It is increasingly becoming evident that employability skills make it easier to obtain employment, to remain in it and to adapt easily to the changing demands of the labour market (Riordan & Rosas, 2003:91).
Employers today are looking for workers who are knowledgeable, who get along well with other people, who are able to work as part of a team, who are dependable and reliable, who are eager to learn and who have good written and oral communication skills. Levy and Murnane (2001:153) use the words ‘competencies’ and ‘skills’ synonymously and have identified the following six key competencies critical to economic success:
• basic reading and mathematics skills;
• the ability to communicate effectively;
• the organisation of work within firms;
• teamwork;
• familiarity with computers; and
• formal educational credentials.
Kelly (2001:227) has identified the following employability skills that make individuals flexible, adaptable and mobile in the labour market:
• communication;
• information technology;
• working with numbers;
• working with others;
• problem solving; and
• improving your own learning and performance.
According to Pretorius (2001:77), the skills sought by employers in the workplace include: proficiency in mathematics, computing, reading, writing and reasoning;, the ability to use resources and information constructively;, interpersonal skills;, the ability to understand systems and master technology, as well as the flexibility to cope with changes in the workplace.
In Australia, the focus with regard to key competencies is on the integrated application of knowledge and skills that are not specific to a particular occupation or profession and which can be utilised at a workplace or social environment. The Australian Chamber of Commerce
and Industry and the Business Council of Australia (2002:2–3) identify the following employability skills essential in the workplace:
• communication;
• teamwork;
• problem solving;
• initiative and enterprise;
• planning and organising;
• self-management;
• learning; and
• technology.
The importance of employability skills as opposed to specific skills is clearly underscored by the United States of America’s Secretary’s Commission for Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report (Department of Labour 1991:22), which recommends specific competencies and skills required from someone entering the labour market. The SCANS Report (Department of Labour 1991:22) identified the following competencies and foundation skills which are essential for successful employment:
Competencies – effective workers can use these productively:
• resources – allocating time, money, material, space and staff;
• interpersonal skills – working in teams, teaching others, servicing customers, leading, negotiating and working well with people from culturally diverse backgrounds;
• information – acquiring and evaluating data, organising and maintaining files, interpreting and communicating, and using computers to process information;
• systems – understanding social, organisational and technological systems, monitoring and correcting performance, and designing or improving systems; and
• technology – selecting equipment and tools, applying technology to specific tasks and maintaining and troubleshooting technologies.
Foundation skills – here competence requires:
• basic skills – reading, writing, arithmetic and mathematics, speaking and listening;
• thinking skills – thinking creatively, making decisions, solving problems, seeing things in the mind’s eye, knowing how to learn and reason; and
• personal qualities – individual responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management and integrity.
According to Turner (2002:1), in the United Kingdom key skills are defined as “the generic and transferable skills that all people need to succeed in education and training and in the work and life in general”. They comprise a list of skills similar to Australia’s key competencies and are divided into a core set of three basic skills and three wider key skills: The three basic skills that comprise a national Key Skills Qualification include:
• communication;
• numeracy or the application of numbers; and
• the use of information technology.
The three wider key skills are:
• working with others;
• improving own learning and performance; and
• problem solving.
Stasz (2001:386) identifies four broad types of skills which employers in the United States of America require from workers, and classifies them as follows:
• Foundational or cognitive skills – these are referred to as “academic skills”, which can be acquired through formal education settings, and they are linked to specific subject areas such as English, science, mathematics and history.
• Basic works skills – these are generic skills, which include things like problem solving, communication and teamwork.
• Broad occupational/technical skills – these skills are job-related and can be acquired through training before entering a job.
• Job-related skills – overarching capabilities required for maximising organisational performance. The above skills are also referred to as “soft skills”, and they can be associated with motivation, reliability, flexibility, willingness to learn and accepting responsibility for learning.
The OECD Project Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual
Foundations (DeSeCo), takes a very different approach to defining employability skills
basis by involving academics and commissioning papers from philosophical, anthropological, economic, psychological and social perspectives. Approaches used by the DeSeCo project to identify and define generic skills were based on the opinions of informed community leaders. The project concluded that there are three very broad competencies, each of which can be broken down to provide a more extensive list of employability skills (Rychen, 2001:12).
These three competencies are:
• acting autonomously and reflectively;
• using tools interactively; and
• joining and functioning in socially heterogeneous groups.
The generic skills identified by the DeSeCo project are common to employability skills found in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United State of America. Table 2.3 below presents a comparative analysis of employability skills found in Australia, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
TABLE 2.3 Comparative table of employability skills by country Australian Mayer key
competencies
United Kingdom (NCVQ) core skills
United States (SCANS) workplace know-how
• Collecting, analysing and organising information
• Communication • Information • Foundation skills • Basic skills • Communicating ideas and
information
• Communication • Personal skills
• Improving own performance and learning
• Information • Foundation skills • Basic skills • Planning and organising
activities
• Personal skills
• Improving own performance and learning
• Resources • Foundation skills • Personal abilities • Working with others and in
teams
• Personal skills • Working with others
• Interpersonal skills • Using mathematical ideas
and techniques
• Numeracy
• Application of numbers
• Foundation skills • Basic skills • Solving problems • Problem solving • Foundation skills
• Thinking
• Using technology • Information technology • Technology systems Source: Adapted from Werner (1995:38)
The findings on employability skills developed by the various countries studied above reveal common trends in the employability skills sought by employers in the respective countries.