The Cambridge Employability Skills Framework Developing the skills needed to participate effectively in the workplace and fulfil your potential throughout your career.
Employability Skills Employability is about more than having appropriate qualifications, technical skills or a specific body of knowledge. To be able to participate effectively in the workplace and fulfil their potential throughout their career, employees (and potential employees) also need to develop transferable core skills and appropriate attitudes. Many of these core skills (often referred to as ‘soft skills’) are social skills – the need to work well with other people, with different backgrounds and potentially conflicting interests. There is also an increasing need for higher level thinking skills – to be more critical of information and opinions, to be able to make connections across complex ideas and data sets, and to think creatively to solve problems. There is also the demand for more personal, emotional skills – the ability to maintain motivation despite setbacks, to have a positive attitude when faced with challenges, and to deal constructively with change and uncertainty.
Why are Employability Skills important? Businesses around the world are finding that their future success depends on having a workforce that has these kinds of social, cognitive and emotional skills, and the National Soft Skills Association found that 85% of job success comes from having well-developed soft skills. Despite the apparent need for employees to possess effective core skills, some evidence reveals large mismatches between the actual supply and demand of key work-related skills. According to a report by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, the most common skills deemed to be lacking among staff in UK companies are people and personal skills relating to workload management and teamwork (Vivian et al., 2015). Around the world there is increasing demand from businesses for employees with effective core skills, and education has a critical role to play in helping people to develop these skills.
Why develop Employability Skills in an English language programme? Learning an additional language already involves many of these core skills, such as communication, collaboration and critical thinking. This makes the development of these skills especially suited to language learning, and there is lots of scope to develop these skills in an integrated way through the English language programme.
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The Cambridge Employability Framework The Employability Framework is a way of making sense of the different skills employees and Higher Education (HE) students need to develop, in addition to learning English. The framework is based on extensive research into employer needs, and is aligned with the Cambridge Life
Competencies Framework. By providing a map of the most important employability skills, the framework allows you to gain a deeper understanding of what each of the skills involve and integrate them more systematically into your teaching. The Cambridge Employability Framework groups employability skills into eight key areas of competency that learners need to develop, if they are to be successful both in current employment and throughout their future careers. COLLABORATION AND TEAMWORK COMMUNICATION
INNOVATION AND PROBLEM SOLVING CRITICAL THINKING AND DECISION MAKING LEADERSHIP AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIGITAL LITERACY
Employees and HE students develop skills for successful group work, the management of collaborative tasks and projects, and delivering group tasks effectively. Employees and HE students learn to understand others better, present their views clearly and effectively, and adapt communication for different contexts.
Employees and HE students develop a creative mindset, generate ideas, and solve problems effectively.
Employees and HE students learn to understand, analyse and evaluate information and arguments in order to make decisions. Employees and HE students demonstrate leadership skills, contribute to the success of an organisation, and encourage and support the organisations positive role in addressing global issues. Employees and HE students develop organisational skills to manage time, tasks and information, and learn to manage their ongoing professional development. Employees and HE students develop self-awareness, learn to manage stressful situations and develop a positive attitude and work ethic, and demonstrate positive relationship skills. Employees and HE students learn to effectively use digital and online tools, follow safe online practices, and behave appropriately with others online.
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Each Competency is divided into Core Areas - these are the broad skills and behaviours that make up each competency. The Core Areas are then divided into Component skills - these give more clarity to exactly what is meant by each core area. Shown below are the Competencies, Core Areas and Components of the Cambridge Employability Framework.
