What are Employability Skills?

Employability skills can be defined as a set of skills, achievements and personal qualities that are transferable and complement a learner’s technical subject knowledge. They can be seen as a way of maximising the potential shown by a student’s academic grades and qualifications. Crucially employers and Universities often put as much emphasis on these employability skills within the recruitment and interview process as they do the academic qualifications.

What is the Employability Passport?

The rationale behind the Employability Passport is to better prepare our students for the transition of leaving Tavistock College and entering the world of Higher Education or employment.

The Employability Passport will help provide the following:

• An increased awareness for students of the employability skills and transferable skills that are needed to help facilitate your future career path.
• A chance to record on-going achievements and activities as they occur during a student’s two years within the Tavistock College Sixth Form.
• A record that will be easy to refer to and utilise when making UCAS or job applications.
• A vehicle for fostering engagement with prospective employers who value resilience and motivation within young people.

The Employability Skills

The passport is built around the following 5 key skillsets:

1. Communication – The ability to communicate effectively with a variety of different audiences in both verbal and written methods.

2. Problem solving and IT skills – The ability to risk assess, identify and solve problems and utilise both IT and creative media skills where appropriate.

3. Teamwork – The ability to work effectively as part of a team with different people in different contexts to help achieve a greater collective result.

4. Independence and using your own initiative – The ability to work effectively alone with self-maintained high standards and a willingness to succeed.

5. Professionalism and business & industry awareness – A willingness to learn and be knowledgeable about your chosen career path whilst demonstrating high standards of professionalism.

In January 2018 the Government released a new National Careers Strategy. This is built around the premise that schools are responsible for providing all students with high quality, independent careers advice and multiple opportunities to engage with local employers, complete dedicated periods of work experience or work shadowing and to develop their employability skills that may be transferable during their future career.

The College would appreciate any support or help that local businesses or organisations are willing to provide our students. Opportunities that you may be able to help and assist with;

• Offering work experience placements. Schools have a statutory requirement to provide a week of work experience for students before they are 16, and a further week before they are 18. This year the dates are as follows:
• Year 12 work experience: 5th – 9th March 2018
• Year 10 work experience: 2nd – 6th July 2018
• Offering a work shadowing experience for a student. This may be a short one off experience or could be a more regular opportunity – particularly for our sixth form students.
• Give a talk or presentation to a group of students who may be interested in a particular career.
• Contribute to our programme of mock interviews for students.
• Mentoring students to support their studies with a link to their future career and aspirations.
• Contribute to a careers fair type event that showcases possible career paths and options for students once they leave Tavistock College.

As a College we are always keen to work with and support our local community so please do get in touch if there are any ways in which you think our students could benefit you as local employers and organisations. Please direct any queries to Phil Ruse, Assistant Principal by email or call 01822 614231 (ext 250).