7 skills that will help you stand apart from the crowd in the digital age

Digitalization and digital transformation have profoundly affected customer expectations and business models across all industries, on a global scale. From hospitality (Booking.com, Airbnb) and retail (Amazon, Alibaba), to Banking (PayPal, Monzo), TV (Netflix, Prime), and Music (iTunes, Spotify), the impact of digital entrants has created a need for multidisciplinary skills in every business that wants to survive, and thrive.

In this era of the fourth technological revolution, both technical and soft skills are essential in the workforce, and in particular in professionals that have ambitions to lead. The demand for these skills is being placed on educational institutions from both sides - employers and prospective students -and as educators, we must rethink our program content appropriately.

As Managing Director at Les Roches Global Hospitality Education, I am fortunate enough to witness first-hand the multidisciplinary skills that our students want to learn for the digital age. These are the top seven.


Computer and software skills
Without a doubt, general ICT skills are a basic requirement in the modern workplace, across almost all industries. Students demand not just the ability to learn how to use different devices but also expect institutions to provide access to them throughout their program. This is in addition to the need for exposure to any specific software or programs they are likely to be using in their target day-to-day role after graduation.

Communication skills
While the demand for communication skills is not synonymous with digital evolution, it is the complexity of the channels, and the relationships that students will manage - both internally and externally - that is creating a need for support. Add to this, the flat team hierarchy often implemented within digital-first businesses, and demand from employees and businesses for a less authoritarian and more cooperative leadership style, and advanced communications skills are now a key need for students.

Self-organisation skills
Time is the most precious commodity and modern life demands so much of individuals, both professionally and socially. The result is a need to be as productive as possible. Self-organization skills such as time management, prioritizing, planning, and maintaining a work-life balance are all in demand by students. In addition, any tools or tech that can assist with these skills should also be recommended and supported by educational institutions, as students are likely to be using them in the workplace.

Analytical skills and computational thinking
At almost every level in a modern business, workers are inundated with data and content, this is both the challenge and opportunity of digitalization. Students want to be prepared to deal with these streams of data, filter it all, look for synergies and utilize it to the benefit of all stakeholders. As a result, there is a demand to be analytically minded and acquire expertise in computational thinking in order to understand a goal or problem, and break it down to present solutions.

Networking skills
Similar to communication skills, networking is not exclusively linked to digital transformation, but the way in which it is increasingly carried out definitely is. With home-working on the rise, conferences heading online, and platforms like LinkedIn, or Hosco in hospitality, becoming the centre of the networking universe, support with virtual networking is a big need of modern students. Any related education from school and universities should also factor in the Millennial way in which networking is done, with a focus on supporting each other and co-creation over making sales.

The entrepreneur skillset
In the digital age, innovative startups are at the forefront of growth, investment and employer satisfaction tables. Students not only require the entrepreneurial mindset in order to work for these businesses, but they also have more motivation than ever to innovate and create their own venture, with one of their major goals being to shape a sustainable future. Our digital society has also made starting your own business more accessible than ever before, so educational institutions should be nurturing entrepreneurship competence, building the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for sustainable business creation and sustainable growth.

Soft skills
While some of the six skills listed so far could easily fall under soft skills, it’s important to single the requirement and provision of them out as a single entity. Here we’re talking about the student's desire to acquire skills such as active listening, adaptability, collaboration, creativity, emotional intelligence, persuasion, and teamwork. They all impact not only a professional's ability to effectively perform their job function, but also their ability to align with brand culture. Educational institutions should be supporting their faculty in being able to teach and support the development of these skills within their students.

Keep up or get left behind

Ultimately, the personal lives of students are increasingly defined by digitalization, and as they look to develop their professional life, the brands they most align with will be digital-first, ethical, sustainable and offering a flexible work-life balance. This is what they want for their career and future and they will be drawn to educational institutions and programs that provide the skills to empower their ambitions. Just like those businesses that failed to adapt to the digital age, the institutions that do not keep up, will be left behind.