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Essential skills are those highly transferable skills (listening, speaking, teamwork, leadership, creativity, problem-solving, aiming high, and staying positive) that everyone needs to do almost any job, and which support the application of specialist knowledge and technical skills. Essential skills matter and helping people develop them is a job for schools and colleges from the earliest age. The Skills Builder Universal Framework, launched in May 2020, sets out this framework of eight essential skills, providing a common language in which skills are described, understood and measured, and recognisable to both employers and educators.

This research aims to make a contribution to the gaps in the existing research base, particularly of longitudinal studies of the interplay of essential skills and other outcomes over time. Using the rich longitudinal data provided by the British Cohort Study (1970), with a particular focus on children and young people, the analysis shows a strong association between scores in essential skills and measures of literacy and numeracy at the ages of both 10 and 16, and a further association with career aspirations at age 16.

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No generation of young people has entered the world of work with more qualifications and time in education. But it can still be a struggle to compete for employment opportunities. How can transition skills events, such as mock interviews and CV workshops, help address this? Transition skills events are designed to improve young people's understanding of how the labour market works, whilst developing job seeking skills (i.e. how to manage application processes and to perform well in interviews) and personal resilience. This paper reviews the effectiveness of these employer-led transition skills events. The findings provide evidence for schools and colleges to support the delivery of these events and activities. The different evidence sources used in this review provide insights into best practice when it comes to designing and delivering events to get the best results for young people.

Edited excerpts from publication.

The evidence review for this report is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 129.867. Show less

This report is a collaborative work by Education and Employers, the Edge Foundation and National Education Union. It draws upon 21 pieces of existing literature, two focus groups with employers and the findings from a survey of 626 secondary school teaching staff based in England to explore how schools are providing young people with the opportunity to develop and exercise vital employability skills. Over 90 per cent of teachers believe that the top five skills and two of the four competencies cited by employers are being developed in school. The research highlights that the narrower curriculum and increased content and exam-focus of GCSEs and A levels, are standing in the way of young people developing the skills necessary for working life. Thirty-two per cent of teachers reported that changes to the Key Stage 3 curriculum have been detrimental to developing the skills and attitudes needed for work.

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This technical report, commissioned by the Careers and Enterprise Company, presents evidence that the research team at Education and Employers gathered on the operation and impact of transition skills events held in UK schools and colleges which underpins the guidance document 'What works?: the evidence on transition skills events (mock interviews and CV workshops)' [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 131.1020]. This technical report presents our of review the current evidence relevant to the design and effectiveness of employer led transition skills events such as mock interviews and [curriculum vitae] CV workshops. The findings provide schools and colleges with evidence to support the delivery of these events and activities. Transition skills events are focussed on improving the knowledge, attributes and skills a young person needs when navigating the jobs market and applying for jobs. Such recruitment skills - being able to present about yourself and highlight your appropriate skills in the context of a job's requirements in what is often a stressful environment - are critical to young people's success in obtaining employment.

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The transition of young people from education into employment between the ages of 16 and 25 is always a challenging one. The [COVID-19] pandemic has once again had a disproportionate impact on young people - both through disruption to education, and the oversized damage to the retail and hospitality industries that often act as a critical bridge for young people into employment. This has placed further emphasis on essential skills and their critical importance to supporting an effective transition into the world of work - a relevance increasingly echoed by both educators and employers. While there is some evidence that essential skills support effective transitions and workplace progression, the emergence of the Skills Builder Universal Framework as a shared approach to defining essential skills and quantifying progress provides a new opportunity. This research sets out to use new data gathered with YouGov to explore three questions: (1) Who has essential skills, and how does this vary by socio-economic background? (2) How young people build essential skills, and what are their attitudes to them? (3) What is the impact of essential skills on earnings and qualifications level?

