Durable Skills
A First Principles Approach to Modernizing Schooling
Workforce Demands
Students leave college without the skills required in the modern economy: Durable Skills. By 2030, there will be a global human talent shortage of over 85 million people, causing an $8.5 trillion loss to global GDP (Korn Ferry, 2023). Durable skills depend on foundational skills, including the ability to amass knowledge.
The Skills Gap
Students
Learning is a scientific process, and for students to learn optimally they must be taught (Bjork, 2013: Dunlosky 2021). Students use ineffective techniques such as highlighting and re-reading, with limited success. Such strategies are rooted in the misconception about learning (Bjork & Bjork, 2011).
COGx A Holistic Approach to Developing Durable Skills
To prepare students for a changing world, we need to look beneath the surface of “skills” and focus on the cognitive infrastructure that makes them possible. Deep learning depends on a network of processes—attention, working memory, metacognition, executive function, and emotional self-regulation—that work together to build and apply knowledge.
These are not add-ons to learning; they are its engine. When teachers and students understand how these processes interact, they can design learning that sticks—transforming lessons into durable, transferable understanding.
Reframing learning this way moves us beyond the false choice between knowledge and skills. It shows that durable skills—critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication—emerge only when the underlying systems of learning are strong.
If education focuses only on surface-level competencies, we risk repeating the mistakes of past reforms. It’s time to empower educators to develop learners holistically—the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional capacities that make every other skill possible.
Critical thinking is not a set of generic skills that can be applied to any situation. Thinking is tied to the content of thought.
Knowledge is the Bedrock of Durable Skills
The Foundation Beneath Every Skill
Knowledge is more than information; it’s the raw material of thought. When students know a lot and can recall it easily, they can see patterns, reason clearly, and solve problems creatively. Every complex skill — from critical thinking to communication — is built on this cognitive base.
Automaticity Frees the Mind
When the basics are fluent, the brain has space to think. Memorizing key facts and ideas isn’t “rote”; it’s what allows deeper reasoning. Automaticity in foundational knowledge frees working memory so students can analyze, create, and make connections that stick.
The Risk of Skipping the Foundation
Schools often rush to teach “skills” before building the understanding those skills depend on. When background knowledge is weak, critical thinking becomes guesswork. Technology and trends can help, but they can’t replace the mental frameworks that make learning possible.
Reframing the Skills of the Future
Critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication aren’t isolated abilities — they’re outcomes of strong knowledge networks. When students know more, they can think more deeply, share more clearly, and innovate more confidently. Deep thinking starts with deep knowing.
