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The present study aimed to develop the competencies of 21st-century learners by considering the characteristics of the education element in the curricula.

The study employed a qualitative research design and a content analysis technique. The research population consisted of 20 curriculum design professors selected via a snowball sampling method until data saturation was reached. The research instrument was semistructured interviewing. The content validity of the interview questions was determined according to 5 curriculum design experts' opinions. Four credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability criteria were used to increase the accuracy of qualitative data. The findings were analyzed using thematic analysis (structural-interpretive) through open, axial and selective coding.

Education characteristics in competency-based curricula were categorized into knowledge, skills, attitude and educational values. Knowledge includes pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical technological knowledge; teaching skills include organization, facilitation, care and flexibility; educational attitudes consist of educational and pedagogical attitudes; and educational values include individual and group-social values.

The present research put three critical dimensions together: the competencies of the new-age learners from the perspective of the curriculum, which is the heart of the education process and is aimed at sustainable development, which is the priority of the countries today.

Meeting the 21st century skills is critically significant to ensure success in today's world, collegiate context and neoteric careers. This qualitative study turns attention to teachers' mindsets, dispositions and perceptions concerning 21st century life competencies required to meet the current, emerging and future needs of learners.

One-to-one structured interviews were conducted with English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers (N = 8), where open-ended questions were asked in order to determine the participants' perception of, support to, and integration of the life competencies into an EFL classroom setting. In addition, teachers' performance and implementation of life competencies (males and females) was observed in the classroom over a long time.

The results showed that teachers' practices contradict their conceptions of the life competencies. Critical thinking was seen as a priority from teachers' perspectives. Teachers perceived learning to learn and critical thinking as the most important competencies for students to learn. Findings of the study indicated that teachers hold positive attitudes toward integrating life competencies into EFL context; however, they lack a clear vision about how to incorporate them.

This study recommends equipping teachers with professional training and customized orientations offering new insights into how life-competency-oriented instruction might be designed.

Career readiness should be a prominent aim of education where students are equipped with life skills or competencies. EFL practitioners need to understand, support and implement life-competency-instruction.

The purpose of this case study was to explore senior librarians’ perceptions of successful leadership skills in the 21st century. The data gathered from 10 senior library leaders consisted of demographic information and responses to six open-ended interview questions. From the NVivo 10 analysis, several significant themes emerged regarding successful library leadership skills in the 21st century at two levels: foundational and interpersonal. At the foundational level, technical and knowledge skills form the building blocks for the next level of interpersonal skills. Persuasion and collaborative skills are interwoven with these interpersonal skills, both of which are at the core of the postindustrial paradigm of leadership. These two levels of skills, with an emphasis on persuasion skills, should form the basis of succession planning programs for next generation librarians. Implementing such programs could lead to increased leadership diversity, greater job satisfaction, improved job performance and effectiveness, all of which help retain librarians and ease staff shortages. Further studies are recommended.

The proliferation of studies on leadership competencies have not yet provided a consistent set to guide the work of researchers and practitioners. This paper aims to generate a clear, literature-based overview of the relevant leadership competencies for the twenty-first century.

The paper is an integrative literature review and identifies four strands of literature on leadership, reaching back to traditional works. It reviews each strand to establish which leadership competencies remain relevant for the twenty-first century.

This paper shows it is essential to clarify and harmonize terminology used in leadership literature. It identifies 18 groups of leadership competencies required for the twenty-first century. The research reveals that leaders of the twenty-first century must be able to combine a strong concern for people, customer experience, digitalization, financialization and the general good.

This paper is based on a non-exhaustive list of literature derived from studies published in Western journals, written in English. Future research should include papers beyond the confines of Western academia and entail fieldwork to test the comprehensive framework derived here.

This paper will help practitioners develop leadership training curricula and transform the leadership culture in their organizations. The competency list can be useful in recruitment and selection processes for leadership positions. Professionals will find it helpful as an index in self-diagnosis and personal development for their career decision choices.

The paper addresses the growing need for clarity on the required leadership competencies for the twenty-first century.

The confidence placed in the use of technology and other computing resources is an important support for the deep transformation toward processes of very high quality teaching-learning based on active learning. This paper aims to present and describe a higher education experience with Flipped Learning before and during the transformation of education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the study analyzes the effectiveness perceived by university students of Flipped Learning for the development of competencies for the 21st century.

For this study, a quantitative methodology is used in which 376 university students fill out a questionnaire after experiencing several sessions with an inverted classroom under both onsite and online instructions.

On average, the results show a high agreement among students on the benefits or effectiveness that learning designs with Flipped Classroom have on the development of skills that will be useful for their personal and professional future. These competencies include character building, collaboration, communication, citizenship, critical thinking and creativity. At the same time, and depending on some control variables such as the modality of teaching (onsite or online), the course, the predisposition to innovate or previous experience with innovation, significant differences are also observed.

Education and learning have the need to respond to the different educational and training needs for the future. In this sense, the Flipped Classroom methodology allows the development of skills for the 21st century. In turn, this approach also makes it possible to approach blended learning. Experiences such as the one described in this study will characterize the future of education.

