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 & Creating
Opportunities
Action Planning
Networking
Matching & Decision
Making
Social and
Ethical
Awareness
Coping with
Uncertainty
Negotiation
Self Development Self
Confidence
Transferability Skills
What are Employability Skills?
•
Self-awareness
•
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.
•
Self-promotion
•
Can identify the needs of
employers and training
providers and promote own
strengths in a convincing way
to an employer.
•
Exploring and creating
opportunities
•
Can identify, create, research
and seize both advertised and
unadvertised job opportunities
for employment and work
experience.
What are Employability Skills?
•
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.
•
Action planning
•
Networking
•
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.
•
Matching and decision-making
•
Can match opportunities to own
skills, knowledge and experience
and make informed choices from
available opportunities.
What are Employability Skills?
• Social and ethical awareness
• Understands the importance
of social responsibility and
ethical
• principles as an individual,
and within an organisation.
• Coping with uncertainty
• Able to adapt to change and
take risks to expand his/her
experience.
• Negotiation
• Able to negotiate the
contract between employer
and employee and able to
reach ‘win/win’ agreements.
What are Employability Skills?
• Self-development
• Committed to the need for
continual learning.
Understands preferred style
of learning. Can reflect on
different experiences (good
and bad) and learn from
them.
• Self-confidence
• Has confidence in own
abilities gained from past
successes, and has a sense
of self-worth.
• Transferability skills
• Can apply existing skills to
new situations such as
different career areas.
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 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?
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?
Do you have a definite
career or some careers
in mind which match
your skills, knowledge
and experience?
How Do People Choose
A Career?
•
•
•
•
•
DOT I S -
Decision making
Opportunity Awareness
Transition skills
Information skills
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 Bill
Law, 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 selfawareness 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 Krumboltz main 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 Chaos Theory 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 at
http://www.hihohiho.com/