Employability and work readiness skills help students get ready for work and they are essential for students in Life Skills, Transition and Vocational Programs. Your senior high school students will love using the diverse range of employability skills and work readiness resources to build their knowledge and practical skills before work experience, as part of a job readiness program or to help with career planning for the future - there's resources to suit students with special needs, learning differences, lower and higher ability learners and those who prefer an easy reading or audio supported option. 
 
Many young people wonder how it is that some people seem to find and keep work easily, while others often struggle to land their first job. The answer is often being job ready and developing the employability skills (also known as soft skills) which allow a young person to thrive at work, rather than merely survive.
 
What are employability skills?
Employability skills are the core competencies that help young people use in a workplace every day. And while we are often very good at teaching the academic and technical, knowledge-based subjects that help prepare a young person for further study and work, sometimes we forget to teach them about how to be employed. In fact, research tells us that employability skills are the very thing that many employers look for when they are recruiting for a position in their workplace. 
 
What are the key employability skills to teach?
Employability skills include skills like:
using digital technology
communicating with others
solving problems
working in teams and groups
using innovation and creativity
working effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.
 
We know that employers deliberately look for young people who can demonstrate good employability skills - often through their work experiences, part time jobs, sporting and recreation groups and community or volunteer work. And far too many employers say that young people who enter their workplace do not have good employability skills when they leave school.
 
What's included?
This bundle contains 21 employability skills resources that are perfect for teens and young adults. They will help you deliberately and purposely teach employability skills with lots of resources you can download and use right away:
Employability skills poster set of 10 x A4 PDF
Soft and learning skills poster set of  18 x A4 PDF
Employability skills checklists
Employability skills passport - print or digital overlay option
Employability skills case studies - differnetiated with 2 options for lower or higher ability readers
Workplace problem solving task cards and action plan
Workplace problem solving strategies slideshow with audio
Job interview skills for students with additional needs with audio
Workplace policies, procedures and forms samples for a hospitality workplace
Customer service action plan and task cards
The one hour resume planning challenge 
Job interview questions bank (68 questions on printable task cards)
Employability skills info pack for students
Job interview checklist for students with special needs
First day at work (horticulture workplace) easy reading
Adding employability skills to resumes task cards activity
Resume power words cards
Job advertisements for close reading samples and printables
Employability skills printable activity pages
 
Where to begin?
Start by setting up a display area in your classroom if you have a noticeboard or display area. Display employability skills posters and talk about the skills students can use to thrive in a workplace. 
Give each student a copy of the employability skills passports and use these as a tool for recording employability skills as you work on them in your class. 
Use the employability skills information pack as a hand out booklet for students to work on while you are in class or for homework. 
Use the task card packs to practice skills in solving problems and communicating. 
Check in with students using the checklists so they can set their own goals and celebrate their achievements.
Show students how they can build a strong resume with power words, employability skills and the one hour resume planning challenge.
Practice reading and responding to policies, procedures and forms in a workplace with Reddles Coffee Shop printable manual.
Use the sample job advertisements to build close reading skills, then develop a resume to match a chosen job advertisement and add resume power words to create a great job application before practicing interview skills with the digital job interview resource. 
Make clear links with the employability skills activities you do each week and their pathway to the workplace through resumes, job applications and interviews - where they can let their employability skills shine!
 
 
Terms of use
Please enjoy using these resources with your students but do not place them into a share folder or drive, or post them on social media platforms. Encouraging other teachers to buy their own copies means Australian authors can keep doing what they do best - creating and developing new content!
 
Note this is a large zip file of 189 MB with several file types and contains approx, 200 pages of printable / downloadable content.
Please email banksiapublishing@gmail.com if your setting is unable to open a zip folder.