ACADEMIC AND EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Submitted to
Submitted by
Md Forhad Hossain Student Number: 1706033 Module: EMP BMSK4001 Module Title : Academic and Employability Skills
Table of Contents
1.Introduction 3
2.Academic Skills 3
3.Employability Skills 3
4.Understanding Of Some Employability Skills 4
4.1. Communication And Interpersonal Skills: 4
4.2. Problem Solving Skills: 4
4.3. Taking Initiative And Self Motivation: 4
4.4. Working Under Pressure And To Deadlines: 4
4.5. Organizational Skills : 5
4.6. Team Work: 5
4.7. Ability To Learn And Adapt: 5
4.8. Numeracy Skills: 5
4.9. Diversity And Differecne: 5
4.10. Negotiation: 5
5.Some Basic Enquiry And Employability Skills 6
6.Scenarios From The Two Opposite Ends Of The Table 6
6.1. Case:1 7
6.2. Case:02 7
7. Conclusion: 7
References: 9
1.INTRODUCTION
In this competitive world market, ongoing technological advancements have redesigned the workplace into an innovative and creative work environment known as the high-performance workplace. This new environment requires workers capable of solving problems, creating ways to improve the methods they use in an effective way. In this 21st century, workers will need transferable core skills necessary for career success at all levels of employment and for all levels of academic education. As team work is more beneficial than that of one man show, workers need to achieve new skills as well as transfer their skills to the new-comers. Therefore, academic skills must possess the attribute of employability.
2.ACADEMIC SKILLS
There are some skills which encircle the development of a person self-management, language proficency, learning styles and critical thinking capability along with the literacy, numaric ability and integreity in the academic are called academic skills.
Students must also apply their academic knowledge in order to achieve some carrier goals. Achieving carrier goals are vital because they are the step stones of life. The whole idea of academic skills is tailored to minimize the gap between actual and needed. This should be the major intention of achieving academic skills. In traditional academic classrooms, the basic communication skills are not considered as the major parts of learning, or they have not emphasized appropriately.
3.EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
"A set of achievements, understandings and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and to be successful in their chosen occupations." according to Peter Knight & Manta Yorker (HEFCE/DfES ESECT group)
Employability skills are the most critical in the workplaces, as workplace success mostly depends on these. It can be categorized into three sets of skills:
(a) Basic academic skills, (b) Higher-order thinking skills and (c) Personal qualities
Basic academic skills include reading, writing, math, science, oral communication, listening skills. Higher-order thinking skills include learning, reasoning, thinking creatively, decision making, problem solving skills. The last one is the most critical one who helps someone to reach the highest goal of his plan. That includes being responsible, self-confidence, self-control, social skills, having integrity, adaptability, flexibility, team spirit, punctuality, efficiency, self-motivation, etc.
4.Understanding of some employability skills
4.1. COMMUNICATION AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS:
It refers the ability to explain anything clearly and concisely through verbal and non-verbal means. To listen and relate to other people and to act upon the key information and instructions. This skill can be nurtured during the academic period through presenting coursework project as a report and PowerPoint presentation to the rest of the class.
4.2. PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
Problem solving skills is a cruicail skill for a person. This is a unique ability which helps a person to break down problems into its smallest parts and after that resolving each on of them at a time. This is a very special skill. The primary stage in this skill set is to identify that there is a problem and then have a much closer look at the problem.
4.3. Taking the initiative AND SELF MOTIVATION:
The person should lead by example. The initiative should come from the individual and he himself should regard as the best source of motivation. This can give a great boost towards the goal of the project.
4.4. WORKING UNDER PRESSURE AND TO DEADLINES:
Every project has its own timeframe. The lead time is often fixed that can't be either changed or extended. During that lead time handling the stress that comes with deadlines and ensuring that you meet them. By doing the project under a timeframe can nurture the ability to work under massive pressure.
4.5. ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS :
Organizational skills refers to the skills where a person should be more organized and method oriented. He or she should be focused enough to meet up the deadliness and achieve targets. Monitoring is an important part in order to meet a deadline. To achieve these skills theoretical knowledge is prerequisite. Without having deep academic new methodology are unknown to the person. Having this knowledge help to work in the most organized way. There is always a chance of modification in the workplace if it is needed.
4.6. TEAM WORK:
Team work is the most appealed factor within the organization which makes sure the organizational success. In this modern world team work is the most important key point to make the plan work-out.
