Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Things They Should Invent Words For

You are very limited in life if you lack certain skills.  However, having these skills does not, in and of itself, make you employable.  Examples include literacy, numeracy, driving, and using a computer.  If you don't have these skills, you're at a significant disadvantage - both in the labour market and in life.  But having them gives you no particular advantage. no one would ever hire you simply because you can read, do basic math, drive a car, and operate a computer.

We need a word for skills like this.

4 comments:

Lorraine said...

I don't have a word, but I have a phrase, borrowed from mathematical terminology: necessary but not sufficient.

Anonymous said...

I would probably call these "core skills". They're kind of what everyone needs, and then there are sets of other sets of skills needed by people in different walks of life/career paths, etc.

impudent strumpet said...

I like the necessity and sufficiency concepts! Useful! I haven't encountered those as formal concepts before.

laura k said...

Core skills is good. I was going to say basic skills before I saw that.

I find the necessary/sufficient concept useful in many concepts. Voting as citizen participation - necessary, but insufficient. Compassion as a motivator for social change - necessary, but insufficient. And so on.