21^st Century Skills (21^st CS) are portrayed in the recent studies as a holistic and complex set of skills and attitudes that students need to master the future. Currently there is no mutual agreement on the 21^st CS in global context, even though local and digital dimensions have several commonalities. If a worldwide consensus is a relevant goal in this discussion, we must understand more prevailing conceptions behind the 21^st CS. In the most countries the national core curriculum is a significant document to determine what competencies the society accredits. Proficiency in using technology is an essential part of citizenship, so in this frame of reference Technology Education (TE) will offer an excellent background for studying 21^st CS. As an interdisciplinary subject it also gives a good perspective for improving national core curricula. TE at the same time supports the teaching of the 21^st CS and steers the development in its entity. This paper provides a general overview on how 21^st CS are presented through objectives set for TE in the Finnish and Irish national core curricula for upper secondary education (USE). The study with future implications allows an opportunity to assess what kind of competences these societies are projected to produce through curriculum design. The study utilizes qualitative content analysis and document analysis with a theory-guiding framework from Chen (2021): Framework for understanding 21^st Century Skills has seven systematically reviewed categories to classify different skills. The most relevant and reliable result of this study is the emphasis on Foundational literacies and skills and Individual productivity throughout the Finnish and Irish curricula. Other categories from Chen (2021) are found moderately from Finnish CDTE syllabus and Irish Technology and Design and Communication Graphics syllabi. Technological literacy is found and interpreted widely through the means characteristic for the disciplines.