Employability skills
Australia has achieved a solid position in the global economy being listed as 14th largest in the world - no small feat given our relatively modest population of 20 million people.
In 2001, the Department of Education Science and Training and the Australian National Training Authority funded the Employability Skills for the Future project which revealed that workplace, education and training are the places to start if we are to continue this growth.
The premise is based on the fact that highly-skilled and well-equipped workforces guarantee economic stability, security and prosperity. As such workforces in turn require skilled, dedicated and flexible workers.
The report's framework of employability skills provides guidelines about skills which all Australians, but particularly young people, should learn and develop within themselves to become, not only a better workforce for Australia, but also successful individuals and businesses.
Adapting to change
The hallmarks of these skills create a more adaptable workforce able to embrace change, opportunities, skills, knowledge and development.
The changing nature of work and skills required by enterprises and companies to ensure economic growth has been acknowledged. So, education, training and employment have been deemed the areas most ripe for generating knowledge and skills-development in the population.
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) and The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), together with the Department of Education, Science & Training (DEST) and the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) together devised a comprehensive framework of 'employability skills' - these are universally esteemed and recognised personal attributes and professional qualities which employers seek in their workers; vital skills which can be ideally be utilised everywhere and anywhere.
Employability skills - what are they?
A skill's level of priority and complexity within a particular workplace will of course vary from job to job, and employer to employer, though all of them, to some extent, are considered crucial.
The definition used by DEST is:
“skills required not only to gain employment, but also to progress within an enterprise so as to achieve one’s potential and contribute successfully to enterprise strategic directions”. Employability skills are also sometimes referred to as generic skills, capabilities or key competencies.
The Employability Skills Framework incorporates the following personal attributes that contribute
to overall employability:
• loyalty
• commitment
• honesty and integrity
• enthusiasm
• reliability
• personal presentation
• commonsense
• positive self-esteem
• sense of humour
• balanced attitude to work and home life
• ability to deal with pressure
• motivation
• adaptability.
The key skills identi?ed in conjunction with the personal attributes to make up the Employability
Skills Framework are:
• communication skills that contribute to productive and harmonious relations between
employees and customers;
• team work skills that contribute to productive working relationships and outcomes;
• problem-solving skills that contribute to productive outcomes;
• initiative and enterprise skills that contribute to innovative outcomes;
• planning and organising skills that contribute to long-term and short-term strategic planning;
• self-management skills that contribute to employee satisfaction and growth;
• learning skills that contribute to ongoing improvement and expansion in employee and
company operations and outcomes; and
• technology skills that contribute to effective execution of tasks.