21st Century Skills: A New Era in Leadership

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills---or P21---is a collective of leading organizations, such as Apple, Oracle, Ford, Microsoft, SAP, Dell, and others, who have come together to lobby federal and state government to make significant changes in the education system, and thus better prepare students for the new millenium.

No doubt everyone is familiar with the core subjects, such as Math, Science, History, Geography, and so on.

In addition to these, the P21 believes that students should learn:

- Global awareness
- Financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy
- Civic literacy
- Health literacy

The P21 framework also adds:

Learning and Innovation skills, including :

- Creativity and Innovation
- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
- Communication and Collaboration

Information. Media, and Technology skills, including:

- Information Literacy
- Media Literacy
- Information & Communication Technologies

Life and Career skills, including:

- Flexibility & Adaptability
- Initiative & Self-Direction
- Social & Cross-Cultural Skills
- Productivity & Accountability
- Leadership & Responsibility

In line with this, the PMI Educational Foundation, in partnership with DeVry University, is working with high schools, beginning with a pilot in the Philadelphia area, to offer project-driven courses. As we know, in the project management field, we touch on all these areas.

Imagine how much more effective businesses and governments would be if students were taught these crucial life skills early in life. The P21 initiative, and the work that PMI is doing, will help usher in a new wave of talent in the coming years. This is important work.

Here's more about the P21 Framework:

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - Framework for 21st Century Learning

And here's a link to the PMI Educational Foundation site:

http://www.pmi.org/pmief/