students, we should heed the advice of Ali ibn Abi Talib (599-661 CE): “Do not raise your children the way your parents raised you; they were born for a different time”.

Today’s students are different in five key ways: visual learning, collaboration, critical and creative thinking, digital involvement, and control of their learning.

1. Developing visual literacy

Today’s learners grew up with the rich multimedia of computers and are used to exploring ideas independently. They’re less dependent on teachers for the information they want, and often find it in surprising ways. For example, avoiding dictionary definitions and instead doing image searches to understand new words.

What you can do

Develop students’ visual literacy. Do they know the differences between bar charts, pie charts and Gantt charts? Can they interpret the data in line graphs and Venn diagrams? Can they apply what they know to present and explain ideas in dynamic ways? Expose students to a range of visual formats, from illustrations to diagrams, and give them tasks where they have to use them.

2. Encouraging collaboration

Schools were traditionally organized around competition, aimed at separating the most able students from the least able. But teachers today can’t ignore those who seem less able; we need to be more like doctors, devoting the greater part of our time and resources to those who need it most. Our aim should be to bring everyone up to the same level.

What you can do

Collaboration involves offering more tasks where students can help each other, particularly getting more able and less able students to work together to benefit from peer teaching. More able students may resist, but remind them that one who teaches learns twice.

3. Facilitating critical and creative thinking

Critical thinking has become far more important than schools’ traditional focus on memorization. Employers expect that students will become problem solvers. Gone is the factory model of employees doing repetitive jobs; those are now more efficiently and effectively done by machines.

What you can do

Traditionally, teachers have asked questions for which they know the answer and for which there is only one answer. Try to ask more open-ended questions for which there may be multiple answers. Ask questions to which you don’t know the answer. Encourage creativity. Ask students to brainstorm, and then use analytical skills to determine the best answers.

4. Leveraging the digital environment

Today’s students are digital natives. They first learned to type on digital keyboards and, since then, have embraced phones as a key resource. English writer Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) said there were two kinds of knowledge: knowing a thing or knowing where to find it. For today’s students, finding information has never been easier.

What you can do

Many teachers dread phones in the classroom, but they are powerful computers that let students connect to online learning resources and learn what they want, when, and where they want. Steer students toward using their phones to improve their English but also teach them to be reflective about the sources of the information they choose to use.

5. Offering autonomy

Today’s students are too often referred to as clients, suggesting that the teacher-student relationship is no more than a business arrangement. It’s wrong to think so but, at the same time, we recognize that today’s students are savvy about assessing what they need to learn and how they would prefer to learn it. They have grown up with ideas about multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1993).

What you can do

Open a dialog with your students to see if they have learning preferences and whether these preferences can be accommodated in the classroom. Give more individual projects letting students choose topics based on their needs and interests.

Even among elevator operators, there were those who were better or worse at their jobs. Perhaps the greatest skill for students today is a sense that they need to take responsibility and examine the needs of any task or career that interests them, and figure out how to learn the skills that will get them there.

Reference

Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books.

More blogs from ɫèAV

  • A teacher sat with young students while they work and hold crayons

    Icebreaker activities for the beginning of the school year

    By
    Reading time: 3 minutes

    The beginning days of school are both exciting and occasionally nerve-wracking for teachers and students alike. Everyone is adjusting to new faces, routines and a fresh environment. As a teacher, you can help make this shift smooth, inviting and enjoyable. One effective way to achieve this is by using icebreaker activities.

    Icebreakers are simple games or activities that help students get to know each other, feel comfortable and start building a positive classroom community. When students feel connected, they are more likely to participate, help each other and enjoy learning. Here are some easy-to-use icebreaker activities and tips for making the beginning of the school year memorable for everyone. Here are just a few ideas for icebreakers you can use in your classroom.

  • A teacher with students stood around him while he is on a tablet

    How AI and the GSE are powering personalized learning at scale

    By
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    In academic ops, we’re always finding the balance between precision and practicality. On one side: the goal of delivering lessons that are level-appropriate, relevant and tied to real learner needs. On the other hand, we juggle hundreds of courses, support teachers, handle last-minute changes and somehow keep the whole system moving without losing momentum or our minds.

    That’s exactly where AI and the Global Scale of English (GSE) have changed the game for us at Bridge. Over the past year, we’ve been using AI tools to streamline lesson creation, speed up course design and personalize instruction in a way that’s scalable and pedagogically sound.

    Spoiler alert: it’s working.