COLLABORATION AND TEAMWORK
Working well together in a group
Establishing ways of working together Responding constructively to others Supporting others in their tasks
Managing collaborative tasks and projects
Agreeing what needs to be done Managing the distribution of tasks Making use of the skills and knowledge of colleagues
Delivering a group task effectively
Ensuring progress towards a goal Identifying challenges, problems and opportunities Resolving issues
COMMUNICATION
Understanding others better
Listening actively to others speaking
Presenting your views clearly and effectively
Structuring information in spoken and written texts clearly
Identifying and managing communication barriers or breakdowns
Speaking with confidence and fluency Writing clearly and convincingly
Adapting the way you communicate for different audiences and purposes
Understanding the need for different communications styles in different contexts Adjusting language for different contexts, purposes and people Showing awareness of differences in communication styles across cultures
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INNOVATION AND PROBLEM SOLVING
Developing a creative mindset
Showing interest in ideas and issues outside one’s immediate responsibilities Considering perspectives of other stakeholders – colleagues, customers and suppliers Finding connections between own work and solutions in other teams or organisations
Generating Ideas
Generating multiple ideas - e.g. through brainstorming Elaborating on and combining ideas from others Developing alternative scenarios and proposals
CRITICAL THINKING AND DECISION MAKING
Implementing ideas and solving problems
Developing and testing out new ideas
Understanding and analysing information and arguments
Analysing data, identifying patterns and relationships
Evaluating ideas and arguments
Evaluating arguments and proposals
Making decisions
Identifying and understanding problems
Implementing, presenting and explaining ideas and solutions
Interpreting and drawing inferences from different sources of data
Reaching conclusions from comparing different arguments
Identifying, gathering and organising relevant information Evaluating options and recommendations to come to a decision Justifying decisions and solutions Evaluating the effectiveness of implemented solutions
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LEADERSHIP AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
Contributing to the success of an organisation
Fulfilling own responsibilities within the team Understanding the role and responsibilities of the team within an organisation Understanding and demonstrating an organisation’s values and culture
Demonstrating leadership
Taking the initiative to address issues or pursue opportunities Managing groups of people through clear and practical techniques of delegation and task management Taking a strategic approach to one’s area of work, considering an organisation's long-term objectives Generating support for action through vision and effective communication strategies
Contributing to an organisation’s positive role in global issues
Supporting organisational initiatives to address global issues such as the environment, inclusivity, equality, and exploitation Encouraging new initiatives on global issues within an organisation Developing intercultural awareness of the different beliefs, values and behaviours of other people
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT
Being organised
Using a system to manage time and tasks Using a system to manage information, documentation, contacts, etc
Managing your professional development
Setting goals for professional development Taking action to develop new skills and knowledge Using feedback to improve performance
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Demonstrating selfawareness
Monitoring and reflecting on own emotions
Acting with resilience
Managing stressful situations
Demonstrating empathy and positive relationship skills
Establishing and maintaining positive relationships
Developing a positive attitude and work ethic
Showing empathy for the feelings of others Supporting others
DIGITAL LITERACY
Using digital and online tools
Using digital tools required for one’s work role
Following safe online practices
Following an organisation’s guidelines for online activity
Developing skills in using additional digital tools to support one’s professional development
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Protecting secure information allowing access to internal systems and data Behaving appropriately with others online
Demonstrating respect to others online Maintaining professional and personal confidentiality Representing an organisation in a public forum
The Cambridge Employability Framework is constantly being reviewed and developed. We're working with teachers and learners worldwide to understand more about how the Cambridge Employability Competencies work in the classroom and beyond.
References and Further Reading For further reading on this topic, please see: Careers NZ. Skills employers are looking for. Available at: https://www.careers.govt.nz/planyour-career/not-sure-what-to-do/skills-employers-are-looking-for/ Collabera. What soft skills are employers looking for? Available at: https://www.collabera.com/find-a-job/career-resources/what-soft-skills-are-employerslooking-for/ Doyle, A. (2018) Top skills and attributes employers seek. The balance careers. 12 July, 2018. Available at: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-skills-employers-want-2062481 Mulholland, J. (2013) Why employers value intercultural skills. British Council. 4 March 2013. Available at: https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/why-employers-valueintercultural-skills National Soft Skills Association. https://www.nationalsoftskills.org/ Vivian, D. et al. (2016) Employer Skills survey 2015: UK results. Evidence report 97. May 2016, amended May 2018. UK Commission for Employment and Skills. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_da ta/file/704104/Employer_Skills_Survey_2015_UK_Results-Amended-2018.pdf.
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