Importance of Employability Skills for Students

This report explores the importance of employability skills for students in today's job market. It discusses the concept of employability skills, the most commonly required skills, and their significance for individuals. The report also includes a research methodology, results from a self-evaluation, and recommendations for improving employability skills.

Employability skill
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ABSTRACT
Employability skills has now become a main necessity for students in today’s world for
getting a better job opportunity and performing well in their career. Several organisations
directly demand candidate to have those skills or some provide structured training prepared for
particular job to prepare employees to perform well. Hence this become a crucial part of todays’
business environment. So for better developing understanding about employability skills this
report is conducted which perform secondary study over it along with primary study where own
evaluation is performed to determine area of improvement by taking corrective actions.
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CONTENTS
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
Contents...........................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Concept of Employability skills..................................................................................................4
Mostly required employability skills...........................................................................................4
Importance of employability skill for an individual....................................................................5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................5
RESULT..........................................................................................................................................6
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
The employability skills refer to set of capability, knowledge and skills that a particular
individual require in order to get a better career and job. The development of employability skills
has now become a necessity for students in higher education which support them in choosing
right career path and get succeed over it (Ting and et. al., 2017). I prepared this report to
determine the employability skills which I required to improve in order to perform my job role
effectively. In future I want to become a marketing manager and to reach this goal I require five
employability skills such as communication, team work, presentation, IT and problem-solving
skills. The current report is based on the understanding of employability skill where it structure
in form of literature review to get in depth understanding about concept, methodology use to
perform and prepare report, results as per personal evaluation, discussion on primary and
secondary data analysis and finally recommendation to enhance employability skills.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of Employability skills
As per the perception of Jackson, D., 2016, employability is also called to be soft skills
which are consider as the building block of developing a better and successful career. Mainly
organisation spends a lot of time and money while providing training to their staff in order to
make them capable of performing particular job role in effective manner. The employers now a
days want their employees to be expertise in their field of working. For this they are provided
with job specific skills such as way to operate particular piece of machinery, using particular
computer package specific to role of company. This help in preparing the employees for their job
challenges and performing well.
Mostly required employability skills
According to Fletcher, A.J., Sharif, A.W.A. and Haw, M.D., 2017, employer place a lot of
efforts toward finding the candidates having right skills and competencies that can deal with
particular job challenges. The skills and capabilities are demand by employer as per the job
description of a particular role within an organisation. But there are certain skills which every
employer require within their employees such as communication, team work, presentation, IT
and problem solving skills. These all are very much essential as it directly influence the
performance of an employee. As communication skill support employees in presenting their idea
in front of other effectively, while IT skills support them in performing work in well structured
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manner by switching manual work in digitalise manner. Despite of this team work skills support
an employee to perform well by getting support from several expertise and experienced people
which ensure less chance of error and more chances to get succeed.
Importance of employability skill for an individual
Lisá, E., Hennelová, K. and Newman, D., 2019, stated that employability is not just
limited for getting a better job rather it is about broadening the set of skills and attribute that an
individual can gain which support in creating a base to remain successful throughout the working
life. Hence employability skills are very much essential for a individual as it support them in
remain competitive. So, when they apply for a job, they become able to shine apart from other
candidate present for the vacancy. Other than this it also helps out an individual in performing
well over their assigned work and hence get more chances for growth.
On the other hand, according to Adnan, Y.M., Daud, M.N., Alias, A. and Razali, M.N.,
2017, employability skill is consist of set of knowledge, skills and personal attributes which
make an individual more employable. Therefore, it is very much essential to develop
employability skill among student while higher education. So that they get prepare about taking
up best possible job on behalf of skills and capability they actually pose. This in turn also help
students in meeting up with their true self and their area of interest so that they can be able to
develop a path way for their future career.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This section of report involves the set of research methods used for gathering the data to
develop a better understanding about the topic importance of employability skill for an
individual. The tools and method used to conduct this are mentioned below:
Research design: This design chosen for a study is consider as the overall strategy
which is adopted to integrate the different component of study that further contribute toward
gathering and presenting the information for a research in desired manner (Mackey and Gass,
2015). The most commonly used research designs are descriptive, experimental, exploratory etc.
Among them descriptive research design is used which present in depth understanding about
importance of employability skills.
Research type: The investigation method selected by an investigator performs a major
role in presenting the outcome of study. There are mainly two type of research methods such as
qualitative and quantitative (Ledford and Gast, 2014). For present study the qualitative research
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method is used as it help investigator in providing detailed understanding about concept by using
theoretical framework for providing valid information.
Research approach: In order to evaluated the gathered data, an investigator is required to
adopt right approach so that better possible outcome can be extract out of efforts. Inductive and
deductive are most commonly used research approach which depend over investigation type over
which the research is depended. For this inductive approach is chosen as it suits best for
qualitative study and help in analysing the detailed and theoretical data to convert it into more
meaningful concepts.
Sources of data collection: - This refers to those mediums through which information is
gathered about a particular research to develop an understanding or to resolve a particular
problem. These sources are categories under two categories such as primary and secondary data
collection sources (Kumar, 2019). For current report both the sources will be used where
secondary data is gathered through books, journals, articles, blog, web pages etc. On other side
the primary data will eb gathered by performing self-evaluation to determine the skills presently
having and what are the ways through which employability skills can be further enhanced.
