Winning the argument with soft skills

The ability to persuade and to make a reasoned argument is an essential skill in a modern entrepreneur

When I was growing up in the UK, as in Pakistan, specific technical degrees and professions were the route to influence and fortune. The world has changed since then — today’s teachers are preparing kids for jobs that don’t even exist yet. While professional skills and professional qualifications will still remain a path to a future career, other skills are becoming just as important.

Communication, creativity, interpersonal skills, cultural sensitivity, empathy and yes — of course — diplomacy, are all going to be increasingly in demand in the global and the Pakistani marketplace. These are sometimes called soft skills, but there is nothing soft about them: they are the skills that make businesses, public services and institutions work. They are the attributes that create teams that can make a difference. They are what is needed to remain flexible and to excel in an ever-changing economy. To achieve its full potential, I hope Pakistan will foster and develop young people with these skills.

One of these valuable skills is debating. The great Greek philosophers knew just how important it was. The art of rhetoric was central to the development of their institutions and of their Athenian state; they were also the cornerstone of the development of some of the most important philosophical and political revelations known to man.

In modern life, rhetoric (by which I mean ‘debating’) is regrettably often relegated to extra-curricular activities in our schools and universities. Nevertheless, the ability to make a case, to persuade and to make a logical, reasoned argument is not only a valuable skill in life — it is also an essential skill in a modern business and for a modern entrepreneur. I can assure you, 30 years after graduating, you will not remember half of what you learnt at university — but those debating skills will stay with you.



We want the brightest and the best minds in Pakistan to learn those skills and to learn the art of rhetoric. We also want the young people of today to think about the future; to think about what Pakistan is going to be like in 2047, and to decide whether or not they are happy with how they think it is going to be.

This is why the British High Commission is launching a series of debates centred on some of the best universities in 12 of the biggest cities in Pakistan. There will be a final in Islamabad and all those invited to the final will be asked to join my youth steering group. The winner will receive a scholarship. We are asking the young people of Pakistan to think, debate, discuss, argue, challenge and question what kind of Pakistan they want in 2047.

If you were in any doubt about whether this is important or not, it is worth remembering that the prime minister of Pakistan, 100 years from its birth in 1947, will probably be at university right now. And that is why debating — especially, debates about the kind of society the young people of Pakistan want to live in — can be more important than just a skill for working life. It can help avoid unsafe assumptions and concocted conspiracy theories. It can help people disagree about their world viewpoint without conflict, as well as to develop the kind of minds needed where knowledge and creativity is key.

It is not for me to decide where Pakistan will be in 20 or 30 years’ time — this is for the young people of today, who will then be running your country. I am, however, very confident that the British high commissioner in 2047 — and Pakistan as a whole — will be very grateful that we helped some of Pakistan’s brightest minds learn those kinds of values and skills.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2015.

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