Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the skills students need when they enter the workplace. This means that tertiary institutions must prioritise to prepare graduates to use AI with judgement, communicate clearly, work with others and understand the human impact of their decisions.
This is especially important in creative, commercial and digital fields. AI can help students write, summarise, generate ideas, analyse information and speed up production. But graduates still need to know how to question outputs, test ideas, apply insight and make work that is original, useful and commercially relevant.
“We are focused on what students need to succeed in higher education and in the workplace,” says Mandy Paynter, Education Relationship Manager at Red & Yellow Creative School for Business. “Through regular engagement with young people, we are seeing that young people need stronger creative confidence, curiosity and critical thinking as they enter tertiary education. These insights are shared with our lecturers and programme development team so that our teaching remains connected to what students are experiencing before they arrive.”
Emotional intelligence is an important part of this preparation. Employers need graduates who can listen, respond to feedback, work across cultures, manage conflict, understand people and make responsible decisions. In marketing, design and business, these skills influence strategy, client relationships, brand trust and commercial outcomes.
“As a tertiary institution, our role is to prepare students for real working environments,” says Carmen Schaefer, Head of Academics at Red & Yellow. “This means developing technical skill, creative confidence and emotional intelligence together. Graduates need to understand how to use technology, how to work with people and how to apply judgement in decisions that affect clients, teams, brands and communities.”
Tertiary institutions need to teach AI literacy and emotional intelligence together. Students should understand how to use AI tools, how to evaluate their outputs and how to recognise when human judgement is needed. They also need learning environments where they can defend ideas, receive feedback, collaborate in groups and reflect on the impact of their work.
Paynter shares five useful habits students and young professionals can practise:
- Pause before reacting. A short pause creates space for a better response.
- Ask one clarifying question before giving an opinion. It improves judgement and reduces assumptions.
- Name the emotion without letting it lead the decision. This builds self awareness.
- Invite different viewpoints early. Strong ideas improve when people feel safe to challenge them.
- Review how a decision affects people, and not just performance. This helps keep the work responsible, useful and human.
In a world where technology can produce faster answers, emotional intelligence will be the skill that helps people ask better questions, make better decisions and create work that still understands people.
