In this exercise in the Olympic tool we work with survival skills.

Survival skills are particularly valuable on the Flemish labour market. After all, it is becoming more and more VUCA. This is an acronym that stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.

• Volatility refers to the speed of change in an industry, market or the world in general.
• Uncertainty refers to the lesser degree to which we can confidently predict the future.
• Complexity refers to the number of factors we have to take into account, their variety and the relationships between them.
• Ambiguity refers to a lack of clarity about how something should be interpreted.

  Think of the influence of Covid-19 on the labour market.

  The survival skills stand alone. They are also part of the 21st century skills. These are skills that are gaining more and more importance in education and in the workplace. ESF writes the following about this in its call sheet 473_21st century skills:

  ‘They are skills that everyone must train throughout their lives in the workplace and through education. These skills can be seen both separately and in context, but always in combination with subject-specific knowledge and skills’.

  Survival skills are also - and especially - linked to the experiences of jobseekers with a migration background, who belong to the first generation.

  We assume that the majority of them have these survival skills. After all, they have successfully left their country of origin, crossed over and built up a new life here. There has been almost no research into this assumption. It is an assumption that is shared by the Upgrade2work partnership.

  We distinguish 11 survival skills. An example of a survival skill is adaptability.

  The survival skills can be found in almost all jobs: both the jobs in which you work with your head and the jobs in which you work with your hands.

  An example:
  A domestic worker must also be able to solve unexpected problems, dare to speak her mind to clients or superiors, be adaptable, set realistic goals, be action oriented, be able to cooperate with her superiors and clients, act purposefully.