What students should be doing at this point of time to make themselves more skillful to be dealing with post covid world?

I think, COVID is not going to create new things, it's going to amplify and accelerate existing trends. In a world where google knows everything, knowing is useless. Learning how to learn is the most important skill. Soft skills matter more than hard skills. Curiosity matters more than intelligence. William Butler Yeats, he was my favourite irish poet, he used to say "Education is not the filling of a bucket, it is the lighting of a fire". For people like us, who went to CBSE, it was like filling up a bucket only, unfortunately. My sense is that I think focusing on soft skills over hard skills because hard skills are really important but hard skills are increasingly becoming commodity so I think figuring out your own program for lifelong learning.

I would say that digital learning has been brought from 2030 to 2020 in one month. Dumbledore wrote, "It is our choices more than our abilities that reveal what we really are'' Unfortunately in India, we talk only about  intelligence or exam taking intelligence being the only kind of intelligence. Harvard Gardner talks about multiple intelligences. In all of us who run large companies or work with large organisations or try to influence groups, realise that pure intelligence over IQ is only one form of intelligence and so the soft skills and being able to work with people, soft skills in being able to communicate your ideas,  soft skills in being empathetic, developing a sixth sense and intuition of where the world is going. These are very different skill sets than taking an exam and I think they can be cultivated. Developing a growth mindset is probably one of the most important skills that all children can develop. Our opening balances are very important in life. Public speaking, writing, setting interests rates, these are skills which are all learnt by doing and putting your efforts into them. But yes, in today's world, soft skills are valued more than  hard skills and curiosity matters more than intelligence.

Manish Sabharwal,
Chairman and Co-Founder of Teamlease Services, India’s largest people supply chain and HR services company