3 What is employability?
Although there is some ambiguity over a precise definition of employability, there are some common themes associated with the term which you will explore in the next activity.
Activity 4 Thinking about employability
Take a few moments to think about the following questions:
- What is employability?
- Why is employability important to you?
Discussion
The term ‘employability’ encompasses the relationship between a set of individual attributes and the needs of the employment market. The image below has been created from responses to a question asking Open University staff for the first three words or phrases that came to mind when thinking about employability.
Are there any surprises, similarities, or differences with what you recorded above? You may have noticed that this image describes employability in a range of ways. This is not a problem as there is no single definition and it is likely to mean different things to people depending on their current position, aspirations and goals, motivations, and many other factors.
Whilst both Williams et al. (2015) and Norton and Dalrymple (2020) note that the definition of employability continues to shift and be challenged, in the next activity you will hear directly from employers. Regardless of slightly differing perceptions, employability should be considered as a lifelong journey, rather than something that only happens when people are studying or in the early stages of their career.
Activity 5 What is employability?
Watch the short video below developed by awarding organisation, Pearson. It offers a nice introduction to what ‘employability’ means.
As you watch the video consider the following questions and record your thoughts in the box below.
Pearson video [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
- What key elements of employability are highlighted in the video?
- Thinking back to Activity 1 earlier in this session, how do these elements relate to the stage you are currently at within your career?
Discussion
- You may have noticed that several employers focused attention on the personal skill set that individuals hold, as opposed to technical skills. These are often differentiated between the terms ‘hard’ skills and ‘soft’ skills, which will be explored in the next section.
- Depending on the stage of your career you may have built up a comprehensive collection of skills or you might be earlier in your journey and only just starting to consider these. However, through your engagement in sport you will have likely developed these without necessarily realising. Regardless of your position, this course will help you recognise how your skill set has developed through sport, and how you can take these into the workplace.