Cognitive skills are essential in the job market

Cognitive skills and the job market. What is the relationship? How can parents help their children develop more skills? We will address these issues in this post. Stay tuned!

Parents are always worried about their children’s future. And in a world that is becoming increasingly competitive, we can say that they are right to be apprehensive.

Without the need for much research on the subject, we can see that several skills will have to be developed by those who aspire to position themselves in the job market from now on.

Some of these skills are described in the text that the  human resources start-up Revelo published regarding a survey.

Through it, we see that the ability to solve problems and communicate assertively are and will be essential skills for people who want success in their careers.

They are part of the scope of cognitive skills. Therefore, they can (and should) be developed from an early age.

In today’s text, we will explain what these skills are and then highlight activities that contribute to their development with the aim of meeting future job demands.

What are cognitive skills?

Cognitive ability refers to the way your brain remembers, reasons, holds attention, thinks, reads, and learns.

In short, these are skills that help us process new information , using it and distributing it to appropriate areas of the brain.

When we need this information later, the brain uses these abilities to retrieve (recover) and use this data.

Therefore, by developing them, we help our brain to complete this process, but more quickly and efficiently.

In this way, we have a certain guarantee of understanding and effectively processing this new information.

In professional settings, cognitive skills help you interpret data, remember team goals, pay attention during an important meeting, and more.

Additionally, they improve the ability to remember previous information that may be related to the organization’s goals, helping to make important connections between old and new information.

This performance will therefore result in a person who works much more effectively.

That explained, now see why it is important to seek to develop more specific skills with cognition.

Developing cognitive skills is a priority

Cognitive skills developed in adulthood are important because they improve overall performance, regardless of the profession your son or daughter chooses for themselves.

If today, some job applications and interviews include questionnaires, questions or scenarios that assess these skills, imagine what it will be like in a few years.

Certainly, job opportunities will increasingly require prepared candidates, however, not only in technical matters, metalized rote learning, but also a type of practical and usable knowledge .

If employers now seek and choose employees who demonstrate:

• A good level of perception;
• Trained memory;
• Attention to detail
• Focus on solutions.

Our duty as a center of technological education for children and adolescents , and yours, as a parent or guardian, is to provide cognitive growth to those under our watchful eye.

Precisely for this reason, from now on, we will list the main cognitive skills that should be worked on during childhood and pre-adolescence. Follow along!

Understanding and interpretation

Understanding materials and interpreting information presented to us in our work is an important part of the success of each project, do you agree?

Whether it’s a training manual or a design outline, the ability to digest material through reading comprehension and recognition means we are self-sufficient in meeting the demands of the task at hand.

Surely this is what you want for your child when he or she enters the job market, right? That is, that he or she has the ability to quickly understand what is asked of him or her.

Recognize patterns

The ability to recognize patterns greatly helps in solving problems, establishing efficient processes and identifying opportunities.

These skills are beneficial in any role, regardless of industry or job level.

Focusing on improving your pattern recognition over time will help you grow in your professional career.

Analyze problems and find solutions

The ability to analyze a problem means you can objectively inspect it from all angles to find solutions and determine the best outcome.

Therefore, acquired cognitive skills will help to see new and different directions, which will be useful for solving such a problem with much more creativity.

Ability to debate

Many roles require candidates who can present ideas and then debate them with their peers and groups.

Some industries that value brainstorming skills include the arts, advertising and marketing, technology, and business.

Essentially, this skill is and will be a game changer when it comes to interviews and hiring.

Focused attention

You know that we work under constant pressure in our jobs. Every day, we have to deal with several tasks with deadlines and levels of urgency, and this is evident in all professions.

Therefore, having and maintaining focus is essential. And as you know, staying focused is something that can be learned.

Even if you don’t know it, it is a learning process that comes from cognitive skills, which, the more stimulated they are, the more focused people we become.

Positively, having focus helps us to:

• Prioritize tasks in order of priority;
• Organize routines aiming at productivity;
• Define plans and goals to achieve objectives;
• Reduce stress;
• Increase clarity about what we expect from life, both professionally and socially.

Look around you, how many people you know are stuck and stagnant because they don’t have the essential focus to ‘make it happen’, as we hear all the time.

You certainly want your son or daughter to be a focused person, don’t you?

This process begins in childhood and with improvements in cognitive skills.

These 5 areas outlined here should be improved during childhood. However, how can we help children and pre-teens in this process?

How to improve cognitive skills

Most likely, your children have some more developed cognitive skills. However, there are some that really need stimulation.

Remember that these skills can be developed over time and with consistent practice.

So, let’s look at some ways to develop them.

Provide regular physical activity

Studies show that regular physical activity can improve hormone function, which improves memory.

Immediately after that, cardiovascular fitness translates into better blood flow, which supports brain function.

Physical activity improves motor skills and coordination, while resistance training has been shown to provide protection for the brain.

New challenges or experiences

A new experience – not only expands cognitive processing skills – but can also improve reasoning skills, logical thinking and analysis, so we start to formulate new and more ideas.

Meanwhile, contact with different people and the possibility of getting to know new places can introduce your child to new ways of thinking, communicating and ultimately solving problems.

Furthermore, challenges and experiences, when provided quantitatively, help:

• Improving memory;
• Test reasoning skills;
• They accelerated the ability to process information;

Stimulate brain games

Children love games, and there are a variety of computer games that are actually mental exercises for them.

But not just electronic games, other games such as board games help to develop reasoning and practical thinking at all stages of life.

Both children and adolescents, through guided contact with these games, which can be daily, will thus have an effective way to nurture problem-solving and processing skills.