4.7. ABILITY TO LEARN AND ADAPT:
To be enthusiastic about work, and to identify ways to learn from mistakes for the benefit of both the employee and your employers.
4.8. NUMERACY SKILLS:
The need of correct datas and their perfact demonastration is vital in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives.
4.9. DIVERSITY AND DIFFERECNE:
Understanding the existence of diversity and realizing the need of it is one of the key skills. The diversity itself brings a huge opportunity into the business arena. A diversified workforce is always competent and effective.
4.10. NEGOTIATION:
Negotiation skills are crucial. In order to master this skill, one must understand the organizational needs and demands and negotiation criteria. The individual should always safeguard the organizational demand at first stake.
5.Some Basic Enquiry and Employability Skills
During my academic period, I used to attend different career oriented workshops and seminars. The successful personnel often emphasized the employability skills rather academic skills more. At that time i often encountered with the first question. in traditional classrooms, we often emphasize on theoretical and practical course work which are useful for the academic purpose than a professional career. There's a crucial gap between the skills which are termed as academic and employability skills, they are not also mutually exclusive, but this perception has not been worked out yet. That's why employers often cite that they actually do not expect new employee is having a deep scale of knowledge but they are expected to have some basic skills such as learning tendency, communication skills, etc. by which new comers can easily achieve the professional skills more effectively and more quickly.
Being responsible, self-confidence, self-control, social skills, having integrity, adaptability, flexibility, team spirit, punctuality, efficiency, self-motivation, etc. are termed as personal skills as mentioned earlier. Without these skills, one cannot work effectively in a team and can't take the leadership when it is necessary. That's why only deep academic and higher order thinking skills are not important alone. When i encounter the third question, i figure out the answer from a student's perspective. Employers have to eliminate some candidates or have to do some screening process. That's why they usually establish a standard on the basis of which they can accomplish the first step. This is done because great academic result shows the candidate's ability to maintain consistency for a larger time frame.
6.Scenarios from the two opposite ends of the table
Fusion of academic and employability skills are very crucial points. During the last stage of academic career students often ask themselves "Am I fit for the upcoming journey in the professional world?" There was no specific answer in their mind due to the lack of knowledge of what is required for the professional world at the very beginning of their career. Now i am going to discuss two cases of my life experiences.
6.1. Case:01
When i was the student of the last year of my graduation, i was worried about my career. "will i get a good job to start my professional career? Am i fit for the job? what if i could not do well?" I was always encountered such kind of questions. At the very beginning of my job, i was given some problems to fix and had to present the solutions to other mates. I did well in problem solving part but did not do quite well in my presentation due to the average presentation skills.
6.2. Case:02
After many years of that experience i had an opportunity as a part of recruitment board to recruit some personnel as a trainee or site engineer. Usually employers recruit employee by taking some verbal and non-verbal examinations. i wanted to do so but not only by taking verbal and written examination but also taking some examination regarding real engineering problems. There were forty-five applicants. Among them 5 persons would be recruited. After taking verbal and written exam thirty persons were primarily selected. Then they were divided into 6 groups. In an engineering site we were facing a problem with the roof top water reservoir. Those group of people was taken to that workplace. They were asked to solve the problem. After solving they had to present the by giving a group presentation. Three of the five groups could figure out the solutions and rest of the groups could not do so. After taking the presentation, we selected one group and recruited all of them. Here we emphasized on the team work, presentation skill, problem solving skills simultaneously. Some of the candidates who were not passed the process were incredibly good in their academic result but they were failed to respond in a group. Some of them were not broad minded enough to focus on a group. They thought about themselves not about the welfare of the group. The members of the recruited group have the ability to work in a team as a valuable asset. This attribute is the most common trait what recruiters are looking for in this modern labor market.
7. Conclusion:
Academic knowledge itself is no longer sufficient in order to perform in today’s competent business arena. As employers usually find out the following traits in the candidates:
The students have to suffice those above requirements. In addition, there are many times when students will not be able to acquire the necessary academic, technical or employability skills in high school that will allow them to be career-ready without further education and training since most of the career opportunities for today's students will require some form of postsecondary education. Students must understand the demand for today's workplace and they should identify themselves as the next person who is leading a number of people. If they can envision them into that place, the automatic adoption of the different required skills becomes mandatory to them. Our educational system cannot undermine their responsibility in this factor as well. The total educational system should be redesigned in order to identify the best practices which serve the student most.
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