The frequentation of the college has long been considered a rite of passage to succeed, but now, Gen Z, of loans to students, questions their value. They are not alone. The CEO of 26 billion dollars Bank Standard Chartered has just admitted that his stay at the Wharton Business School was not necessary.
“I studied international relations and history. I got an MBA later, but it was a waste of time,” said Bill Winters Bloomberg in a Recent interview.
“I learned to think of university, and during the 40 years since I left university, these skills were degraded, degraded, degraded.”
The Banking CEO can hold a diploma from Colgate University and the University of Pennsylvania, but obtaining a diploma in the Ivy League does not equivalent to being a precious worker. Winters says that AI had a major impact on the relevance of skills; Now that chatbots can compile documents, create meeting slideshows and even write code, many hard capacities such as software engineering once considered a career mine is now redundant.
Instead, human general skills such as curiosity, communication and critical thinking are incredibly important in leadership and work, according to the 63 -year -old CEO. Skills that do not require a university degree to resume.
Worts advice for young people: Think with empathy
By discussing the skills of tomorrow and the advice he has for young people, the CEO of Standard Chartered says that the general skills make a “return” thanks to the AI - which can already compete with professionals with doctorates.
“Technical skills are provided by the machine or by very competent people in other parts of the world who have really nailed technical skills at a relatively low cost,” said Winters.
A key skill that is missing, suggests Winters, is a real human connection – and AI aggravates communication, no better. It has become so bad that managers complain that candidates of the Z generation cannot hold a chatbot -free conversation and begging them not to use them in job requests.
“I really think of the AI era, that it is essential that you know how to think and communicate,” continued Winters. “Do not communicate better than Chatgpt, but in fact, I will return to curiosity and empathy.”
Although the banking CEO admits that a certain degree of difficult skills is still necessary, they will only decline in importance because the AI supports more workplace functions. While technology takes over, people will have to engage their human expertise more and more on work.
“Of course, technical skills are necessary at a certain level, but less and less than the machines do,” said Winters.
Fortune Contacted Standard Charterd to comment.
The general skills sought as the AI take over
While some CEOs like Sam Altman from Openai always advise young people to learn about AI tools, there is an increasing emergency for general skills in all industries.
The number one competence in demand that companies wanted to get out of employees last year was good communication, according to a Linkedin study. And the director of economic opportunities for the employment platform, Aneesh Raman, echoes the fact that AI had renewed a need for communication, empathy and critical listening. In addition, it is not only graduates of the Z generation who will have to train to speak in the mirror to obtain the post. Emotional intelligence has even become more important when evaluating management hires.
This may explain why staff members of all levels also want training with these skills; Employees have classified teamwork (65%), communication (61%) and leadership (56%) as the most precious in terms of workplace training, according to a 2024 Study de Deloitte. Technical skills such as coding or data analysis have been classified lower, at 54%.
