The Employability Triangle and Core Skills for Work

09/10/2017

Professional CDAA member Lawrence Arnold is a careers and employability counselor and coach in Melbourne. He is the author of several books on career success and is a regular at CDAA annual conferences. In this article, Lawrence discusses the importance of taking a holistic view of employability in which core skills are an important part, but not the whole story.

Photo by Helloquence on Unsplash

On professional social media there is a re-discovery of employability skills, often using the term ‘soft skills’. Soft skills … hmm … soft ice-cream, soft marshmallow, soft diplomacy, soft Brexit, soft talk, soft handshake. It’s an unfortunate term for these ‘tough skills’ – the high temperature oil that keeps the workplace running smoothly. In 2013, the employability skills discussion was transformed by the Australian Government partnering with the Business Council of Australia to introduce the ten ‘Core Skills for Work’, or just ‘core skills’.

Over the last four years, the core skills concept has been implemented in different ways in different sectors. For example, the Melbourne Business School has student seminars, the NRL has built their career development program around it, and career development practitioners are retiring the old ‘8 employability skills’ in client career direction and job search activities. The ten core skills are a subtle merge of the workplace skills we can recognise being used seamlessly by our best leaders: ‘Amazing! How do they get those results?’ Now we know.

The core skills concept was the focus of my 2016 CDAA national conference paper, ‘STEM and BRANCH: Identifying and rating employability skills individually and across the Australian economy using the Australian Core Skills Audit’. The Audit replaces traditional skills audits that are usually an amalgam of employability skills, transferable skills, technical skills, industry skills, attitudes, attributes, values, and other ‘KSAOs’, with one based on core skills only. Of course, a core skills audit is just one slice of the employability pizza!

The employability triangle

Individual employability can be de-constructed with Dr Mel Fugate’s three employability elements:

• career identity;
• personal adaptability; and
• human capital and personal capital.

Career identity

Everybody has a career identity – whether a seventeen-year-old shelf-stacker in Safeway Burwood, or an established professional, networking over a Chivas in the QANTAS Club. This identity contributes to employability. It helps in transferring to Safeway Kew to be closer to classes, and interview locations for that great internship. If the career identity is that of a seasoned professional, there’ll be regular contact from headhunters pushing great new job offers. Despite the huge difference in salary and benefits, both of these demonstrate a career identity that influences employability.

Personal adaptability

The young shelf-stacker has considerable personal adaptability. If that internship comes through, then leaving the tins and jars for the big career change can be immediate. For the experienced professional, personal adaptability is somewhat different. That great job offer in Singapore may be enticing, but children starting primary school, and deep personal community connections may limit the capacity to hop on the next flight. Taking up the offer is more than a career and business decision – it’s a family and social decision. There’s less adaptability in this sense. However, with high house equity and some personal savings, it may be possible to risk setting up a business to develop the next career phase. Any limitations in personal adaptability will limit employability, and any expansion will increase it.

Human capital and social capital

 Human capital is not just a bank account. It could be the capacity to get a bank loan to start a business, or do an expensive MBA. As a shelf-stacker, a state-of-the-art Smartphone, and bank balance of $173.85 are key physical assets, but a pending degree is also an example of human capital. This gives a claim to that great internship, opening up fabulous possibilities of a real job on a great package. Core skills are part of human capital, and like all skills – can be improved.

Social capital is more subtle. This is the capacity to ‘operate the system’ using accumulated experience, life skills, ‘street smarts’, trustworthiness, an engaging personal manner, and networking capacity. The extent of the hidden job market is greatly exaggerated in Australia, but it certainly exists. Social capital is a key to success here, but the three elements, operating synergistically, are the full vehicle.

As well as being intellectually de-constructed, individual employability can be practically re-constructed by a career development professional using the Fugate triangle. Taking steps to improve the three employability elements will enable client employability to spiral up. Doing nothing will ensure the spiral down!

References:

Arnold, L. 2016. STEM and BRANCH: identifying and rating employability skills individually and across the Australian economy using the Australian Core Skills Audit. CDAA National Conference 2016

Australian Government. 2013. The Core Skills for Work Developmental Framework

Fugate, M. et al. 2004. ‘Employability: a psycho-social construct, its dimensions and applications’. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 65, 14-38

Lambert, P. 2017. ‘Hard focus on soft skills’, Education: future frontiers. NSW Department of Education

Contact Lawrence Arnold

Website: www.careermelbourne.com
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lawrence-arnold-frsa-31572019/