Employability Skills for the 21st Century Workplace

Key Skills Required for the Workplace

The development of Employability Skills is an important aspect of educating our young people so that they can confidently pursue careers of their choice. These are the skills that employers expect their employees to have, together with the specific technical- perhaps entrepreneurial – skills required for the job for which they apply. A positive teaching environment results in many of these skills being naturally developed and fine-tuned.

• Communication – good written and spoken communication skills.
• Teamwork – good team player; respectful of all team members and tolerant of opinions that are different from my own.
• Problem solving – able to work through difficulties, make decisions, and positively approach conflict situations.
• Initiative and Enterprise – able to follow through on my ideas, be creative and innovative when looking for solutions, and looking for extra work when I have completed a task.
• Planning and Organizing – being organized, self-disciplined, taking a pride in how I present myself in a job, good management of time skills.
• Self-management – as above. Being accountable for my work plans, taking ownership of my responsibilities; being responsible, reliable and trustworthy.
• Learning – keen to keep learning i.e. further study, listening to people with more experience and having a growth mindset.
• Technology – keep up to date with changes in technology.

[adapted] © Schools Industry Partnership