(ES) Employability Skills Module Overview
Employability Skills
Introduction
Most discussions concerning today's workforce eventually turn to employability skills. Finding workers who have employability or job readiness skills that help them fit into and remain in the work environment is a real problem. Employers need reliable, responsible workers who can solve problems and who have the social skills and attitudes to work together with other workers. Creativity, once a trait avoided by employers who used a cookie cutter system, is now prized among employers who are trying to create the empowered, high-performance workforce needed for competitiveness in today's marketplace. Employees with these skills are in demand and are considered valuable human capital assets to companies.
Essential Questions
- Why is effective communication important in business?
- How do I develop the ability to ask challenging questions that result in innovation?
- How will critical thinking and problem solving help me to locate, analyze and apply information relevant to my employment?
- What work readiness traits will I need to be successful in my career?
- What skills do I need to cultivate to remain productive as changes occur in technology and diversity in the workforce?
- What is a professional image and what does it mean to my career?
Key Terms
- Communication - the act of exchanging information
- Interpersonal relationships - communication between people
- Creativity - the use of imagination or original ideas
- Critical thinking - disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence
- Employability skills - skills relating to choosing a career, getting and keeping a job, making job and career changes, and career advancement
- Diversity - openness to differences among people, cultures and perspectives
- Professional image - Image can be conveyed as professional by the way that you dress, the way you speak, the way you respond to others, and the way that others speak about you
Module Overview
There was a time in the past when students would graduate from high school and go to work for a company and stay with that company until retirement. That rarely happens in today's economy. While lifetime employment may only be a dream for employees today, lifetime employability is not. The key to getting, keeping, and advancing in a job or career is the development of employability skills. These are skills, attitudes and actions that enable workers to get along with their fellow workers and supervisors and to make sound, critical decisions. Unlike occupational or technical skills, employability skills are generic in nature rather than job specific and cut across all industry types, business sizes, and job levels from the entry-level worker to the senior most position.
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