5.2 Employability Skills

Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay

Employability Skills

“Employability Skills can be defined as the transferable skills needed by an individual to make them ’employable’. Along with good technical understanding and subject knowledge, employers often outline a set of skills that they want from an employee.” (Article: Top 10 Employability Skills by STEMNET)

“Employability skills are general skills that make you desirable to employers. While most are soft skills, employability skills also include hard skills like being bilingual or multilingual. They relate to your mindset, expertise or knowledge of concepts and methods. Recruiters look for these skills because they’re a good indicator of a successful, employable candidate. People also refer to employability skills as transferrable skills and foundational skills. While they are rarely included in job descriptions, showing that you have certain employability skills can convince hiring managers that you are a good fit for a job.” (Source: https://ca.indeed.com/)

Employability skills are the skills you need to enter, stay in, and progress in the world of work—whether you work alone or as part of a team.

According to the 2020-2025 Strategic Mandate Agreement, “Centennial College remains committed to ensuring graduates have the essential employability skills and competencies needed to meet global workforce standards – communication, numeracy, critical thinking and problem-solving, information management, and interpersonal and personal management skills. These are the skills that have long been viewed by employers as essential for its employees and are the skills that will become even more critical for the future workplace in the context of advanced technology and automation.” (Section 4. Skills and Job Outcomes)

Skills for Success are a set of foundational and transferable skills needed to participate and thrive in learning, work and life. A series of videos has been developed to:

• help explain each skill for success
• show how each skill can be used in the workplace, and
• identify the benefits of developing these skills

The following video explains The importance of Creativity and Innovation in the work environment

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQluystHU9c&t=40s

The following video explains The importance of Collaboration in the work environment

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB4Vc_xY360

The following video explains The importance of Adaptability in the work environment

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB4Vc_xY360

Using Transferable Skills and Developing Employability Skills

Transferable skills are incredibly valuable. They’re those core skills and abilities that go beyond a
particular job or organization – you can use them in almost any role.
The good news is that you have several of these skills, so it’s worth making the most of
them when you apply for a role.
Use the checklist below to help you identify some of your key transferable skills that you could highlight
in your job applications and online profiles.

It is important to reflect on your existing skills and continue to set goals to identify, learn, practice and master new skills to successfully launch your careers.

Showcase your employability skills

Now that you are aware of your Employability Skills and have an action plan to continue developing them, it is important to showcase them. Including your employability skills on your resume is an easy way to convince prospective employers that you are the best candidate for a role.