Putting skills to work: it’s not so much the what, or even the why, but how…

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• School-to-work transition
• skills transfer
• skills utilisation
• soft skills

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Commercial Education Trust (CET) for sponsoring the study and the CET projects that volunteered to contribute. Also, Education & Employers and the Edge Foundation for providing an opportunity to present and discuss findings at the 5^th International Conference on Employer Engagement, 5 and 6 July 2018 in London.

Disclosure Statement

No financial interest or benefit has arisen from the direct applications of the research.

Notes

1. For example, common, core, key, essential, soft and transferable skills. For the history and fuller discussion see Fettes 2012.

2.  Prince’s Trust 2016; Taylor 2015.

Prince’s Trust 2016; Taylor 2015.

3. Association of Graduate Recruiters. 2017. AGR Development Survey 2017 (based on 174 employer responses from over 18 sectors with 18,227 graduate hires); British Chambers of Commerce. 2014. Workforce Survey 2014 (2,885 responses from UK businesses); Ernest Young Foundation. June 2017. A Framework for Success. Connecting Young People with Employers from School to Work (survey of 500 SMEs); UK Commission for Employment and Skills. May 2016. Employer Skills Survey 2015: UK Results. (over 91,000 interviews with UK employers).

4.  Evans 2009; Anderson 2012; Green 2017; Keep 2016.

Evans 2009; Anderson 2012; Green 2017; Keep 2016.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Trisha Fettes

Trisha Fettes is currently a freelance researcher having recently retired as Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick, where she managed national research in the fields of work-related learning, enterprise, vocational pedagogy and qualifications. Prior to that she was responsible for developing policy and national standards for key skills, and guidance on their implementation, at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, and worked at the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (Research Directorate). As a former teacher and academic, Trisha has a long-held interest in the development of generic skills and has written widely on this subject.

Karen Evans

Karen Evans is Emeritus Professor of Education at the UCL (University of London). She is an adult educator, academic, researcher and author and is actively engaged in international research and speaking engagements worldwide. Formerly Head of the School of Lifelong Education and International Development in UCL Institute of Education, Karen’s main fields of research are learning in life and work transitions; and learning in and through the workplace. She has directed major studies in the UK and internationally. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and remains active as: Honorary Professorial Fellow in the UCL-led Economic and Social Research Council Centre for Learning and Life Chances (LLAKES); Co-ordinator of the Asia- Europe Education and Research Hub for Lifelong Learning - Research Network 2; Honorary Professor of RMIT University Australia; and Visiting Professor, National Institute for Work and Learning (Middlesex).

Elnaz Kashefpakdel

Elnaz Kashefpakdelis Head of Research and Impact at Skills Builder Partnership. She is a trained quantitative analyst, completed her PhD from the University of Bath for a study on higher education policy. Elnaz has co-authored many works on employer engagement in education and school to work transitions. She has presented at international conferences and showcased her research at government departments including DfE and BIS. Her research is referenced in government policies such as Industrial Strategy and Career Strategy during 2017 and 2018. Her work was also endorsed in national publications such as Engineering UK annual report 2017 and public media including BBC Education and TES