The Future of Work Is “Skills”

There is no question we are asked more often than this one: “What makes Stone different?”

There are many ways the experience at Stone stands apart, but the key distinction in our teaching and learning is that we are a competency-based school which practices a problem-based learning methodology to deliver deeper learning. This approach allows students to regularly practice a set of highly transferable skills—skills that help them solve complex problems both within academic disciplines and far beyond them.

We believe in this model because we believe our students’ futures—the colleges they will attend, the jobs they will pursue—are almost impossible to predict. And yet, historically, that’s exactly what schools have tried to do: predict the future and shape instruction around those predictions, deciding which novels, test questions, or math equations students will “need.”

There’s social value in shared curricula, but shared curricula don’t necessarily support the core mission of schools: to prepare students for the future while empowering them in the present.

Still, we do have some insight into what those futures might look like.

What skills are in demand in 2025?

Every five years, the World Economic Forum releases The Future of Jobs Report. The most recent edition, published in January of 2025 2023, surveyed 1,000 employers, representing more than 14m workers across 22 industries and 55 economies. Its findings were clear: the hiring priorities for successful businesses are centered on transferable workplace skills—not specific content knowledge, test scores, or even degrees. Given ongoing social, technological, and financial uncertainty, the report argues that future jobs will be unpredictable, and the most valuable employees will be those who demonstrate strengths like analytical thinking, creativity, leadership, resilience, and empathy.

This view is widely shared. In a 2023 Forbes article titled “From Jobs to Skills: What the Future of Work Will Look Like,” Matthew Daniel, Senior Principal at Guild, wrote: “Skills have never mattered more... When employers hire based on skills, rather than things like degree requirements, they create a more diverse and tailored talent pool, driven by insights — which is absolutely necessary to keep up with the pace of change.”

Stone was founded on that same belief: that the future is uncertain, and the best preparation for uncertainty is to practice future-ready skills—skills that help students learn, adapt, and thrive in unpredictable environments.

Only 27% of college graduates end up working in fields related to their majors. Badges, certifications, and degrees are not strong predictors of success. But adaptability, problem-solving, and the capacity to learn in new contexts are.

None of this means that content is unimportant. Quite the opposite. We've all had transformative learning moments—while reading a powerful novel, solving a complex problem set, or diving into a rich research project. We want our students to have those kinds of experiences often—ideally, every day.

But as they do, we want them to understand why we ask them to engage in that work. It’s because we believe those experiences contain embedded skills—skills that, when clearly named and intentionally practiced across disciplines and grade levels, will prepare them to navigate a world we can’t yet imagine.