[chosenbreed]

Basic understanding of programming might be useful. But perhaps critical thinking/reasoning would be even more so. Not sure how this could be developed. Maybe subjects such as philosophy, history, logic, classical literature, etc...

[indigochill]

I'd agree that would be sufficient if we didn't see stories like this one about people overwhelmingly feeling left behind by technological progress. As it is, there's something missing between where education is and where it needs to be. Maybe it's just that the general quality of education is poor so people don't know how to use what they've learned. Or maybe there are new topics that need to be introduced to keep people functionally literate in the modern world. Or both.