1. Communication and Employability Skills for IT
Unit 1
Communication and Employability Skills for IT

2. Basic Housekeeping Check Lanyards Complete Register
Health and Safety check
Reminder about use of mobile phones
Reminder about classroom rules
No food or drink, thank you!

3. Please make notes to the best of your ability.
You should make notes
as you go along when theory is delivered in order to complete the task successfully therefore bring a pen and some paper please!
Please make notes to the best of your ability.

4. Today’s Learning Outcomes
Unit Criteria
Key Terminology
Understand Direction Words in Assignments
Understand specific personal attributes valued by employers

5. How you will be assessed
This unit will be assessed by a number of internal assignments.
The assignments will be designed to allow you to show your understanding of the unit outcomes.
These relate to what you should be able to do after completing this unit.

6. Assessment Criteria - pass
To achieve a pass grade the evidence must show that you are able to:
P1: explain the personal attributes valued by employers
See Assessment activity 1.1, page 14
P2: explain the principles of effective communication
See Assessment activity 1.3, page 25
P3: discuss potential barriers to effective communication
See Assessment activity 1.2, page 19
P4: demonstrate a range of effective interpersonal skills

7. Assessment Criteria - pass
To achieve a pass grade the evidence must show that you are able to:
P5: use IT to aid communications
See Assessment activity 1.4, page 31
P6: communicate technical information to a specified audience
P7: produce a personal development plan
See Assessment activity 1.5, page 34
P8: follow a personal development plan

8. Assessment Criteria - merit
To achieve a merit grade the evidence must show that, in addition to the pass criteria, you are able to:
M 1: explain mechanisms that can reduce the impact of communication barriers
See Assessment activity 1.2, page 19
 M 2: review draft document s to produce final versions [EP4]
See Assessment activity 1.4, page 31
M 3: explain how an awareness of learning style can aid personal development [RL5]
See Assessment activity 1.6, page 36

9. Assessment Criteria - distinction
To achieve a distinction grade the evidence must show that, in addition to the pass and merit criteria, you are able to
D 1: evaluate interpersonal and written communications techniques
See Assessment activity 1.3, page 25
D 2: review progress on a personal development plan, identifying areas for improvement [RL3]
See Assessment activity 1.6, page 36

10. Assignment Submission
Formal
Written Feedback from me
Second Submission ONLY if could improve
Submission– all tasks completed
I will be assessing your progress regularly and will be providing verbal feedback. Formal feedback will only be issued ONCE!

11. Over to you! Any questions?
What areas of this unit might you find challenging?
Which section of the unit are you most looking forward to?
How can you prepare for the unit assessment(s)?
Any questions?

12. Moodle and MEGA Log on to Moodle to access course materials.
For some tasks you are asked to use MEGA:
Log in:
Password is collegework2014

13. Key terms – revision
Do you remember what “attributes and abilities” mean?
Attributes and abilities: these are the personal characteristics that employers expect you to have. Examples would be that you can solve problems, that you can be creative, that you have leadership qualities, that you can work as part of a team, that you can work with a minimum of supervision.

14. Key terms to complete at the end of the lesson/study time/at home:
Create a table and in the first column put a list of the main technical terms you will learn in this unit. In the second column write definitions from the text book (pages 5, 6, 7, 12, 16, 18, 19, 22, 27, 28, 30). The textbook is on Moodle.
Then, try and think of a simple way of saying each term and put this in the next column.
Try them out on your friends or relatives to see if they make sense.
Add additional terms as you go along and follow the same process.

15. Understand the personal attributes valued by employers
Class discussion: Describe the perfect employee and agree a list (write it on the board or using writing pads) of attributes and abilities they are likely to have.

16. Job adverts:
In small groups select key words from the job adverts and write them down
Compare with the rest of the class

17. Job description
In most situations, employers will be looking for particular skills when engaging a new employee. The exact requirements will be listed in a job description that lists and explains the tasks the employee will be expected to undertake.

18. Job description A job description typically consists of:
core information about the post (title, start date, salary range/grade etc.);
job purpose (a broad overview of the post);
job responsibilities and duties (what the person is expected to do in the role);
information about the department and organisation;
a person specification.

19. A person specification
Experience: Usually this is a short profile detailing the type of previous experience that the candidate is required to have to take on the type of role. Experience may even be very specific (for example, ‘…has developed database systems in Microsoft Visual Basic.NET® for the retail sector for at least two years’).
Qualifications and training: An outline of the educational requirements and professional qualifications that are necessary in order to perform the job. Most industries have a vocational body to guide this sort of decision for example PGCE for teaching.
Abilities: These define the characteristics of the person being sought for the role. Typical abilities may include ‘must be able to work in a team’ or ‘must be able to use own initiative to complete tasks’.

20. A completed person specification
This table gives a completed person specification for???
a systems programmer

21. Understand the personal attributes valued by employers
Individual Work: THINK!
Imagine you are keen on working for a particular organisation in a particular role. List:
Why should the employer give the job to you?
What are your USPs (unique selling points)?
What makes you more suited to fill this post than any other applicant?
What do you have to offer that the employer might value?
What kinds of things are employers looking for in an employee?

22. Attributes
Some attributes are specific to a given job but many apply to all jobs. Some attributes relate to you as a person, while others relate to the type of organisation that you hope to join.
Attributes fall into two categories:
Specific Attributes
General Attributes
Let’s consider each type of attribute in turn.

24. Specific attributes
Specific attributes cover job-related aspects necessary to carry out the job, the knowledge of the good working procedures which your employer will expect you to follow and employee’s attitudes towards work.
Specific attributes are divided into three groups:
Job-related attributes
Good working procedures
Work attitudes

25. Job-related attributes
For some jobs, technical knowledge and skills might be necessary.
In small groups complete these sentence and share with the rest of the class:
A sales representative needs to be able to ……….. The employer may provide ………………..but some jobs require you to have …………………………..
It is courteous for airline employees to ……………………… Therefore, some airlines demand ……………………….of their cabin crew.
An IT technician, who fixes hardware faults, must be ………………………….., but will also need to be skilled in …………………….
Check your answers on the next slide 

26. A sales representative needs to be able to drive
A sales representative needs to be able to drive. The employer may provide a company car but some jobs require you to have your own means of transport.
It is courteous for airline employees to respond to passengers in the same language that the passengers have used. Therefore, some airlines demand language skills of their cabin crew.
An IT technician who fixes hardware faults must be able to use hand tools such as screwdrivers, but will also need to be skilled in using electronic testing equipment such as a multi-meter.

27. Job-related attributes
You might demonstrate your technical skills by taking and passing academic or vocational qualifications or you might have a certificate to prove that you have a special skill, e.g. you can cook or swim.
If a particular technical skill is essential to an advertised job, it should be made clear to all prospective employees. This will deter candidates without the requisite skills and prevent employers from having to waste time interviewing applicants who are not qualified for the post e.g. database management, drilling, security and so on.

28. Activity : Technical skills download from Moodle or student drive

29. At the end of the session revisit aims and objectives to check if the learning took place