1. Key Employability Competencies and self Awareness
Maram Shouman

2. Agenda Why it is important What is employability?
What are employability skills?
The Key Role ???
Employability skills
SWOT - Activity

3. Why it is important
Disabled people represent one fifth of the working age population, but are far more likely to be out of work and to lack skills than the population as a whole. Improving skills and employment for disabled people matters, not just for equality, but also for national prosperity and delivering world leading skills and employment. Indeed, these are interlinked challenges: skills are increasingly key to improving employment

4. Cont.
This is unfair in a society that aims for opportunity for all and improved social justice. Skills are increasingly a key driver of employment and so helping disabled people to improve their skills must be at the heart of a strategy to ensure disabled people can succeed in the labor market. But the continuing disadvantage of disabled people constrains national prosperity too; is simply not making the most of the talents of all of its people.

5. What is employability?
Employability has been defined as “the capability for gaining and maintaining employment.”

6. What are employability skills?
Employability skills are the skills you have developed inside and outside of school that you can transfer to the workplace
Knowledge and abilities relating to a particular job
The ability to identify suitable job opportunities and self presentation for applications and interviews. You can’t rely on your academics alone to automatically open doors for you after school
Many students already have the employability skills companies are looking for – but they don’t realise it!
Knowledge and abilities relating to a particular job.
Every job will need knowledge and skills necessary to successfully perform in the role. You will need to think about your skills and demonstrate evidence of how you have the require skills.
The ability to identify suitable job opportunities.
When you see descriptions of jobs that interest you, pay close attention to the skills the employer wants.
Self-presentation for applications and interviews.
Once you’ve identified the job you want, you need to be able to demonstrate employability skills and present them in different ways. This could include: CV, interview technique, experiences of how you have developed new skills.
Academics
It will certainly unlock doors – in other words it will make you eligible to apply for jobs that specify certain academic requirements. But, however, good your academics are it is likely you will be competing for the job with a high number of other candidates who are equally as academically qualified.
Once your academics have unlocked the door, you need the right skills, attributes and knowledge to successfully secure the job.
In parallel with your academics, you should aim to develop key skills that will help you in your future career. The skills you should consider developing are those that reflect your own abilities, personality and interests, as these will aide your choice of career.
External factors such as the job market and personal circumstances.
External factors such as supply and demand in the labour market. Your personal circumstances can affect your ability to seek opportunities i.e. Individual life, financial constraints, caring responsibilities, ability to relocate – be realistic!

7. The Key Role ???
Disabled students may need specific support to identify and maximize their strengths and skills, focusing on what they are good at and developing alternative strategies to acquire employability skill sets that are problematic

8. Employability skills ؟؟؟؟

9. Employability skills are also known as:
Key behaviours
Competencies
Soft skills
Transferrable skills
Personal skills
Generic skills
Basic skills
Employability skills can also be known as transferrable skills (because skills developed in one area of your life can be transferred to other areas), or competencies or personal skills.
In the context of your development and career planning, they are called career management skills.

10. Coaching Time Management Motivation
Commercial Awareness Driven Team Player
Leader Good Communicator Honesty
Good sportsmanship Positive personal image
Problem-Solving Flexibility Literacy
Reliable Numeracy Committed
Resilient Disciplined Patience Loyalty
Ambitious Respectful Self- Aware
Goal-Orientated Prioritising Wants to learn
Networks and Builds Relationships Guides Others
Talk through some of the ones that flash up on the screen and why they are important
These skills are all transferable, which means that they are useful in a wide range of jobs and are not specific to just one job or field. So even if you don't have a lot of job-specific skills, you may already have transferable skills that you can use to sell yourself to employers.

11. What are the top skills that employers want?
Written communication
Verbal communication
Flexibility
Commercial awareness
Teamwork
Planning and organising
Investigating and analysing
Drive
Numeracy
Self awareness
Computing
Professionalism
Talk through some of the skills employers are looking for…
Written Communication - Able to express yourself clearly in writing.
Verbal Communication – Able to express your ideas clearly and confidently in speech.
Flexibility - Adapt successfully to changing situations and environments.
Commercial Awareness – General knowledge of business, business experiences or work experience, and, specifically, an understanding of the sector.
Teamwork - Work confidently within a group.
Planning and Organising - Able to plan activities and carry them through effectively.
Investigating, Analysing – Gather information systematically to establish facts and principles.
Drive – Determination to get things done. Constantly look for better ways of doing things.
Initiative / Self management – Able to act on imitative, identify opportunities and proactive in putting forward ideas and solutions.
Time Management – Manage time effectively, prioritising tasks and able to work to deadlines.
Numeracy- Able to carry out arithmetic operations/understand data.
Self Awareness – Awareness of achievements, abilities and areas of development.
Professionalism – Pays care and attention to quality of their work.

12. Verbal Communication

13. Communication listening and understanding
speaking clearly and directly
writing to the needs of the audience
negotiating responsively
reading independently
understanding the needs of internal and external Students
establishing and using networks
sharing information

14. Solution
A student with a social communication disorder such as Asperger’s Syndrome may find team working or role play skills impossible or difficult to develop: the student may need to work on other skills that are more achievable and which reflect realistic career aspirations.
A student with short term memory difficulties (e.g. a dyslexic student) needing to develop skills to enable them to remember the points they want to make in an interview and to keep track and formulate their answers when faced with complex or multi part questions.

