Work Readiness Skills Standards Toolkit MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook: A Guide for Administrators and Instructors Implementation Standards Work Readiness Skills: Instructors demonstrate evidence of being able to foster work readiness skills in their instructional practices. Evidence: Observations, interviews with instructors or students, instructor selfassessment Not established Beginning Generally established Fully functional 1. Classroom activities foster adaptability, collaboration, diligence, problem solving, communication, and time management. 2. At least 3 of the work readiness skills are developed in any given classroom activity. 3. Instructors demonstrate good time management in the classroom (i.e., starting and stopping on time, giving adequate time to activities, holding students to deadlines). 4. Classroom activities expose students to workplace issues, challenges, and realities. What Are Work Readiness Skills? Work readiness skills are the skills necessary to succeed on the job, no matter the technical position. They are life skills positive behaviors that enable individuals to deal with the demands and challenges of everyday life with a work focus. How you communicate with your supervisor and customers is one example of a work readiness skill. Think of it this way technical skills may get a person hired, but a lack of work readiness skills often get a person fired. USAID COMET surveyed employers in its labor market assessment. The MekongSkills2Work toolkit focuses on work readiness skills that employers in the Lower Mekong identify as the most critical: MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook: A Guide for Administrators and Instructors Page 1
adaptability, collaboration, diligence, problem solving, time management and communication. 1 All of these skills can be addressed through learner-centered instructional approaches. Work readiness skills consist of knowledge, specific sub-skills, values, attitudes, and behaviors that are necessary to succeed in the workplace. In other words, what should a worker be able to know and do? The knowledge, skills, and behaviors for each of these six work readiness skills are listed in the following table. Work Readiness Skills Work Readiness Skill Knowledge and Understanding Specific Skills Values, Attitudes, and Behaviors Adaptability Receptive to change and solves problems as they arise Collaboration Works well with others to achieve individual and group goals in a variety of settings General knowledge of the company where he or she works in order to adapt to the context Understand that workplaces have policies and procedures that need to be followed Qualities of an effective team member Characteristics and behaviors of collaborative teams Flexible thinking and behavior Receptive to change and resilient when change occurs Think critically and reason effectively Taking on challenges on short notice Work effectively with others to create a better product or find a better solution Seek and offer opinions and ideas Lead and guide others Organize and motivate Decision making Self-identity and self-esteem Respect diversity and difference Honesty and integrity Flexibility Pride in work quality Personal initiative and responsibility Effective use of time 1 For program implementation purposes, two changes in terminology were made to terms cited in the study. Critical thinking is being addressed through problem solving. Teamwork is being referred to as collaboration. MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook: A Guide for Administrators and Instructors Page 2
Work Readiness Skill Knowledge and Understanding Specific Skills Values, Attitudes, and Behaviors Diligence Takes initiative, works hard to do his or her best work, pays attention to detail and quality, and is able to set and achieve goals Workplace rules and expectations Attentiveness, attention to detail, attention to quality Persist in the face of difficulty Seek help as needed Take responsibility for learning Pay attention to detail and quality Steady effort Problem Solving Able to take steps to find realistic, effective, and logical solutions Steps in problem solving: Accurately diagnose and analyze the problem, generate possible solutions, test the solutions, revise, and apply the best possible solution Solve problems and make decisions Take action and solve the problem in innovative and conventional ways Time Management Able to complete tasks in a timely manner and shows up for work on time Workplace rules and expectations Goal-setting steps and processes Developing realistic schedules of work Use work time effectively and efficiently Adjusting plans as they change Revisits goals, priorities and time required Communication Communicates clearly and gets along well with others for a range of purposes Nonverbal communication Effective communication techniques Customer service Presenting information to a variety of audiences using a variety of media and formats (e.g., oral, written) Listen and speak effectively Communicate in writing Give presentations Communicate electronically Selecting the best method of communication See Handout 1 Work Readiness Skills at the end of this toolkit more detail on the each of these work readiness skills. MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook: A Guide for Administrators and Instructors Page 3
