You may have heard already about employability skills (sometimes called soft skills or 21st century skills). If you haven’t, your students could be missing out on some great strategies that can help them find – and keep – work in the future.
So what exactly are employability skills?
Employability skills are the non-technical skills that can be taken from one workplace to another, regardless of the type of work or workplace. People develop employability skills in quite different ways to technical skills. Employability skills take time to develop, and they are based on self awareness as well as awareness of other people and the context.
Here are a few examples of employability skills that many employers look for in a new potential employee:
Communication
Teamwork
Initiative
Problem Solving
Working with diverse teams
Digital literacy and technology skills
We know that employability skills are what help young people find, keep and succeed at work. But how do we help our students make that important link between employability skills and the job application process, so they can find work in the first place? In fact, young people can embed employability skills into their resume, cover letter and applications for work, to make sure they are showcasing to an employer how their skills are a good fit with the job.
Finding work using employability skills
In the classroom, you can try these steps in class to show students how to highlight the employability skills they have which match with what an employer is seeking:
Step 1 – Read the job advertisement and position description (if available)
Step 2 – Highlight any employability skills in the advertisement or position description
Step 3 – Check for a match between the highlighted words and the students own skill set and experiences
Step 4- Adjust the resume and cover letter to include some of the employability skills that match
Step 5 – Read back through the letter and resume to correct any spelling, grammar or tense errors
Step 6 – Send the job application before the due date
This step by step approach works well for students who are developing written English language skills, as well as those who are preparing for a transition to the workplace from a school or further education setting.
Employability skills activities to try
You can also use these activities to build student skills in your ESL, Transition, Careers or Vocational Major class:
Have students develop their own passport to document their progress and take charge of their own learning journey. Use the employability skills passport as a template to help students keep a record of their own achievements
Focus on employability skills activities by giving students practice at applying skills in scenarios from workplaces and community settings
Practice solving problems at work using employability skills
Work on close reading skills using easy reading examples of job advertisements
Make volunteering skills a planned and structured part of your classroom learning activities with a full unit of learning and assessment
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