15. Teamwork

16. Teamwork
working across different ages irrespective of gender, race, religion or political persuasion
working as an individual and as a member of a team
knowing how to define a role as part of the team
applying teamwork to a range of situations
identifying the strengths of team members
coaching and mentoring skills, including giving feedback

17. Solution
Example:
A deaf student will need to develop skills to work effectively with an interpreter to maximize their contributions in meetings or to deliver presentations.

18. Analyzing and investigating

19. Analyzing and Investigating
Analytical skills are the ability to visualize, gather information, articulate, analyze, solve complex problems, and make decisions Analytical skills are essential in the workplace to ensure necessary problem solving occurs to keep productivity and other areas of the workforce functioning smoothly

20. Negotiation and persuasion

21. Negotiation and persuasion
NEGOTIATING involves being able to discuss and reach a mutually satisfactory agreement. 
Persuasion involves being able to convince others to take appropriate action.

22. Negotiation and persuasion
This is about being able to put forward your way, but also being able to understand where the other person is coming from so that you can both get what you want or need and feel positive about it.

23. Solution ?
For example:
a. A dyslexic student may have gained well-developed time management and organization skills through specialist study skills tuition.
b. Disabled students may have acquired negotiation and problem solving skills explaining their need for adjustments to academic staff.
Employability sessions should help disabled students to recognise and value the particular transferable skills that they have developed as a disabled person. They can then use this knowledge positively in promoting their abilities to an employer or placement provider.

24.  Problem solving

25. Problem-solving
developing creative, innovative and practical solutions
solving problems in teams
applying problem-solving strategies across a range of areas
testing assumptions, taking into account the context of data and circumstances
resolving customer concerns in relation to complex project issues

26. Leadership

27. Leadership
You may not be a manager straight away, but graduates need to show potential to motivate teams and other colleagues that may work for them. It's about assigning and delegating tasks well, setting deadlines and leading by good example.

28. Solution
Some disabled students may need additional practice and support to develop the skills necessary to undertake assessment tests and interviews.
For example:
a. A student with mobility difficulties may have learned people management skills from working with a support assistant.

29. Flexibility
Deals with your ability to manage multiple assignments and tasks, set priorities, and adapt to changing conditions and work assignments.

30. Flexibility

32. SWOT - Activity
A SWOT analysis is useful for identifying areas for development
You can analyse your strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats that you face
This helps you focus on your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available to you
Explain what a SWOT analysis is..

33. SWOT Analysis

34. SWOT Analysis Strengths Opportunities Threats
Date
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
I communicate well within in a team.
I am completely committed to my studies.
Weaknesses
Presenting makes me feel very nervous.
I focus too much on the detail and sometimes this effects how I manage my time.
I’m doing a presentation as part of an assignment. This will help to start to build my confidence public speaking.
Apply for a part time job. This will help develop my customer service skills.
Opportunities
Stronger candidates applying for the job
Threats
Show the students the example SWOT analysis.
Optional activity
Ask students to consider their current skill level and complete the SWOT template after the session. You may have already started the process if you have a record of achievement / progress report.
Strengths
What advantages do you have that others don't have (for example, skills, certifications, or education)?
What do you do better than anyone else?
What personal resources can you access?
What do other people see as your strengths?
Which of your achievements are you most proud of?
What values do you believe in that others fail to exhibit?
Consider this from your own perspective, and from the point of view of the people around you. And don't be modest or shy – be as objective as you can. And if you have any difficulty with this, write down a list of your personal characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths
Think about your strengths in relation to the people around you. For example, if you're a great mathematician and the people around you are also great at math, then this is not likely to be a strength in your current role – it may be a necessity.
Weaknesses
What tasks do you usually avoid because you don't feel confident doing them?
What will the people around you see as your weaknesses?
Are you completely confident in your education and skills training? If not, where are you weakest?
What are your negative behaviours (for example, are you often late, are you disorganised, do you have a short temper, or are you poor at handling stress?)
Again, consider this from your own perspective, and from the point of view of the people around you. Do other people see weaknesses that you don't see? Be realistic – it's best to face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible
Opportunities
What opportunities have you considered?
What could you improve in your weaknesses area?
How can you take advantage of the strengths you have?
What changes do you need to make to in your life to improve?
Threats
What obstacles do you currently face with your studies?
Are any of your peers competing with you for projects or roles?
Could any of your weaknesses lead to threats?
Performing this analysis will often provide key information – it can point out what needs to be done and put problems into perspective.
September 2011

35. The outcome you want from the SWOT analysis:
Date
The outcome you want from the SWOT analysis:
Strengths
What strengths you should consider making stronger to further enhance your ability to pursue your goals
Weaknesses
What weaknesses you need to improve on, or manage, so that they don’t impede your goal setting
What opportunities are best for you to pursue
What internal strengths you can use to enhance your pursuit of these opportunities
Opportunities
What threats you need to eliminate/ minimise
What internal strengths you can use to overcome these threats
Threats
Encourage students to complete the SWOT exercise.
A personal SWOT analysis is a look at you and your life. It will help you identify where you need to improve, and more importantly allows you to identify your internal strengths that you can capitalise on to seize your opportunities and deal with any external threats.
For this reason, it is an important step in personal goal setting – a step that shouldn’t be overlooked.
September 2011