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Launched in 2014, Primary Futures was designed to provide UK schools with easy access to individuals willing to provide free voluntary support across a range of areas, including: (1) providing first-hand insight into jobs and careers, with many thousands of volunteers across the country identifying themselves as being able to speak with specific experience of being an apprentice, running their own enterprise, using mathematics or modern foreign languages at work, or working in the fields of science and technology; (2) being a potential reading or number partner; or (3) being willing to be considered as a school governor.

In this paper the authors discuss the impact, demand and implementation of employer engagement in primary education. They assess recent literature on the subject and find that while research into the impact of employer engagement activities on the learning and progression of children is limited, it suggests that employer engagement, if done correctly, can be positively associated with improved attainment, the development of non-cognitive skills demanded by 21st century employers and changed attitudes towards the world of work and the relationship between the classroom and the workplace.

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This paper focuses on how generic skills can be developed to enable young adults to best utilise them in making transitions into the labour market. Drawing on the literature and a Commercial Education Trust study of practices which encourage employer engagement in skills development, it is argued that 'putting skills to work' is not automatic or unproblematic. It is not simply a matter of 'skills transfer', but a 'continuous, contextually-embedded and transformative process' during which individuals, supported by partners, learn how to recontextualise skills to suit different activities and environments. It may be tempting to distil employability into a list of so-called 'soft skills', but context matters. It requires more than that which can be taught in Education. Support is needed in the workplace through mentoring, for example, to help recruits acquire knowledge of workplace culture, norms and practices, situational understanding, and apply metacognitive strategies for bringing together this knowledge and a range of different skills and personal attributes in productive application. Further research is needed to explore the inter-relationships between skills supply, demand and utilisation, including ways in which employers can better recognise young recruits' skills and provide 'expansive' working environments that maximise their capabilities and potential for development.

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Employability is a contentious issue, and there is no single definition in the context of higher education. The definition of employability as adopted by the UK's Enhancing Student Employability Co-ordination Team (ESECT) in 2005 has been widely accepted. The impact of such Government intervention has resulted in policy-driven strategies being pursued by universities that typically advocate an integrated approach for the enhancement of graduate employability. Definitions of employability as offered by those working at policy level resonate with widely accepted models. The size of the four stakeholder sample groups was carefully considered in order to generate an appropriate level of credible research material. Respondents from the four stakeholder groups agreed that universities do have some level of responsibility to prepare students in terms of graduate employability. An individual working at policy level also highlighted that placements and work experience were beneficial to students in terms of developing their employability.

Abstract from publisher's website.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 133.717. Show less

This chapter explores three influential approaches to the analysis of the relationship between education and employment, broadly framed in terms of individuals' lifetime employability. It offers an oversight of three dominant approaches which offer differing, yet also overlapping, accounts of employability. The concept of competences has been influential in explaining individuals' immediate labour market outcomes and has framed understandings of formal educational processes which potentially enhance learners' future employment outcomes. Competences are largely understood to be both supply-side driven and demand-orientated. Capabilities are understood to embody broader ability sets than those which merely reference occupational demands. Capitals can be derived from individuals' formal educational and socio-cultural experiences and impact on their subsequent educational and economic outcomes. The chapter concludes by considering how each approach maps onto the agency-structure dynamic which is central to any analysis of individuals' educational and subsequent employment experiences.

Abstract from publisher's website.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 133.717. Show less

Calls for employer engagement within education are nothing new; the clarion call has gone out for over a century fuelled by complaints from employers concerning the lack of preparedness of young people for entering the labour market. This chapter argues that the creative and cultural sector is a rich source of evidence and expertise, often providing role models to which young people can relate, and reflecting the realities of much of the modern labour market. It makes a significant contribution to the UK economy. The chapter draws on data from a group of workers predominantly located within the music, performing and visual arts sub-sector of the creative industries to examine the range of skills developed. In contrast to the organisation of the school curriculum, particularly since the introduction of the post-2010 curriculum reforms, those working in the creative and cultural sector are required to work across boundaries, not in subject silos.

Abstract from publisher's website.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 133.717. Show less