Employability skills and teaching degree skills

There are many personal attributes that are essential for a person to have in order to contribute to overall employability. According to the Employability Skills Framework (2006), these include but are not limited to:

1. Loyalty
2. Commitment
3. Honesty and integrity
4. Enthusiasm
5. Reliability
6. Personal presentation
7. Commonsense
8. Positive self esteem
9. Sense of Humour
10. Balanced attitude to work and home life
11. Ability to deal with pressure
12. Motivation
13. Adaptability.

These personal attributes are something I have built upon as I have grown through school and University. Today, these attributes are still progressing as I learn more experiences. As I become busier with my life I have realised the importance of have a balanced attitude to work and home life as well as dealing with pressure. These two aspects are possibly the hardest to accomplish, but I have greatly improved in these areas. I have always stuck to anything I have started with as I am committed to putting in 100% and motivate myself to achieve anything I think is possible. I feel this is a personal attribute that I have always had due to my strong determination to succeed. I have been brought up in a household that has only ever been loyal to me, so loyalty is something I admire and give back in return. Our household was always honest as I was brought up with Christian values. I try to find the positive in every situation and put as much enthusiasm in all activities as possible. A little bit of fun and humour in life, can go a long way as long as it is done so with commonsense. All of these personal attributes are important to being someone with overall employability and I feel that already with my experience as a young woman, I can say that I follow all of these personal attributes at most times in my life. Of course, there are times that some of these attributes have not been as prominent as others but this comes with experience.

Employability Skills according to the Employability Skills Framework (2006) link very closely with degree specific skills obtained while completing Bachelor of Learning Management (Secondary and Vet). The employability skills are as follows:

1. Communication skills that contribute to productive and harmonious relations between employees and customers. This relates to the degree specific skills of being able manage and communicate with parents and carers (Purnell, 2011).
2. Team work skills that contribute to productive working relationships and outcomes. This relates to developing networks and partnerships as well as building rapport with students to obtain a positive learning environment (Purnell, 2011).
3. Problem solving skills that contribute to productive working relationships and outcomes. Problem solving skills can relate to behaviour management and determining how to react to each situation in your classroom.
4. Initiative and enterprise skills that contribute to innovative outcomes. This relates to creating learning experiences that are innovative and engaging, which is something I aim for with every lesson.
5. Planning and organising skills that contribute to long term and short term strategic planning. Using pedagogical skills that contribute to teaching subject content that will allow students to continue learning beyond school.
6. Self management skills that contribute to employee satisfaction and growth. Being able to organise yourself so you can be balanced between work and home life.
7. Learning skills that contribute to ongoing improvement and expansion in employee and company operations and outcomes. This can relate to having knowledge of the curriculum in order to have a productive contribution towards assessment and reporting.
8. Technology skills that contribute to effective execution of tasks. Having skills in the use of ICTs to incorporate within the classrooms.

Along with these employability skills, there are other degree specific skills such as building a rapport with students, knowing subject content so you can teach it effectively, working with students with special needs and valuing diversity, as well as being able to set up equipment adequately so the lesson can run as smoothly as possible.