Employability Skills

Employability Skills Session 1 What are Employability Skills?

Aims • What is a ‘career’? • What are employability skills? • Employability theories – what are they and why do we need them?

What is a ‘career?’ • Can be defined as… A profession or occupation chosen as one’s life’s work

What are Employability Skills? • Why do we need them? • “Employability Skills allow the self reliant graduate to be aware of the changing world of work, and take responsibility for his or her own career and personal development”Association of Graduate Recruiters (paraphrased)

What are Employability Skills?

Self-awareness Self-promotion Exploring and creating opportunities Can identify own skills, values, interests and other personal attributes. Can evidence abilities and reflect on these. Seeks feedback from others to identify areas for further development. Can identify the needs of employers and training providers and promote own strengths in a convincing way to an employer. Can identify, create, research and seize both advertised and unadvertised job opportunities for employment and work experience. What are Employability Skills?

Action planning Networking Matching and decision-making Able to reflect on progress made so far and plan a series of activities to reach goals using a timescale, appropriate resources and building in a plan for emergencies. Aware of the need to network to create contacts which could lead to opportunities for work experience and graduate employment. Has good telephone and interpersonal skills. Can match opportunities to own skills, knowledge and experience and make informed choices from available opportunities. What are Employability Skills?

Social and ethical awareness Coping with uncertainty Negotiation Understands the importance of social responsibility and ethical principles as an individual, and within an organisation. Able to adapt to change and take risks to expand his/her experience. Able to negotiate the contract between employer and employee and able to reach ‘win/win’ agreements. What are Employability Skills?

Self-development Self-confidence Transferability skills Committed to the need for continual learning. Understands preferred style of learning. Can reflect on different experiences (good and bad) and learn from them. Has confidence in own abilities gained from past successes, and has a sense of self-worth. Can apply existing skills to new situations such as different career areas. What are Employability Skills?

Employability Skills • Employability skills, like all skills, can be developed and improved. • Your ability to utilise them is likely to pass through 4 sequential stages: • Unconscious Incompetence • Conscious Incompetence • Conscious Competence • Unconscious Competence Imagine riding a bicycle initially you don’t know what you need to know, then you know what you need to know, then you learn the skills and finally can ride without even thinking about what skills you are using. At that time you are competent at riding a bicycle.

One model of employability skills development Do you know if there are any deadlines you need to meet? Are you confident you can make effective job applications and perform well at interview? Have you made a thorough assessment of where you are now in terms of your readiness to make a career decision? Have you assessed your skills, knowledge and experience so that you have a realistic understanding of yourself? Have you researched what steps you need to take to help you reach your career goal? Do you need to get any particular work experience and/or further training/qualifications? What resources do you need to access to help you reach your goal? Do you have a definite career or some careers in mind which match your skills, knowledge and experience?

How Do People Choose A Career? • D - Decision making • O - Opportunity Awareness • T - Transition skills • I - Information skills • S - Self Awareness • During the course of this package we will cover all of the above areas in more detail. • Session 2 Assessing yourself addresses the self-awareness aspects of the package in more detail

Employability theories – what are they and why do we need them? • Why? Because they • help us to check and challenge our assumptions • improve our understanding • help careers advisers examine problem areas and help people plan careers • give alternative ideas of what to do and how to change job seeking approaches

Employability theories – what are they and why do we need them? • There are many employability theories which have been developed over several years. • You can read more about these by using the resources listed at the end of this presentation. • We shall just focus briefly on four of the most well-known ones as described by BillLaw, one of the most famous careers theorists.

Employability theories – what are they and why do we need them? Trait and Factor of Differentialist theories • Main theorists: Frank Parsons, Rodger and Holland • Common ideas: • All individuals possess set of characteristics & abilities which can be matched with job requirements. • The role of careers guidance is essentially diagnostic (find out what you want) and prescriptive (give advice). • Careers education focuses on self-awareness, personal profile building, knowledge of work requirements. • Forms basis of many psychometric tests, computer guidance programmes and career inventories (career matching tools which help you match what you want from a career to actual job titles).