Canadian postsecondary institutions are increasing their emphasis on internationalization, sending many students abroad and welcoming students from far and wide onto their campuses. Also, Canadian organizations and multinational corporations have an increasingly diverse workforce. These trends require postsecondary institutions to prepare students adequately for this global village of the 21st century. At the University of Victoria’s (UVic’s) Co-operative Education Program and Career Services, we have created a strategy to help develop global ready graduates using a framework derived from Earley and Ang’s work on cultural intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003). Cultural intelligence (CQ) is defined as an individual’s capability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings (Ang & Van Dyne, 2008). A recently completed research project to measure the development of cultural intelligence of students participating in the UVic’s CANEU-COOP program formed the impetus for developing this CQ strategy (McRae, Ramji, Lu, & Lesperance, 2016). The strategy involves a framework that includes curriculum for inbound international students, outbound work-integrated learning (WIL) students, and all students preparing to work in diverse workplaces. In addition to developing specific curricula for these audiences, the strategy includes tools to assess the intercultural competencies that students gain during their WIL experiences, as well as helping students use these competencies to transition to the 21st century global village. This strategy and the Intercultural Competency Development Curriculum (ICDC) are discussed in this chapter.

Whereas most societal commentators continue to review the historical patterns of men’s leadership in search of models for 21st-century success, few have begun to recognize, let alone appreciate, the equivalent patterns of women’s leadership and the future contributions that women could potentially make as leaders. What could and are women bringing to society as global leaders? Why at this moment in history is there such a marked increase in the number of women leaders? Are we entering an era in which both male and female leaders will shape history, both symbolically and in reality? And if so, will we discover that women, on average, lead in different ways than men, or will we learn that role (global leader) explains more than gender? This chapter reveals the accelerating trends of women joining men in senior leadership positions, establishes the relationship of women leaders to our overall understanding of global leadership, and sets forth an agenda to accomplish much needed research and understanding.

The emergence of new digital technologies in the 21st century has propelled individuals to use technology in their daily lives. Individuals now require a specific set of skills, competencies and knowledge to use these devices efficiently, intelligently yet with responsibility. The purpose of this research was to design, develop and validate a digital literacy scale (DLS) using the exploratory factor analysis (EFA).

A quantitative research methodology was used for this study, whereby a unipolar 5 point Likert scale self-report questionnaire was designed to measure the digital skills of the participants. Digital literacy was divided into an exhaustive and broad list of six modules-media literacy, information literacy, communication literacy, technology literacy, visual literacy and computer literacy. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of the 2,755 Year 12 and Year 13 students of randomly selected 33 secondary school students in Fiji. Sample adequacy of the sample was tested using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test.

The EFA results prove the existence of the six modules of digital literacy that are being utilized in this research to design the DLS. The factor loadings or the correlation coefficients range from 0.3 to 0.8; therefore, all the 60 items were kept to design the DLS. The Cronbach Alpha value of 0.90 confirmed the internal consistency and reliability of the newly designed DLS.

The research limitation of the study was the sample size. A broader sample would have made the results better. Research implications are; there is no scale in the south Pacific to measure digital literacy. The newly designed and developed scale is the first one that can be used to measure the digital literacy of the south Pacific populace and bridge the gap of the digital divide.

The developed and validated scale can be used to measure the digital literacy of individuals both in the south Pacific and beyond. The scale covers important aspects of the much needed 21st century skills. Once digital literacy is measured, relevant stakeholders can develop instruments to improve the digital literacy of individuals.

The DLS can prove to be an important tool for society. In the 21st century people are required to have digital literacy to survive and thrive. Thus this tool can be used to measure digital literacy and further improve the digital literacy of the people.

The framework has been adopted from the work of Covello (2010) however, the definitions of digital literacy and other literacies are modified to meet the requirements of the 21st century. The tool is unique in its nature in the south Pacific and beyond. Looking at the digital literacy tools in literature, this tool covers all the aspects of digital literacy in the 21st century.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-10-2021-0532.

This study aims to develop a competency model for the Vietnamese workforce in the era of Industry 4.0.

A combination of an online survey and a Delphi study was conducted to identify a set of skills, abilities, knowledge and personalities that are critical for effective performance in the future workplace.

A set of 26 competencies was identified. Similar to previous findings in the context of developed countries, the set centres around a group of competencies commonly called “21st century competencies”. It also includes characteristics unique to a developing nation.

The proposed framework of competencies may not cover all human capabilities necessitated by the workplace and may include items with overlapping definitions. The study only represents the view of the business community, and its survey sample was limited in size and location. The impact of COVID-19 on the competency model was not explicitly covered during the study.

The competency model could serve as a basis for the educator to reform curricula, the policy maker to devise policies and the employer to develop training programmes. It can be used as a reference for other nations at similarly-developmental level.

The present study is among a few empirical studies regarding a model for Industry 4.0 competencies in the context of low middle-income countries and probably provides one of the first Industry 4.0 competency models for Vietnam. It also provides a novel framework for identifying and analyzing competencies.

The study was conducted to assess the extent of readiness of higher education curriculum in Nigeria in meeting the demands of the 21st century, to identify the possible challenges facing higher education institutes in Nigeria in meeting the demands of the 21st century and to suggest ways of restructuring higher education curriculum in Nigeria to make it responsive to economic social and political demands of the 21st century. The sample for this study consisted of two hundred (200) respondents drawn from the stakeholders in the education industry which includes curriculum planners, lecturers and students. The study employed the descriptive survey design. The instrument for data collection consisted of structured questionnaire and focus group discussion. The findings from the study revealed, among other things, that higher education curriculum in Nigeria is not yet ready to meet the demands of the 21st century. The reasons for this include poor funding, poor infrastructural facilities, corruption, poor technological/ICT knowledge, lack of collaboration between higher education curriculum planners and labour force, etc. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that funding higher education in Nigeria should be given priority, and the stakeholders in the labour force and industry should be involved in curriculum planning. Higher education curriculum should encourage practical hands-on experience for graduates of higher education in Nigeria to make them relevant in the 21st century.