Mobley, my mentor and founder of the IBM Executive School, endlessly repeated that values, attitudes, and character traits are far more critical to success than skills and knowledge.

FORBES: Top 5 Ways to Cultivate Successful Character Traits

Those standards must reflect critical thinking skills and the ability to apply knowledge to new and challenging contexts, skills that today's students will need to work in teams and collaborate across companies, communities and continents.

FORBES: U.S. Rep. George Miller

Only 19 percent of respondents regularly use collaborative technologies to identify individuals with relevant knowledge and skills. 23 percent use collaborative technologies to preserve critical knowledge, while 27 percent use it to spread innovation more widely across their organization.

FORBES: Are Collaborative Technologies On Your HR Department's Agenda?

In a career path committed to service, my experience in AmeriCorps was a crucial step during a transition from youth to professional that gave me the confidence, knowledge and skills to solve critical social and environmental problems.

WHITEHOUSE: Serving the United States Through AmeriCorps

The current discussion about 21st century skills leads classrooms and other learning environments to encourage the development of core subject knowledge as well as new media literacies, critical and systems thinking, interpersonal and self-directional skills.

UNESCO: EDUCATION