This publication examines the importance of wider skills, and looks at how they can be nurtured in young people. 

Key findings

• Talking about ‘dispositions’ and ‘habits of mind’ rather than about skills usefully shifts the emphasis onto what young people choose to do as opposed to what they ‘can’ do
• A sound bedrock of basic and wider skills is important but not sufficient. Certain dispositions also need active nurturing to develop innovation in young people
• Schools should focus their attention on the subset of wider skills that relate most directly to lifelong learning and learning to learn
• Ways of tracking and articulating progression in the wider skills may well best be done in collaboration with the learners themselves

It's critical we find ways to encourage wider skills in young people, including foresight, imagination, self-awareness, curiosity and the capacity to take informed risks, to help them navigate their way through an increasingly uncertain and unpredictable world.

A world in which the ability to come up with and implement new ideas will be essential. 

This publication outlines a range of ideas and approaches to developing and measuring these wider skills, and asserts their importance both for learning and for innovation. The education debate needs to shift away from whether these skills are important, to how they can be developed. We hope this report will help prompt this change in focus.

Authors

Bill Lucas, Guy Claxton