This document identifies 8 key groupings of employability skills that employers expect employees to have: communication, teamwork, problem solving, initiative and enterprise, planning and organizing, self-management, learning, and technology. Within each grouping, specific skills are described, such as listening, speaking clearly, and establishing networks for communication; working as an individual and as part of a team for teamwork; developing creative and practical solutions and showing independence for problem solving; and having a range of basic IT skills and being willing to learn new ones for technology. Employability skills are transferable skills that can be taken from one work situation to another.

1. Employability Skills
Key Competencies

2. What are Employability Skills
Employability skills are the ‘key skills and
personal attributes you need to enter,
operate and thrive in the new world of
work”. These are the transferable skills that
we take with us from one work situation to
another.

3. 8 Groupings of
employability skills that
employers expect employees
to have along with job-
specific technical skills were
identified in an Employability
Skills Framework

4. Communication:
• Listening & understanding
• Speaking clearly
• Being assertive
• Sharing information
• Understanding the needs of customers
• Persuading effectively
• Establishing & using networks
• Empathising

5. Team Work
• Working as an individual as well as a team
member
• Knowing how to define a role as part of a team
• Applying teamwork to a range of situations
• Identifying the strengths of team members
• Coaching & mentoring skills including giving
feedback

6. Problem Solving
• Developing creative, innovative solutions
• Developing practical solutions
• Applying a range of strategies to problem
solving
• Solving problems in teams
• Showing independence & initiative in
identifying problems & solving them

7. Initiative & Enterprise
• Adapting to new
situations
• Being creative
• Identifying opportunities
& translating ideas into
action
• Developing a strategic,
creative, long term vision
• Generating a range of
options

8. Planning & Organising
• Managing time & priorities,
setting time lines, co-ordinating
timelines for self & others
• Adapting resource allocations to
cope with contingencies
• Collecting, analysing & organising
information
• Taking initiative & making
decisions

9. Self Management
•Taking responsibility
•Having a personal vision & goals
•Evaluating & monitoring own
performance
•Having knowledge & confidence in
own ideas & visions
•Articulating own ideas & visions

10. Learning
• Managing own learning
• Contributing to the learning community in
the workplace
• Having enthusiasm for ongoing learning
• Being open to new ideas & techniques
• Acknowledging the need to learn in order
to accommodate change
• Being willing to learn in any setting – on &
off the job

11. Technology
• Having a range of basic IT skills
• Being willing to learn new IT
skills
• Using IT to organise data
• Applying IT as a management
tool
• Having the OHS knowledge to
apply technology

12. That’s all!
Thank you for coming
today
Look forward to seeing
you next session