The Employability Challenge

In 2009, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) issued a full report detailing the importance of employability skills in enabling individuals to achieve, succeed in and sustain rewarding employment roles.  The report associates the importance of equipping individuals with employability skills with ensuring that the UK economy achieves recovery in such challenging times, by producing a competitive, efficient workforce (UKCES 2009).

The UKCES (2009;3) states that it wants 'every school, college, university and training provider to treat the employability of their learners as part of their core business'.   Cornwall College is one of Deloitte's Employability Centres in the UK, and is helping to lead the way in delivering employability skills to all it's learners, in line with the UKCES target of building 'an institutional culture that promotes employability'.

As a teacher at Cornwall College, I accept my responsibility to embed employability skills where possible, by contextualising learning.  With this in mind I will promote and equip learners with a variety of employability skills, enabling learners to reflect upon areas in which they need to develop transferable skills which will be of benefit to them not only in the workplace but also in everyday life situations.

Assertive behaviour

Deloitte place emphasis on assertiveness being a key employability skill and suggest it is the 'only effective way to achieve our goals'.  Deloitte describes assertiveness as a way of standing up for your own rights whilst accepting and respecting others rights.

Assertiveness is considered as a rational process, where an individual is able to be objective in relation to their natural emotional response to a situation, and instead, should react based on rational thinking and processing.  Assertiveness is believed to be an effective way of resolving conflict, which avoids personalising issues.  Assertiveness is said to create a win-win situation, in which individuals' should avoid being either aggressive or passive.

There are three suggested steps to being assertive:


1. Actively listen to others, demonstrating an understanding by paraphrasing and providing reflection on what they are saying. (on it's own, this stage = being passive)


2. Explain how you feel, ensuring you depersonalise yourself from emotive responses


3. Explain what you want to happen, how you want to move forward in the future in relation to the issue discussed.

In the safety of the learning environment, it is important that as a teacher, I proactively encourage learners to practise and develop assertiveness, contextualising to their learning experience and in relation to prospective workplace environments.  This can be achieved by the use of role plays and case studies, actively engaging learners in developing assertive skills.

 

Consideration must be given to criticisms of the assertive approach in relation to the expectation that individuals should be able to detach from their emotions in an objective way and whether in real life situations this is a realistic expectation.  Other criticism relates to the creation of deadlock situations, where due to the even assertive approaches of individuals nobody actually achieves their goal and stalemate is the only conclusion.

This is something that can be explored, developed and reflected upon through practical application with learners.  It is important, that I give learners the opportunity to evaluate and reflect upon their own assertiveness so that they may take ownership of their skills development.

My own levels of assertiveness have been discussed in other sections of this blog, and is a skill I intend to continue to develop in line with my professional role as a teacher.

Employment skills vs employability skills

As part of the employability training module, this exercise allowed us as a group to discuss the differences between employment skills and employability skills. 

Employment skills were described as those relating to academic qualifications, subject knowledge/expertise, vocational, practical, trade skills and work experience.

In contrast, employability skills were described as the 'soft skills' needed to succeed and achieve in the workplace, such as personal skills, attitudes and behaviour (see list of employability skills).

From my own workplace experience, as an Auditor in the NHS, a Post Office Counter Clerk and a Secretary, I can appreciate the importance of equipping young people with the necessary skills to help them sustain and achieve positions of employment in an increasingly competitive employment market within the current economic climate. 

As a teacher, I consider it part of my responsibility to promote and help learners to attain employability skills as well as their academic qualification with the purpose of preparing them for the world of employment.

Evaluating my strengths and weaknesses in context with teaching employability skills

As a reflective practitioner, the employability module has provided me with the opportunity to reflect upon and evaluate my own strengths and weaknesses in relation to teaching employability skills. The following points have been identified,this is not an exhaustive list, I will continue to reflect and evaluate my skills as part of my continued professional practice.

Strengths:

• Communication skills

My previous employment experiences have provided me with valuable opportunities for developing my communication skills, which have proven to be adaptable and transferable.

I consider my good communication skills to be a valuable attribute to teaching employability skills. I have the ability to share with learners the experience I have gained through my own employment.  

• Positive attitude 

I always endeavour to maintain a positive attitude, and this was highlighted as part of the facilitator feedback.  Throughout my employment experience, I have demonstrated a motivated, positive attitude to my work.

I believe within the context of teaching employability, this will prove to have a positive impact on learner motivation and attitude.

Areas for development:

• Level of assertiveness

I need to progress my assertiveness, to enable me to be an effective contributor in broader forums.  I have been able to identify that on occasions, I am not able to be objective in relation to my emotional responses to conflict which has a negative effect by personalising conflict situations.  I feel that I have begun and need to continue to develop a more rational approach to dealing with conflict. 

