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?
They are basically 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.
What are some examples?
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 using technology
Self directed learning
You can use a self directed learning approach such as a checklist or passport system to help students keep their own records of their achievements as they learn about and master new employability skills. Combine this with information that students can read, discuss and use to build their comprehension skills during a unit of work on employability 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.
Building a resume with students
Employability skills are a key part of resume writing and job applications. 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
Developing skills each week
You can work on employability skills within a transition, life skills or vocational program by focusing on a key skill each week, and by encouraging students to recognise situations where employability skills are useful. Camps, excursions, community activities and volunteering are all great ways of building employability skills. In a school setting, you can do things like rotating leadership tasks, asking students to keep records or data about an activity's outcomes, involving everyone in the planning process for an activity or providing opportunities to make phone calls, send emails, interact with community leaders and work in small and larger groups.
If you are looking for some new learning opportunities for your students, take a closer look at employability skills and build some practical, life long learning into your weekly program.
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