--- title: The Most Important Skills for the Future description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7328444/the-most-important-skills-for-the-future/ author: Michelle Peng article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-10-26T10:30:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-28T07:07:32.683Z article:section: Charter og:title: The Most Important Skills for the Future og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Michelle Peng](https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/) Oct 26, 2025 10:30 AM UTC   by [Michelle Peng](https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/) Oct 26, 2025 10:30 AM UTC While job threats from automation, a stagnating job market, and a lack of upward mobility for entry-level workers are only just now becoming top-of-mind concerns for white-collar workers, low-wage workers have long dealt with versions of these problems as features of their jobs. So what can white-collar leaders learn from frontline workers about the opportunities and experiences employees need to close skill gaps, advance their careers, and navigate the feelings of stuckness that are increasingly characterizing desk-based work? To find out, we reached out to [Rebecca Taber Staehelin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccajtaber?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs%5FminiProfile%3AACoAAAGrGrcBgjxM3-SpdRL35IwmPfHl1-WUcrE&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad%5Fflagship3%5Fsearch%5Fsrp%5Fall%3BLlu8TtsMQB2zT5JodWd9Xw%3D%3D) and [Connor Diemand-Yauman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/connordy?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs%5FminiProfile%3AACoAAA1fLDQBoisOgCEut0pb%5FOZ6qoKeILm3FQY&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad%5Fflagship3%5Fsearch%5Fsrp%5Fall%3BSRP0j7lqQ3mVAMS9cPU0qQ%3D%3D), co-founders and co-CEOs of [Merit America](https://meritamerica.org/), a nonprofit that connects low-wage workers to upskilling, coaching, and job advancement opportunities. Here are excerpts from our conversation, edited for length and clarity: Sign up for Charter's newsletter to get the handbook for the future of work delivered to your inbox. Email Address You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://www.charterworks.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://www.charterworks.com/privacy-policy/). **Why does Merit America focus on upskilling for frontline workers?** **Diemand-Yauman**: The largest section of the labor market is stagnant. We have over 53 million adults in this country who are stuck in low-wage work with no real pathway out. This is a problem because these are individuals who could be contributing so much to the economy, to our national competitiveness, prosperity, and security. When they can't move, we are missing out on that opportunity as a country. We have this unbelievably valuable, untapped, natural resource that's sitting below the soil that we are refusing to mine, and we are unable to access it until we create better pathways to upwardly mobile work. **Taber Staehelin:** We have in America a higher-ed and workforce system that is designed predominantly for people who can do full-time immersive learning. If that system doesn't work out for you, if you get failed by higher education and you end up in a low-wage job, it is very hard without quitting that job and going back to full-time, immersive learning to work your way into a better career and ultimately the middle class. So we see this massive population that isn't being served by our current system because they're working but not making a living wage. At the same time, when you look at where the economy is going and where the job openings are, our belief is if you can get those folks into high-demand, upwardly mobile roles, you not just fill employer's needs, but you also clear out that first rung of work that could be a good entry point for people who are unemployed. By not having a system that works for that group, we're not just hurting that group, we're hurting employers, we're hurting that group and we're hurting folks who are unemployed. **As you partner with employers to expand job training programs to frontline workers or place learners in higher-wage roles, what are you seeing as the most important skills that can help workers across industries advance their careers and navigate our moment of rapid change?** **Taber Staehelin:** We have a strong hypothesis that with all of the job disruption, the jobs that will be safest for the medium term are jobs that combine head and hands—things that require a real ability to problem solve, to have real technical knowledge coupled with physical manipulation. We launched this summer a semiconductor-manufacturing track, which is right in that sweet spot. We're launching data-center technician, we're looking at climate-technician and healthcare-technician roles. As a country, we haven't done a good job of giving folks that combination of head and hand skills. Aside from that, what we've heard over the last few years is as much as people want technical skills, they want individuals who are great at learning and who have that metacognitive skill of understanding what the goal is, understanding where to go for resources, and then managing their time to get the skills and knowledge they need to be successful. **Diemand-Yauman**: It can be really seductive to focus on skills. ‘You’ve got to learn AI, you’ve got to learn prompt engineering, you've got to learn semiconductor technician roles.’ There's a time and a place for those. But where we actually see more opportunity and more of a need is focusing on some of those meta skills that will serve learners through every step of their career journey. By that I mean skills like grit, like learning how to learn, time management, project management, motivation. These are all skills that will serve workers throughout their careers. Often they're very easy to overlook, and they also are valuable because they're often a portal into many of these human skills that we're talking about that are going to be harder to disrupt over time as AI becomes more advanced. **Taber Staehelin:** We recently did a national poll of our learners, and we were really surprised and thrilled to see that 85% said they felt more prepared to navigate the AI driven workforce after completing the program. A lot of hesitation around AI from the front line is not folks who are Luddites and saying, ‘We don't want this technology.’ It's, ‘Help me understand where the puck is going and how I can be prepared to hit it.’ **What have you learned about how to frame upskilling and reskilling to get buy in from workers that white-collar employers can apply in their learning and development programs?** **Taber Staehelin:** The two biggest motivators for why people join our program is to gain more economic security and to find a job that they love. We see a lot of folks who think about job training by starting with the inputs. What training should I provide? How long should it be? How do I make sure people finish it? Our push should be to focus on the outcome. What's going to happen if people do this training? Are there new job opportunities that currently exist or are coming down the line that they're going to be uniquely eligible for? Is there a promotion they're going to be eligible for? You have to show people what the outcome is before they're willing to put in the input because our time and our energy—even if training is free—is our most precious resource. --- ## Read more from Charter [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/) [Open article: What Jared Diamond Says Decides Whether Leaders Actually Matter](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/what-jared-diamond-says-decides-whether-leaders-actually-matter/)  ### What Jared Diamond Says Decides Whether Leaders Actually Matter [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/what-jared-diamond-says-decides-whether-leaders-actually-matter/) [Open article: Dr. Becky on What Good Parenting and Good Leadership Have in Common](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/dr-becky-on-what-good-parenting-and-good-leadership-have-in-common/)  ### Dr. Becky on What Good Parenting and Good Leadership Have in Common [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/dr-becky-on-what-good-parenting-and-good-leadership-have-in-common/) [Open article: The Three Ingredients for Building Trust](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-three-ingredients-for-building-trust/)  ### The Three Ingredients for Building Trust [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-three-ingredients-for-building-trust/) --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7328444/the-most-important-skills-for-the-future/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7328444/the-most-important-skills-for-the-future/"},"headline":"The Most Important Skills for the Future","datePublished":"2025-10-26T10:30:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-28T07:07:32.683Z","description":"Insights from Rebecca Taber Staehelin and Connor Diemand-Yauman, co-founders and co-CEOs of Merit America, a nonprofit that connects low-wage workers to upskilling, coaching, and job advancement opportunities.","url":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7328444/the-most-important-skills-for-the-future/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5255ff1bb8e4e1d4/6998cb141500fb6aa5aa6b8c/charter-rebecca-connor-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Peng","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/"}],"articleSection":"Charter","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5255ff1bb8e4e1d4/6998cb141500fb6aa5aa6b8c/charter-rebecca-connor-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"charter-rebecca-connor (1)","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7328444/the-most-important-skills-for-the-future/","name":"The Most Important Skills for the Future"}}]}] ```