Employability Skills - and its importance

Employability Skills - and its importance

1. Employability Skills
by
Dr. AbhijitM. Zende

2. Today’s objectives
By the end of today’s session, we hope you will have:
An understanding of what employability skills are
Why they are important
What skills you already have
Ideas on how to evidence your skills in a job
application or interview
Ideas about how you can increase your employability
skills

3. Employability skills are cited as among the
most important skills by employers (Hart
Research Associates, 2015).
A lack of employability skills may
contribute to a “talent shortage”
(ManpowerGroup, 2012).
The demonstration of employability skills
is correlated with better hiring rates,
success on the job, and earnings
(Lippman et al., 2015).
Importance of Employability
Skills
3

4. We live in:
Knowledge based economies
Competitive global markets
With a highly mobile workforce

5. Educational policy in the Country
have responded by encouraging:
Widening participation
Lifelong learning
Enhancing employability

6. “Employability”
Just what is it, and why
do we need it???

7. One thing is for sure…
It belongs to Students…
It is their property…
But what is it?
It is not the same as getting
employment, or being employed.

8. However, it is…
… how an individual grasps the
opportunities that are before them
… how someone reflects on their
experiences
... how someone packages and
presents the skills they have.

9. Why do you need them?
Employers
look
for them

10. But often potential employees don’t have them
Or is it that potential
employees aren’t
demonstrating that
they have them?

11. Skills that Employers want and
how they can be developed
Personal audit of Employability
Skills

12. Job Applications
What employers are seeking on job
applications
Creating a CV
Responding to advertisements
Covering letter

13. How can being a Student
Ambassador help you acquire
employability skills?
New challenge, different skills
Different audience, improve skills
Working with different people
More experience, more examples

14. Employability is …
the knowledge, skills and
attitudes that will support future
development end employment.
‘A set of attributes, skills and knowledge that all
labour market participants should possess to
ensure they have the capability of being effective
in the workplace –to the benefit of themselves,
their employer and the wider economy.’

15. There are a bundle of skills that give someone
employability:
Fundamental skills
Personal skills
Team skills
Teamwork
Business and Customer
Awareness
Problem Solving and
Creativity
Communication and
Literacy
Application of Numeracy
IT Skills
Positive Attitude
Entrepreneurship

16. Fundamental skills
Communication
Managing Information
Numerical Skills
Problem solving

17. Personal skills
Positive attitude and behaviours
Taking responsibility
Adaptability
Continuous learning

18. Top 10 most important skills
Communication skills
Team-working skills
Integrity
Intellectual ability
Confidence
Character/Personality
Planning and organisational skills
Literacy (good writing skills)
Numeracy(good with numbers)
Analysis and decision-making skills

19. Innovation skills?
Creativity skills to generate ideas
Risk taking skills to be entrepreneurial
Relationship-building skills to develop the
relationships that support innovation
Implementation skills to turn ideas into products

20. Where is employability
developed?
Through good quality work placement and part time
work where you can develop the skills alongside
theoretical understanding.

21. Positive Attitudes
Friendliness
Self-motivation
Teamwork
Adaptability

22. Values
May include:
▪Courage
▪Fairness
▪Freedom
▪Honesty
▪Respect
▪Responsibility
▪Trustworthiness
▪Principles and beliefs that you consider
important
▪Influence your decisions and actions

23. Brainstorm activity:
1.On your own, generate a list of your top
five most important employability skills.
2.Record each skill on a sticky note.
3.Discuss your list with your table.
4.Remove duplicate skills.
Identifying Employability Skills
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24. Reflect and Evaluate
Reflect on what you achieve and your actions
Evaluation of performance and actions based on
sound reflection
Learn
Develop
Personal Development Planning (PDP)