    The challenge: Customization at scale

    Our corporate English learners aren’t just “students”. They’re busy professionals: engineers, sales leads, analysts. They need immediate impact. They have specific goals, high expectations and very little patience for anything that feels generic.

    Behind the scenes, my team is constantly:

    • Adapting content to real company contexts
    • Mapping GSE descriptors to measurable outcomes
    • Designing lessons that are easy for teachers to deliver
    • Keeping quality high across dozens of industries and levels

    The solution: Building personalized courses at scale

    To address this challenge, we developed an internal curriculum engine that blends the GSE, AI and practical, job-focused communication goals into a system that can generate full courses in minutes.

    It is built around 21 workplace categories, including Conflict Resolution, Business Travel and Public Speaking. Each category has five lessons mapped to CEFR levels and GSE descriptors, sequenced to support real skill development.

    Then the fun part: content creation. Using GPT-based AI agents trained on GSE Professional objectives, we feed in a few parameters like:

    • Category: Negotiation
    • Lesson: Staying Professional Under Pressure
    • Skills: Speaking (GSE 43, 44), Reading (GSE 43, 45)

    In return, we get:

    • A teacher plan with clear prompts, instructions and model responses
    • Student slides or worksheets with interactive, GSE-aligned tasks
    • Learning outcomes tied directly to the descriptors

    Everything is structured, leveled and ready to go.

    One Example: “Staying Organized at Work”

    This A2 lesson falls under our Time Management module and hits descriptors like:

    • Reading 30: Can ask for repetition and clarification using basic fixed expressions
    • Speaking 33: Can describe basic activities or events happening at the time of speaking

    Students work with schedules, checklists and workplace vocabulary. They build confidence by using simple but useful language in simulated tasks. Teachers are fully supported with ready-made discussion questions and roleplay prompts.

    Whether we’re prepping for a quick demo or building a full 20-hour course, the outcome is the same. We deliver scalable, teacher-friendly, learner-relevant lessons that actually get used.

    Beyond the framework: AI-generated courses for individual learner profiles

    While our internal curriculum engine helps us scale structured, GSE-aligned lessons across common workplace themes, we also use AI for one-on-one personalization. This second system builds fully custom courses based on an individual’s goals, role, and communication challenges.

    One of our clients, a global mining company, needed a course for a production engineer in field ops. His English level was around B1 (GSE 43 to 50). He didn’t need grammar. He needed to get better at safety briefings, reports and meetings. Fast.

    He filled out a detailed needs analysis, and I fed the data into our first AI agent. It created a personalized GSE-aligned syllabus based on his job, challenges and goals. That syllabus was passed to a second agent, preloaded with the full GSE Professional framework, which then generated 20 complete lessons.

    The course looked like this:

    • Module 1: Reporting project updates
    • Module 2: Supply chain and logistics vocabulary
    • Module 3: Interpreting internal communications
    • Module 4: Coordination and problem-solving scenarios
    • Module 5: Safety presentation with feedback rubric

    From start to finish, the course took under an hour to build. It was tailored to his actual workday. His teacher later reported that his communication had become noticeably clearer and more confident.

    This was not a one-off. We have now repeated this flow for dozens of learners in different industries, each time mapping everything back to GSE ranges and skill targets.

    Why it works: AI + GSE = The right kind of structure

    AI helps us move fast. But the GSE gives us the structure to stay aligned.

    Without it, we’re just generating content. With it, we’re creating instruction that is:

    • Measurable and appropriate for the learner’s level
    • Easy for teachers to deliver
    • Consistent and scalable across programs

    The GSE gives us a shared language for goals, outcomes and progress. That is what keeps it pedagogically sound.

    Final thought

    A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed we could design a 20-lesson course in under an hour that actually delivers results. But now it’s just part of the workflow.

    AI doesn’t replace teaching. It enhances it. And when paired with the GSE, it gives us a way to meet learner needs with speed, clarity, and purpose. It’s not just an upgrade. It’s what’s next.

  • Children sat at desks in a classroom with their hands all raised smiling

    Back to school: Inclusive strategies to welcome and support students from day one

    By
    Reading time: 3 minutes

    As the new school year begins, teachers have an opportunity to set the tone for inclusion, belonging and respect. With the right strategies and activities, you can ensure every student feels seen, heard and valued from the very first day. Embracing diversity isn’t just morally essential: it’s a proven pathway to deeper learning, greater engagement and a more equitable society (Gay, 2018).

    Research consistently shows that inclusive classrooms foster higher academic achievement, improved social skills and increased self-esteem for all students (Banks, 2015). When students feel safe and respected, they are more likely to take risks, collaborate and reach their full potential.