Employability theories – what are they and why do we need them? Self Concept or Developmental Theories • Two well known exponents were Ginsberg and Super • These are people centered (focus on people) • Super: • Asserted that the idea of self concept was based on self observation and comparison with others. • Careers choices were based on a series of decisions according to vocational experience of person. • The accumulation of these decisions would enable a person to develop a self concepts (images) which would actually happen in his/her chosen career. • Believed people change and modify their ideas about work over their life; they do not simply make one career decision. Developed into 'career rainbow theory’.

Employability theories – what are they and why do we need them? Self Concept or Developmental Theories Holland • Developed Super's theory of self concepts to state that career choice is based on stereotypes of people who are in the career. These help people to determine how they see themselves. • Self concepts are therefore occupational. • Became known as the 'theory of occupational preferences‘. • Role of careers guidance is to act as a counsellor rather than expert to help a client reach a stage of self-awareness so that a career decision can be made. • These theories formed basis of careers education.

Careers theories – what are they and why do we need them? Opportunity Structure Theories • Roberts was the leading theorist; his ideas were adjusted by Daws. • Focussed more on social structures determining an individual's career path. • Robert's did not believe in free choice; believed individuals take what is available to them in the employment market. • Opportunities determined by access to schooling ,family class, gender and ethnicity. • Society influenced individuals to accept opportunities. • Role of careers guidance would be focussed more on getting people into work. • Daws adjusted these ideas by getting clients to broaden their ideas and challenge their assumptions.

Employability theories – what are they and why do we need them? Community Interaction or Social Learning Theories • Law, Mitchel, Jones and Krumboltzmain theorists • Take a sociological point of view; are concerned with how things and people change and develop • Law was interested in the 'total community' surrounding the individual. Believed this influences career choice as it gives the individual direct and personal experience, information, role models and feedback. • Role of careers guidance could be to try and provide more experiences for the client and feedback in order to influence their job seeking behaviour. • Is a good reason for including careers education into curriculum. Work experience is important to learn about career opportunities.

Employability theories – what are they and why do we need them? Planned Happenstance • Many careers theories focus on encouraging people to plan their careers, setting clear goals & working towards them in a logical way. • However, other theories suggest most people do not actually plan their careers; when asked many will say they simply ‘fell’ into their careers. This implies their career choice was accidental. • An alternative approach is to have some vague ideas, do some positive job activities and have confidence that things will work out – Planned Happenstance • It is about actively doing things to maximise your chances and taking advantage of opportunities to help you progress your career • Key theorists are Mitchell, Krumboltz and Levin – this approach works particularly well in careers where there is less of a clear, structured entry route and career progression – for example careers in the creative industries and media

Employability theories – what are they and why do we need them? Chaos Theory • Another newer theory very closely connected to Planned Happenstance is the ChaosTheory of career development. • It takes the idea that all career behaviour is influenced by unplanned chance events. • These influences are incredibly complex and all subject to frequent change. • Here job seekers are encouraged to expect the unexpected and to learn how to make the most of chance meetings and events etc. • Key theorists are Bright, Pryor and Harpham.

Employability theories • In summary: • There are many employability theories which explain how people make career decisions; these have been developed over many years and will continue to develop and evolve. • We can say that people change and modify their careers ideas several times during their lifetime – they don’t simply make one single career decision. • Career choices can be influenced by many things including family, friends, school, gender, the media. • It is important to plan a career, set clear goals and work towards them in a logical way. • Also, be aware that there are some factors which affect career choices which we have no control over; we have to learn to adapt to these and be flexible in order to remain employable throughout our working lives.

Resources • Watts A G, Law B, Kileen J, Kidd J M & Hawthorn R (1996) Rethinking Careers Education and Guidance Theory , Policy and Practice’, published Routledge • Levin A L and Krumboltz J (2004) Luck is no accident :Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career’, published Impact Publishers. • Pryor R G L & Bright J E H (2007) ‘Applying Chaos Theory to Careers: Attraction and Attractors’ Journal of Vocational Behaviour, published Elsevier. • Bill Law’s Career Learning Café, available athttp://www.hihohiho.com/

Employability Skills