To prepare students for contributing to societal development and growth, 21st century or future skills like critical thinking and problem solving were identified to be essential. However, it seems that while discussing skill development, knowledge of the skill, willingness to act with the skills, and self-belief are often neglected. In addition, inadequacies of teaching practices applied in skill development and acquisition lead to the unpreparedness of graduates to contribute to sustainable development goals. Given these, this study anticipates that to prepare students for the future through education, adequate emphasis must be channelled towards equipping students with knowledge of the skill, willingness to act with the skills, and self-belief in the efficacy of the skills using innovative lesson planning frameworks like the text-analysis-task-exploration framework. This study used a quantitative research design to elicit information from 50 participants on their action competence on critical thinking and problem-solving skills while learning through different lesson planning frameworks. The study provides evidence to show significant improvement in students' action competence in the above skills using the modified TATE lesson planning framework. The study unpacks the potential of the modified TATE framework in equipping learners with action competence in critical thinking and problems solving skills for the future.