SKILLS DEVELOPMENT EVENTS

Invite business volunteers to talk to students about the soft skills like resilience and communication needed to succeed at work and in the wider community.

What is a Skills Development event?

Skills Development events help pupils explore the range of attributes needed to boost employability and prepare them for the world of work. Students can gain an in-depth understanding of why skills such as resilience, conflict resolution, and independence are important within the workplace and the wider community.

You can make this session industry-specific and use it as an opportunity to outline entry routes into different fields, or make it skill-specific and focus on techniques to help your pupils develop these attributes.

What is the impact of a Skills Development event?

Developing soft skills are integral to any workplace, professional environment or community setting. While these skills are learned indirectly through daily interactions throughout a child’s broad general education, there is an increasing focus on the development of emotional intelligence, communication abilities, language skills, personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy, and leadership traits - all crucial in supporting a child’s development towards their readiness to work.

The school environment is one of the few opportunities where they are surrounded by others within the same age group, sharing many similar experiences in the same circles. The soft skills acquired in these formative years will be increasingly called upon as they move towards higher education or employment, but the stakes and expectations rise too. Findings show that “schools provide the safest environment to test some of these skills” (Ee and Change, 2015), therefore, it is not an opportunity schools can afford to pass by, when considering how to best provide for their pupils.

Career Education Standard - I Can!

Here is one example per level of the areas of the "I can" framework that would typically be covered by engaging your young people in a soft skills event. Download the mapping document for more!

By the end of second level

  • I can apply my skills to get more information about jobs/careers.

By the end of BGE

  • I can understand and consistently demonstrate the behaviours an employer looks for in a good employee.

By the end of Senior Phase

  • I can draw appropriately on evidence from my skills profile to help me complete application forms, create CVs and when practising interview techniques.

Click below for more detailed Curricular Mapping

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