Why Should I Focus on Work Readiness Skills? Postsecondary institutions play an important role in effectively preparing jobseekers for success in the workplace. However, in all countries in the Lower Mekong, employers report that schools do not focus enough on training learners to be work ready. The following issues make it difficult for many new graduates to find jobs in today s workforce: Employers largely feel that recent graduates require additional training in order to perform well on the job. Employers find that recent graduates need more preparation, in terms of technical skills, foundational skills (English and computer skills), and work readiness skills. To be promoted into leadership positions, employees need strong work readiness skills. Recent graduates largely learn theory in school and need more practical application and experience. The nature of work is becoming more service-oriented as employees are dealing with a variety of people and needs. Employers cite work readiness skills as critical and find them lacking in new employees. New technologies are changing the pace of work. All employees need to be adaptable and able to balance multiple demands using multiple communications channels. With ASEAN countries becoming more integrated with one another and with other regions, cultural competence is critical. A colleague may be in the United States, Australia, or Singapore, and it is really important to be able to interact and collaborate well with people from different cultures. The instructional approaches in the MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook promote problem solving, collaboration, and communication all skills valued by employers. What are Some Best Practices? Relate learning to real world problems. In your classroom activities, focus on real problems in the environment in which the learners will work. Emphasize how the learning can be applied. Be sure to connect it to their own learning goals so what they are learning has meaning and feels relevant to what they are trying to do outside of the classroom. Relate the materials to the past experiences of the learners, giving them plenty of opportunities to link what they are learning to their own life. Build work readiness skills in your existing classes by teaching in a learnercentered manner. Sometimes work readiness skills are taught in a standalone course. That approach is a luxury that many institutions can t afford. For this reason, the MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook focuses on how instructors can build these critical skills in their learners simply by changing the way they structure their classes. Using the approaches in the MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook, you will help learners build critical work readiness skills through group work and project-oriented learning activities. Diligence, teamwork, adaptability, problem solving, communication, and time management can be developed in class, no matter what the topic, when using group work and project-based MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook: A Guide for Administrators and Instructors Page 4
activities. These rich classroom experiences prepare learners for the realities they will encounter in the workplace. Learners learn these work readiness skills as part of their work within a particular domain, such as engineering, and they are inseparable from the hard skills (the content knowledge). You can promote these soft skills by designing activities that are rigorous and involve higher-level thinking so that learners are required to solve problems and collaborate. Taken together, the MekongSkills2Work toolkits on Facilitation Skills, Participatory Learning, Instructional Design, and Project-Oriented Learning will all support you in doing this. Consider how you can assess work readiness skills. Work readiness skills can be evaluated! The Learner-Centered Assessment toolkit will help you improve your evaluation methods. Learners can assess themselves and each other. As their instructor, you can assess your learners through actual performance-based tasks and rubrics. For example, when assigning a team project, how well did the team members collaborate and contribute their individual pieces to the greater activity? When assigning presentations, how well did the learner communicate their message? Lead by example. It is not uncommon for instructors themselves to see how much they need to improve their own work readiness skills once they learn more about them. How are you exhibiting these skills? For example, be sure to demonstrate good time management by starting and ending your class on time. Practice communicating clearly with your learners and create a respectful environment where they know their opinions are valued. Your learners will then learn from you. Be prepared to coach learners and help them to be, for example, a diligent individual or a flexible thinker. Classmates can also do this to support each other. Building work readiness skills in your classroom is a combination of coaching, collaboration and time to help learners reflect on how they learn and behave. Hold your learners to expectations that they will face in the workplace. A classroom can be used to prepare learners for the expectations an employer would have. For example, how do you manage unexcused lateness? When learners are completing a project or delivering an assignment, how is quality being measured? Do they have opportunities to improve? How can you encourage your learners to speak up and suggest possible solutions to a problem? See Handout 2 Integrated Work Readiness Activity Examples at the end of this toolkit for examples of how you can integrate each of the six work readiness skills into your classroom activities. MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook: A Guide for Administrators and Instructors Page 5
