5 resources to help you develop your employability skills

If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about employability skills - it’s that they make you employable! These skills tend to be required across roles and industries, although some may be particularly important in particular roles. For example, communication is important in any job – but it’s especially crucial if you work in a call centre, for example.

 

According to LinkedIn, employers are on the lookout for particular skills – digital skills, strategic thinking and communication being at the top. By developing your employability skills, you can make sure that as a young person competing with school/college leavers, graduates and experienced professionals, you stand out to employers when they come across your job application.

 

So let’s take a look at our favourite resources when it comes to learning about and developing your employability skills.

 

1. Success at School

Without wanting to blow our own trumpet, we really do have one of the most comprehensive and detailed sets of resources on employability skills out there! Our employability skills section is made up of 47 guides covering every skill you can think of (as well as some you wouldn’t), from communication, problem-solving and lateral thinking, to presentation, leadership and self-motivation. Each guide explores how you are already developing the skill through your school or college work, how it is used in the workplace, and what you can do now to develop it further in your everyday and academic life.

 

2. Coursera

Coursera is an online learning platform with loads of courses available to study straight from your phone, tablet or laptop. Here’s a nifty trick – sign up for a seven-day free trial on Coursera Plus over the summer, and spend a few hours a day working through one of their flexible courses. This Coursera page on employability skills contains a link to relevant courses – for example, courses on writing, creative thinking and problem solving. Courses vary in length, but you could fit an eight-hour course into a week-long free trial with just over one hour’s study per day. If you find the platform helpful, you could pay for a month’s membership (currently about £50)  if you have a bit of pocket money left over from your weekend job.

 

3. University of Oxford (website)

University of Oxford has a pretty good online careers service and the pages on skills are full of useful, actionable advice to help you build your employability skills. Each page has a list of ways of developing the mindset needed to improve a particular skill, short-term activities as well as medium- and long-term commitments. For example, the page on teamwork suggests you turn worksheets into team activities – which you could apply to certain homework exercises or revision sessions. A longer-term idea is to volunteer, join a team sport club or society, or taking part in a production.

 

4. National Careers Service

The National Career Service has a Skill Toolkit which lists loads of free online courses in different employability skills. Courses are neatly grouped into categories like ‘coding’, ‘digital design and marketing’ and ‘personal development’. Under coding, you can find a links to courses on programming in Python and C++, while within the digital design section, there’s a link to a range of graphic design courses on LinkedIn. There is useful info on each resource, such as how many hours of learning is available, jobs the course is relevant to and whether the course is self-paced.

 

5. BBC Skillswise

BBC Skillswise features a whole section on job skills – there are mini-sections on private sector (companies), public sector (local and central government) and self-employment (working for yourself). Each mini-sections is filled with videos exploring why maths and English provide useful skills for work in different sectors, such as construction, nursing and care, and childcare and teaching. Technically, these resources are aimed at adults, but you might find them useful too.

 

We hope this guide helps you develop the employability skills employers are looking for in the industry you’d like to work in. If you know what career path you’d like to follow, check out our Jobs A-Z to find out exactly what skills you need to excel in the job role you’ve got your sights set on.