RESULT
From the above gathered secondary data it has been identified that employability skill is
very essential for a student for starting up a successful career and getting prepare for upcoming
job challenges so that it can further converted into opportunities and achieve success. From this
secondary data I have analysed that two skills are very much important to be developed. These
are,
Case 1
Presentation skills: While performing a particular job role there are range of events
when an employee have to present some information or ideas in front of their colleague. So,
presentation skills remain very much essential at that time as it help in presenting the idea or
information in more meaningful manner that in return. My presentation skills are moderate
which I required to improve for my future job role. As I was assigned with a presentation to
deliver in front of my class where I prepare it so nicely with well study and research but at the
time of presentation, I found it harder to explain about my idea behind that presentation. This
make me realise that I have to take action toward improving my presentation capability as it is a
crucial employability skill which is to be presented so many times while working in corporate.
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For example, a marketing manager is required to handle the sales time and also required to
deliver the plan for set of time duration to guide their actions. At this time presentation skills
support marketing manager in delivering these guidelines, plan and order to team members in
more effective manner.
So, for this I decided to take online classes to get tips regarding things to be consider
while performing presentation. Other than this I also take guidance from my teacher about how
to present my ideas effectively while delivering the presentation.
Case 2
IT skills: Another important employability skill is IT knowledge which support in
making the task easier by providing access to larger data, arranging information much
effectively, communicating to number of people at a time etc. My IT skills are not much good, as
when I provided with the group assignment to perform research, I was provided with a task to
gather and arrange data. This become very much difficult for me as I was not much aware about
several IT tools that can be used to present data in effective manner such as using graphs, flow
chart, SPSS for arranging and presenting data effectively. These are very crucial for marketing
manager for maintain data about its work in well structured manner for regular reporting. For
example, marketing manager have to prepare a report to maintain record about the sale of
products happen within particular time period along with the change in consumption pattern of
customers, so this data can be maintain more effectively using IT tools such as excel formula,
SPSS etc.
Hence, to improve this I decided to read guide books and implemented it practically
using my computer. Other than this I also regularly present it to my friend and seniors so that my
errors can be detected and I would be able to get appropriate guidance.
DISCUSSION
From the above-mentioned information, it can be said that employability skill is very
much crucial for an individual to stand out of the crowd and be able to perform well. This is so
because toward employer demand other than qualification and educational background i.e. skills
which make a candidate capable of performing the job role in effective manner. The most
commonly required employability skills are communication, team work, presentation, IT and
problem solving (Succi and Canovi, 2019). By determining this I performed self-evaluation on
my experience in order to determine the skills hat are lacking and on which I have to work for
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improvement. So, I found that my presentation and IT skills are not much god which I required
to improve so that I would be able to perform best by having excellent presentation during my
interview. This will ensure my job and future opportunity to growth for sure.
CONCLUSION
From the above performed report it can be summarised that today the competition among
candidates for getting job is very much higher which make it difficult for fresher or higher
education student to get better job opportunities. Hence, the development of employability skill
while higher education remains crucial for students as they would be able to prepare themselves
for presenting and delivering their interview in such a manner that they get employer in
confidence by presenting their skills and strength for which employer is seeking in candidate.
Through this study it has bene found that most commonly required employability skills are
communication, IT, presentation, problem solving etc. which help in building capability in
candidate to stand out at their job performance.
RECOMMENDATION
The development of employability skills is very crucial among students of higher
education in order to direct them at a right pathway and help them in getting a successful job
career. Following are the recommendation that can be consider for developing employability
skills,
 Providing several class room tasks such as presentation, group discussion, team work,
debate, etc. which help in improving the critical thinking and communication skills
among students which help them in future job role.
 Students can take additional training courses for working over improving their skills and
capabilities that are lacking behind and required to be good for getting job of their choice.
 Students must focus toward taking participation in other curriculum activities that are
organised throughout the course work or college duration. This in turn support them in
developing tehri inter personal skills and allow them to learn to deal with several
challenges that they may found in their future job role.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Adnan, Y.M., Daud, M.N., Alias, A. and Razali, M.N., 2017. Importance of soft skills for
graduates in the real estate programmes in Malaysia. Journal of Surveying, Construction
and Property, 3(2).
Fletcher, A.J., Sharif, A.W.A. and Haw, M.D., 2017. Using the perceptions of chemical
engineering students and graduates to develop employability skills. Education for
Chemical Engineers, 18, pp.11-25.
Jackson, D., 2016. Re-conceptualising graduate employability: The importance of pre-
professional identity. Higher Education Research & Development, 35(5), pp.925-939.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications
Limited.
Ledford, J.R. and Gast, D.L. eds., 2014. Single case research methodology: Applications in
special education and behavioral sciences. Routledge.
Lisá, E., Hennelová, K. and Newman, D., 2019. Comparison between Employers' and Students'
Expectations in Respect of Employability Skills of University Graduates. International
Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 20(1), pp.71-82.
Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design.
Routledge.
Succi, C. and Canovi, M., 2019. Soft skills to enhance graduate employability: comparing
students and employers’ perceptions. Studies in Higher Education, pp.1-14.
Ting, S.H. and et. al., 2017. EMPLOYERS’VIEWS ON IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH
PROFICIENCY AND COMMUNICATION SKILL FOR EMPLOYABILITY IN
MALAYSIA. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(2), pp.315-327.
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