Behavioural skills (‘human’ skills) are an increased areas of focus for educators helping students prepare for the transition to work and employers hiring and developing early in career talent.
Several factors are driving this change including factors including reduced job time to competence and performance, fairness and diversifying talent pipeline (less requirement for stated work experience and grades) helping student confidence and the clear early signs that generative AI will disrupt a wide range of technical skills.
Skills adoption is increasing across education and organisations globally and this trend will rise over the coming years. With the increase in the use of generative AI and a fast-changing work landscape, people entering the workforce today need greater levels of adaptability and resilience than ever before.
Employers of apprentices and graduate entry-level programmes are seeking candidates that are driven, want to grow, can self-learn and adjust to the world around them. Despite the ‘promise’ of skills a lack of clarity or what they are and how they should be developed leaves many worried whether investing in them will pay off.
We believe the early careers sector should collaborate to support students and candidates in their understanding of what their skills are and how they can use them to find, apply and secure jobs that align to their skills.
We have reviewed skills hiring and development practices in early careers in UK and are making a call for sector collaboration to benefit students, educator outcomes, employers and society.
You can download the paper below. Please let us know your thoughts.
