Skills of tomorrow – what should children learn?

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Reading, writing, and arithmetic. These are the essential skills that children learn in schools around the globe. But the world is changing rapidly and children will need additional skills to help them tackle pressing issues such as inequality and the climate crisis. In this episode, we explore how we best can equip and prepare our children for the future. What skills and knowledge do our children, and their children again, need to become engaged citizens striving for a fair, green, digital, and peaceful future? And what can you and I do to support young people and society on this journey?

This episode comes from a Nordic Talks event in Stockholm, organized by the non-profit organization, Reach for Change.

“It’s the holistic skills, such as social skills, creativity, communication, social-emotional skills, that children need to develop into capable, confident young people, ready to take the challenges that adulthood throws at them.”

Michelle Ndebele, senior health and play specialist at LEGO Foundation

This podcast episode features the following speakers

Fadi Barakat (Sweden)

Fadi Barakat works as a business development manager for the City of Malmö, Sweden. He holds master’s degrees in biomedicine and leadership & public organization, and has many years of experience in leading and training Swedish organizations on diversity and inclusion. He is the co-founder of Sweden’s first international business incubator and a board member of the Swedish Red Cross. Fadi has committed himself to fight for greater opportunities for minority groups and has been nominated twice as a leader in diversity at the Malmö Business Awards.

Caroline Stiernstedt Sahlborn (Sweden)

Caroline Stiernstedt Sahlborn is a partner at The Inner Foundation, a not-for-profit organization funding mental health startups. Caroline has 25 years of experience in strategic and operational management for private, public, and non-governmental organizations, with expert knowledge of change management and process design. She also serves on the board of Inner Development Goals and the Ekskäret Foundation.

Michelle Ndebele (UK)

Michelle Ndebele is a senior health and play specialist at LEGO Foundation. Michelle leads the Play for All accelerator at LEGO Foundation. This program provides technical and financial support to startups that are developing or scaling innovations to support neurodivergent children all around the world. Michelle has developed and implemented strategies that bring together the private, public, and social sectors to find innovative solutions that bring more and better opportunities for underrepresented populations.

Binette Seck (Sweden)

Binette Seck is the concept leader and co-founder of Changers Tech, a tech education program for young people from marginalized areas. Binette, who has Senegalese parents and was raised in Stockholm, Dakar, and Paris, says her mission is to democratize access to world-class knowledge in tech. She is also the official partner of iCog Anyone Can Code, an Ethiopian-based educational technology company that has taught programming to nearly 30,000 young people - 25 percent of whom have gone on to become entrepreneurs in the tech industry.