Employability skills are very useful things to have, especially if you are not employed and want to be. If you are in the process of choosing a career, then thinking about undertaking a skills programme may be a good move too. It's all about making yourself more likely to be employed. It's about putting yourself in a position before employers where they are forced to see that you have the necessary skills for the job. It's about empowering yourself!
We all need to pay the inevitable bills that we generate from everyday use of the necessary things for life. In order to get the money to pay the bills, we usually need to have a job. Employers and managers of businesses are not usually predisposed to employing just anyone. They want the right person for the job, someone with the right qualifications. In other words, they want someone with employability skills.
The right kind of skill can vary a lot, depending on the particular job. For some situations it can be very simple and easy to get, for others it can involve many years of hard training. For most situations it is something in between. Employability is not just about knowing how to do the actual things that a job requires. It can also be about having the right attitude at interview level. You have to be presentable in the right way for a prospective employer to want you. Even if you have everything right on paper, if you don't perform right on the day of the interview, someone else may walk away with the prize.
Gaining employability skills generally means training of some kind you can study for. There are many government training courses available, especially for young people, and especially for those not currently in employment, and there can be grants available too that will help you pay for the kind of training you need. If you require work experience at any point, this might me something that can also be arranged through a skills programme.
Wanting to progress and improve in life is a natural desire for most people. You may be reasonably content in the job you currently have, but perhaps you have set your eye on something a bit higher up the ladder. It is likely to be something that will pay better and possibly give you a little more prestige too. This is where your employability skills, or the lack of them, come into play. If you aren't already employable, perhaps it's time to do something about it.
