As our global economy has grown more technological, connected, plex, fears continue to loom about an economic future wherein our workers are rendered obsolete—whether by new products and industries, new forms of automation, or petitive labor forces across the globe.

Struggling to keep up with the pace, e to embrace technical knowledge and skills-based expertise as the supreme value in many of our educational institutions, crafting a host of STEM education programs and various incentives to prod and prepare our people for the “jobs of the future.”

But while such measures may be wise and necessary, what might we be missing as we prepare ourselves for the challenges e? petence in specific trades and foresight about emerging industries, what else might workers need to truly flourish in future society?

In a new research paper, “STEM Without Fruit,” AEI’s Brent Orrell asks whether our approach to professional development has e overly consumed with technical training and cookie-cutter college tracks. While we’ve managed to put a heavy cultural emphasis on STEM education, we now see little focus on the “soft skills” that employers increasingly look for when hiring employees.

“Labor market data and employer feedback suggest that the emphasis on STEM in workforce development is obscuring deeper, widespread challenges to employability relating to noncognitive skills associated with persistence and character, particularly for middle-skill occupations,” writes Orrell. “Employers report a need for employees with these skills and place a higher value on them than on job-specific skills.”

Nobel Laureate economist James Heckmen categorizes these noncognitive skills under the umbrella of “character,” passing our ability to properly regulate and restrain our emotions and behavior. For the purposes of Orrell’s study, they represent “the capabilities associated with personality traits and socio-emotional learning.” For others among us, they also connect closely with virtue.

While many of our policymakers and educational institutions may pay little attention to such skills, they are already widely recognized as foundational in many businesses’ petency models. For as much as whas found that