What Steps Should I Take to Include Work Readiness Skills? 1. Keep the critical work readiness skills in mind as you develop classroom activities. Again, the MekongSkills2 Work Toolkits are focused on learner-centered instruction to guide you through the process of developing activities that will build these skills. Work readiness skills are developed when the instructor through leads activities that are rigorous and challenging and that focus on developing higher-level thinking. Project-based learning is one way to do this. While you re getting accustomed to thinking of your activities in this way, don t overwhelm yourself by trying to incorporate all the skills into every activity. Aiming to build three skills into each activity is a good place to start. As you design your activities ask yourself: How does the activity encourage learners to be adaptable? How does the activity require flexible thinking and behavior? Do the learners need to balance diverse viewpoints to come to a workable solution? Is genuine collaboration fostered in this activity? Do learners need each other to complete this task? Is it complex enough that it requires than one person to do it? if the answers are no, then the activity isn t fostering collaboration. Is your activity challenging enough that it the solution doesn t come quickly and requires diligence? Is attention to detail and quality required to meet your evaluation standards? Is problem-solving built into what you are asking learners to do? How are you asking them to resolve an issue or complex task? Are learners encouraged to define the problem, come up with a solution, and evaluate the approach they took? How are learners held to managing time? Are learners prioritizing the time given to complete a task effectively? Are you firm with the time allotted to complete a task? Are you starting and ending in a timely manner? Is your activity realistic? Can it be completed in the amount of time you have set aside? Do you encourage learners to keep track of time within their teams? How are learners being encouraged to communicate? Who is speaking more you or your learners? Which facilitation techniques are you using to break down barriers to foster communication in your class? If working in groups, how can you ensure that each person speaks up? How is dialogue encouraged with the full class? 2. As you prepare your lesson plan, indicate how you have addressed work readiness skills. A lesson plan is provided in the Instructional Design toolkit. As you use it, think about the questions above. You may wish to indicate how each of these skills is being addressed in your lesson. 3. Build workplace problems into your classroom activities. Make learning real. Design activities that address real-world issues. Involve professionals. Connect the world outside to your classroom. As much as possible, aim to identify a workplace problem, or case study that represents a reallife situation from an employer in your industry. This can be done through your own MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook: A Guide for Administrators and Instructors Page 6
understanding of the field and developing an activity around an issue. Keeping workplace realities in mind will help you develop project-oriented activities. If possible, meet with people who work in your industry. Discuss what you are trying to teach and be prepared to ask detailed questions during the meeting, including: Are there challenges employers faces that involve the specific technical skill that you want to focus on? Who is involved in these workplace challenges/problems? How do employees solve them? What work readiness skills do employees use to solve these problems? What Other Resources Can Help Me? 1. Critical Work Readiness Skills The USAID-funded Workforce Connections project led a research study to identify the work readiness skills most likely to increase the likelihood that youth will get a job, keep a job, perform well, earn more, or achieve entrepreneurial success. This research is captured in the report Key Soft Skills That Foster Youth Workforce Success: Toward a Consensus Across Fields. URL: http://tinyurl.com/gvxfpak 2. Strengthening Life Skills for Youth: A Practical Guide to Quality Programming This Life Skills guide developed by the International Youth Foundation is a practical tool to help users enhance the design, planning, implementation, and evaluation of life skills programming and training. URL: http://tinyurl.com/jfpgzf9 3. HP LIFE HP LIFE is a series of free online courses that can be taken at your own pace. While targeted to entrepreneurs, many courses focus on work readiness skills and are appropriate for postsecondary learners. Topics include business e-mail, effective presentations, presenting data, and effective leadership. URL: http://www.life-global.org/#courses MekongSkills2Work Sourcebook: A Guide for Administrators and Instructors Page 7