Essential Employability Skills

Understanding the Essential Employability Skills

The Essential Employability Skills (EES) are the non-vocational or transferable skills crucial for a college graduate’s success in the workplace, daily living, and for lifelong learning. These skills are commonly referred to as the soft skills, people skills or transferrable skills.

The Government of Ontario mandates that all college graduates must possess and reliably demonstrate these skills by the end of their program.

The set of 11 Essential Employability Skills are organized under six skill categories that covers a breadth of skills becoming increasingly important for success in the workplace.

The 11 EES were developed based on three fundamental assumptions — that these skills are:

• important for every adult to function successfully in society;
• equally valuable for all graduates, regardless of the level of their credential, whether they pursue a career path or further education; and
• that all colleges and faculty members, are well equipped and well positioned to prepare graduates with these defining employability skills.

So, what does that mean for you as an instructor?

How the EES Fit into your Curriculum Development Process

In addition to building a curriculum based on vocational training, all faculty members teaching in Niagara College programs — leading to an Ontario College Certificate, Diploma or Advanced Diploma — are expected to develop and provide students with learning opportunities to demonstrate achievement of these skills.

Your course outline should list only the relevant EES course outcomes to be taught and assessed in your course. However, to make the EES meaningful for your students it is important to introduce, articulate the value, and embed learning activities to provide opportunities for students to practice and realize the value of these transferable skills for their future.

Note: If these EES course outcomes are not available to you, please check with your Course Coordinator or Course Lead.

Essential Employability Categories

To capture these skills, the following six categories define the essential areas where graduates must demonstrate skills and knowledge:

Further detail about these skills and the level of proficiency successful students must demonstrate can be found through the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU). You can also download a version of the Essential Employability Skills from the MCU.