BTEC Nationals 2025 - Preparing Students for Their Future - Transferable Skills

Oct 20, 2026

BTEC Nationals 2025 is presented as a forward-looking approach to secondary education, designed to prepare young people for an uncertain world shaped by climate pressures, resource depletion, and rapid technological change driven by automation and AI. The document explains transferable skills as learnable knowledge, attributes, and capacities, highlights their consensus despite varied terminology, and details why these human, social-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills are increasingly demanded by employers. It also outlines gaps, including a transferable-skills gap and an “awareness gap,” emphasizing improved wellbeing and academic success.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Transferable Skills

Preparing students for their future

What are transferable skills?

The need for transferable skills

The transferable skills gap

The projected 5 power skills by 2026

BTEC Nationals 2025 Preparing students for their future Preparing students for their future 1. Transferable Skills The future has never looked as complex and unpredictable as it does today, which emphasises the need for secondary education to equip young people with the knowledge and skills to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Global issues such as climate change and the depletion of natural resources require a shift in our lifestyles and a transformation in the way we think and act. At the same time, technological advances in automation and AI mean that some skills are becoming obsolete while demand for others increase. The McKinsey Skills Shift Report 2018 found that there will be a greater demand for technological, social-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills by 2030. The accelerated pace of these changes mean that young people can no longer be prepared for a moment in time or just for the next step in their progression – they need to be prepared for “jobs that have not yet been created, for technologies that have not yet been invented, to solve problems that have not yet been anticipated.” (OECD 2018) . This is why our new BTEC Nationals 2025 qualifications are designed with a clear focus on the future. Our aim is to ensure that students are given every opportunity to develop the new knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they need to navigate and thrive through the uncertainty and to shape their world. We have identified three critical skill areas for the future – transferable skills, digital skills and sustainability – and have designed our new BTEC qualifications with these areas at the heart. Join us on the journey as we prepare young people to be the best versions of themselves for the future. “Preparing the next generation for their future, not our past” Andreas Schleicher Director for Education and Skills, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) What are transferable skills? The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines transferable skills as “the bundle of knowledge, attributes and capacities that can be learned and that enable individuals to successfully and consistently perform an activity or task and can be built upon and extended through learning”. UNICEF in their Global Framework on Transferable Skills aptly characterises transferable skills as the ‘the glue of all skills’ in recognition of their role in bridging and supporting the acquisition of other skills set, such as digital and technical skills. Different terms have been used interchangeably over the years to describe transferable skills: |
21st century skills |
Transversal skills |
Soft skills |
Employability skills | | --- | --- | --- | --- | |
Life skills |
Holistic Competencies |
Socialemotional skills |
Generic skills | Whilst there are differences in how they are described, there is a clear consensus on the importance of these skills for the future. 2 3 The need for transferable skills Whilst the need for transferable skills isnot a new one, the rapid acceleration of the pace of technological developments in recent years means that the nature of these transferable skills has evolved, and that they are now more important than ever. The Pearson Skills Outlook 2022 – Power Skills found that while technical skills and expertise remain highly valued, the top five most sought-after skills (now and in the short-term future) are all ‘human skills’ -communication, collaboration, attention to detail, leadership and customer service. Its findings on the most in-demand skills by 2026 shows that the need for ‘human’ or soft skills is set to continue for the future. The WEF Future of Jobs Report 2023 reflects similar findings on the current and future need for transferable skills. Of the top ten skills that employers considered as core for their workforce in 2023, over half of these skills are socialemotional skills. The top

FAQs

What is the purpose of BTEC Nationals 2025 in the document?

It is designed with a clear focus on the future, helping students develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values needed to thrive amid uncertainty and rapid change.

How does the document define transferable skills?

The OECD defines them as a bundle of knowledge, attributes, and capacities that individuals can learn to perform tasks successfully and consistently, and that can be extended through further learning.

Why are transferable skills becoming more important?

The pace of technological development means some skills become obsolete while demand increases for others, with reports cited showing growing need for human skills such as communication, collaboration, leadership, and attention to detail.

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by Jordan Avery