Labour Market Skills for a New Economy

Skill #3: Generic Employability Skills

While specific knowledge and technical skills gained from formal education or on-the-job training have always been necessary for work, generic or transferable skills are at least as important today as technical expertise. This has broadened the skill sets that employers expect, increasing the demand for more well-rounded workers.

The increased requirements for mathematics, computer and communications skills, the shifting of responsibility to the average worker to manage her/himself, make decisions and communicate directly with customers has led to the development of a new category of skills that most workers will need to develop to remain part of a very mobile, technically advanced work force.

Human Resources Development Canada has defined, categorized and developed a ratings system for its Essential Skills, not the technical skills required to perform occupational tasks, but skills that are required by almost every occupation in Canada. Essential skills can also be viewed as enabling skills, that is, skills that allow workers to perform the tasks required to fulfill their work roles. For example, auto service repair workers may need to read written instructions on a work order to make a repair, or they may need to read a computer manual to complete an electronic diagnosis with a new diagnostic machine. The categories of essential skills are: reading text, numeracy (math), working with others, writing, document use, thinking skills, oral communication, computer use and continuous learning.

The Conference Board of Canada also developed a list of transferable, generic skills from the responses of employers to a Canada-wide survey. The list includes the added skills employers look for before they hire their new employees (who already have the required technical skills). The Conference Board called them the Employability Skills.

The employability skills can be grouped into three categories of foundation skills

• Fundamental skills. The skills needed as a base for further development.
• Personal Management Skills. The personal skills, attitudes and behaviours that drive one's potential for growth.
• Teamwork Skills. The skills and attributes needed to contribute productively.

The three categories of generic employability skills are discussed below.

Fundamental Skills

The new demand for the average worker to interact with customers and suppliers, the increase in reading requirements for new technological equipment and software programs, the increase in team work, the need to share information - these, among other things, make communication skills very valuable to all areas of the labour market.

Table 13: Employability Skills 2000+

How Important Are Communication Skills? From a report on the accommodation industry: "... the desired accommodation employee of the future - at all levels and job types - will need to have a more enhanced skill base." The report then lists skills that include "advanced communication skills." A report on the consulting engineering industry lists communication skills as second in the basic requirements, before computer literacy. The human resources study for the biotechnology industry says, "Excellent communications, both written and oral, are critical, both within the company and ..." It lists communications as third in importance in a list of 17 skills important in the industry. A survey of employers across Canada by the Conference Board of Canada revealed that employers in all industries placed communication skills at the top of their list for hiring new employees.

From clerical workers to air traffic controllers, mathematics skills are essential. Virtually all employees will be required to maintain records, estimate results, use spreadsheets or apply statistical process controls as they negotiate, identify trends or suggest new courses of action. Upgrading mathematics skills is of particular importance to women whose background in the subject may have been limited by their own actions or the influence of others (e.g., stereotypes of female capacities).

The increase in information - coming in and going out - has made managing that information crucial to a functioning workplace. The employee who can manage information well will provide valuable support to any business.

With the extra tasks incorporated into daily duties and the speed with which everything needs to be done - remember the demand for real-time turnaround - it is essential for workers to be able to think and solve problems. Employers will want someone they can trust to handle situations without waiting for solutions to make their way through several departments or from office to office.

All workers must be able to come up with innovative ways to meet a customer's needs, anticipate problems and find solutions. Even those employees who don't ordinarily deal directly with customers should keep the customer in mind and stay current with regards to market trends.

This includes basic computer literacy which means the ability to use a computer keyboard to work with word processing, spreadsheet or other software programs such as those used in accommodation and food services. Similar considerations affect those who wish to service vehicles for a living or those who want to pursue a career in the arts, such as multimedia or music - two fields very much affected by technological change.

Personal Management Skills

Personal management skills are the basis for employees to carry out fundamental and teamwork skills. Without a sense of responsibility, positive attitude and adaptability, workers cannot adequately tackle the decision making, communications and safety issues necessary to support their work roles and the business.

Hand in hand with managing attitudes and behaviour, today's workers need to manage their own skill development to keep up with changes in their field. Employers look for workers who can do this because they can't afford the cost of a stagnant business when competitors are moving ahead. While lifelong learning is essential in the high-tech sector where a worker can be outdated in three years, other occupations also require learning to be an ongoing process. For instance, tradespeople and personal service providers need to keep up with new equipment and innovative materials in their fields. This requires new knowledge acquisition and new skills adjustments to stay competitive.

It is estimated that workers and students will go from school to school, from school to work, from work back to school and from retraining back to work in an ongoing lifelong cycle. Workers must act like people in business for themselves by managing a plan for career-long, self-development.

Teamwork Skills

It is estimated that workers need to work on teams 80% of the time and lead only 20%. Management expert Peter Drucker (1992, pp. 95-104) describes three team models.

• The baseball team. Each player separately fulfills a specific role, and assumes other players will co-operate by doing the same. The old-style U.S. auto industry, with rigidly defined roles, was set up on this model.
• The symphony orchestra. Players hold specific positions and are directed by the conductor at all times. The Japanese used this model in the 1970s.
• The jazz quartet. Each player is very familiar with the other group members, and they play to complement one another with no outside direction. Since each player covers the shortcomings of other players, this team is greater than the sum of its parts.

With innovations in information technology allowing everyone on a team to access information, companies can now move to the jazz quartet model. However, a jazz quartet requires higher skill levels, including an ability to:

• switch focus rapidly from one task to another;
• work with people with very different vocational training and mind sets;
• work in situations where the group is the responsible party and the manager is only a co-ordinator;
• work without clear job descriptions; and
• work on several projects at the same time.

Project completion skills such as task planning, goal setting, setting standards and monitoring are crucial to the successful achievement of project goals. However, there is an entirely different set of skills that must be brought to a team project for success: the ability to work with others. This includes a knowledge of group dynamics, respecting diversity, flexibility, conflict resolution, a constructive feedback process and motivation.

These two sets of project management skills have become essential for the "new" manager or leader of development teams and processes.

The excerpt on the following page is from Occupational Outlook's (Alfred, 1994) issue on careers in tourism, and it illustrates how generic employability skills are needed in specific job duties in food services.