I feel that developing my assertiveness skills will have a positive effect on my ability to teach employability skills. By promoting and helping learners to develop assertive skills themselves, in relation to providing feedback on the course and their learning environment, this can be used where possible, to inform how I plan my teaching strategies. 

• Receiving feedback constructively 

At the beginning of the employability module I established that I needed to work on receiving feedback constructively, using it as a developmental tool.  I acknowledge that this is partially reliant upon the delivery of feedback from others, however, I am aware I need to make a conscious, rational effort to build upon the positive aspects of receiving feedback.

Feedback is such an effective tool, which needs to be incorporated within my planning strategies and reflective practice.  In context with teaching employability skills, developing this skill is likely to have a positive impact on the learning environment and the relationships within it, therefore enhancing learning and students attainment of employability skills.

Bubble Couch

As part of the course, we were split into designated groups where we were given instructions and rules to follow so that we may achieve the goal of creating a bubble couch which could hold the weight of one person for 1 minute.

This activity demanded effective team working and communication skills.  As a group, we discussed creative ideas and possibilities as part of the planning process.  One member of the team clearly took the lead role in construction and planning, whilst others automatically assumed roles preparing the materials for use.

On reflection, I could have been more assertive in relation to insisting that we read the rules and instructions prior to beginning any construction work.  I did suggest this, but the other members did not respond to my suggestion and I did not pursue this any further.  As a consequence, we had one of our balloons popped because we did not follow the rules correctly, which clearly specified that as a team we should allocate roles within the group prior to preparing materials. 

This links with comments I received as part of the facilitator feedback, which suggests that I need to "develop a more assertive approach so that I can share my excellent ideas in a broader forum".  I need to ensure that I learn from this situation and ensure that in similar situations in the future I am more assertive in my approach.

During the task, I contributed ideas towards the planning and construction of the couch, I tied balloon ends, I read the rules, I cut strips of sellotape to hold the construction and I participated in the construction of the couch, As part of the facilitator evaluation provided for this specific task, I was labelled as the "hub" which was described to me as being a productive person, who is adaptable according to the situation, someone who applies themselves and is willing to carryout whatever task/role which is needed.  I feel this is a fair evaluation, I have always been a keen team player, willing to commit, work hard and adapt in order to achieve a goal.

As a team, we all worked well together, with all members of the group demonstrating motivation and determination to succeed at the task, using problem-solving techniques when we were required to amend the construction from the original plan.

All of the employability skills used and applied in this task are extremely valuable in the workplace, and I can clearly see the importance of proactively promoting and supporting my learners in developing such useful skills as part of their learning journey.

I can identify the positives associated with incorporating activities which require learners to develop and apply employability skills within my lessons and reflecting this on my current scheme of work.

Embedding employability skills in my teaching practice

As a teacher, I recognise the value of embedding employability skills within my lessons, helping to provide learners with the necessary skills to succeed in the workplace.  I believe there are areas within my current schemes of work to contextualise learning in relation to workplace scenarios.  I already use role play as a tool for learners to practice communication skills and team working in context with workplace scenarios and so far have received positive feedback from students, as they can recognise the value of practising these personal skills in a learning environment.

I acknowledge the need for the employability skills I embed within my lessons to be transferable, and whilst learners may practise and develop skills in context with employment roles relating to forensic science, many of the skills will be generic, which learners can adapt and apply according to their future employment roles (Greatbatch & Lewis 2007).

The following Deloitte video provides a demonstration on how to effectively deliver employability skills
http://events.ctn.co.uk/ec/deloitte/standard_player/player.asp?clipID=6038&autoplay=false

References

Gravells, A. (2010) Delivering employability skills in the lifelong learning sector, Exeter: Learning Matters

Greatbatch, D. and Lewis, P. (2007) Generic employability skills II, produced by the Centre for Developing and Evaluating Lifelong Learning at the University of Nottingham.  Available at: http://www.swslim.org.uk/Documents/GES/GES_II-FULL_REPORT_06.03.07.pdf (03/01/11)

Hill, R. and Petty, G. (1995) A new look at selected employability skills, a factor analysis of the occupational work ethic, Journal of Vocational Education Research, 20, 4; 59-73

Little, B. (2003) International perspectives on employability, Enhancing student employability co-ordination team breifing paper

Martin, R., Villeneuve-Smith, F., Marshall, L. and McKenzie, E. (2008) Employability skills explored, London: LSN

UK Commission for Employment Skills (2009) The employability challenge, the full report, available at: http://www.ukces.org.uk/upload/pdf/EmployabilityChallengeFullReport.pdf (04/01/11)