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About the Educator's Guide to Implementing Employability Skills
Across the Curriculum
Helping Teachers Implement Employability Skills in their content
Understanding Employability Skills and Why They Matter
The Employability Skills Implementation Guide helps teachers understand what employability skills are, why they matter, and how to embed them into their curriculum.​
What the Guide Is
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A tool to help teachers talk about and acknowledge the use of employability skills in the classroom
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A path to ensure high school graduates will be fully prepared to transition to the workforce
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An opportunity to understand the employment needs of the local business community
What the Guide Isn't
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A guide for a stand-alone class
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Another thing piled on to a teacher’s already heavy workload
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Something that stresses teachers out
What the Guide Could Foster
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High school graduates that are fully ready to join the workforce
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Schools that are responsive to the needs of the local employers
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A thriving business community able to hire from a qualified pool of candidates
Why Employability Skills Matter?
What Employers Need
Employers often struggle to fill vacant positions due to the lack of skills among the job candidates they have to choose from. Schools think they’re preparing students for life beyond school, but many struggle to find and keep a job. They lack the kind of skills needed to participate in a work setting – the ability to communicate, collaborate, and problem-solve. When businesses can’t fill jobs from area sources, they move on to somewhere else, hurting the local community.
A Fine Line
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2014 graduating class had an unemployment rate of 28%. Among students that dropped out, the unemployment rate was 30%. If the students that finished with school have just 2% more of a chance to get and keep a job. They are clearly not prepared for the real world of work. They may have hard skills, but they don’t have what it takes to apply the work. If recent high school graduates are only marginally better prepared to get and keep a job, what are schools missing?
Why This Guide Exists
Before I started this Guide, I believed our education systems were providing students with all the skills they needed to be successful after they graduate. Then I participated in an eye-opening teachers' institute focused on the types of careers available locally. We toured facilities for a first-hand look at jobs and participated in open discussions among teachers, production leads, HR, and plant managers.
I picked up on a common theme: The young adults we were sending out into the world did not have the basic skills needed to get - or keep - jobs. Employers and HR managers described how recent graduates handled themselves during the interview process and the first few months on the job.
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The stories were shocking. Our former students could not communicate, collaborate, problem-solve, or work without being on their phones. No one spoke about how these young adults were equipped with the hard skills needed to do the work. It was clear: Schools were not teaching students all the things needed to find sustainable employment after graduation.
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By not teaching our students employability skills, schools are doing a disservice to students. After that week, I knew I had to change my approach to preparing students to transition to the real world. This Guide is my way of sharing what I’ve learned with all teachers.
- Jerry Jay Cloud
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