Employability in context

Employability can mean different things to different audiences - what it means to one of your learners may differ greatly from an employer or careers adviser. Words like 'career' and 'employability' may be alienating for some and no doubt you already adapt how you position employability and career planning, if it is even part of the ongoing dialogue you have with your learners. 

For many employability is about much more than getting a job:

• for some, employability will be related to changing job or progressing in their existing area of employment
• others might view it as undertaking voluntary activities and community engagement, e.g. being a children’s football coach or a on a parent teacher council
• others may see it as achieving academic success.

Some useful sources of information before we start to look at resources that could be useful signposting for your learners - 

• Skills Development Scotland (SDS) national Career Management Skills framework - in particular the graphic on page 15 has a good summary of the core career management skills needed to enhance an individual's employability, followed up by more detailed explanations. 

• Skills for the Future - SDS have also produced a report on skills for the future , also referred to as meta skills classified under 3 headings as below. Page 8 onwards in the report has more detail on each of these

Description of Meta SkillsShow descriptionUnder Self Management are the skills of focussing, integrity, adapting and initiative. Under Social intelligence are the skills of communication, feeling, collaborating and leading. Under Innovation are the skills of curiosity, creativity, sense making and critical thinking

• National careers website - My World of Work | - with resources that can be used to establish goals, understand options and take next steps. 

In the next section we will look at the types of Employability Skills that your learners may start to develop through undertaking courses on OpenLearn