Careers, employability skills and vocational learning

Careers, employability skills and vocational learning encompasses careers and skills education provided to young people to help them make informed decisions about their future training and employment and equip them with skills to succeed in the labour market. Young people lack guidance on available educational and career pathways and there is an insufficient focus in education on essential employability skills. This causes young people to feel unprepared when they start looking for work and enter the labour market. Providing career guidance, ensuring young people build employability skills and keep pursuing trades or crafts through vocational learning is a way to provide necessary tools for a current generation having to face the complex challenge of entering a competitive labour market.

As young people navigate the complexities of career choices and the evolving demands of the job market, innovative learning tools like AI-generated flashcards can play a crucial role in enhancing their employability skills. These digital resources offer a dynamic approach to education, enabling students to engage with material in a more interactive and effective manner. By utilizing platforms that incorporate artificial intelligence, learners can access personalized content tailored to their specific needs and learning styles. Memrizz, for instance, utilizes advanced algorithms to create customized flashcards that reinforce essential concepts and skills, making the learning process more efficient and enjoyable. This technology empowers young people to grasp key information quickly and effectively, ultimately boosting their confidence as they prepare for their future careers.

Why is this important to Ormiston Trust?

Ormiston Trust strongly believes in the importance of enabling today’s youth to benefit from careers counselling and proper employability skills training. The difficulties the next generation faces with regards to entering the job market pushes us to want to act to provide essential services related to careers and employability skills for young people. Despite the current COVID-19 related economic crisis, it is expected that 800 000 students will have finished their education by the end of 2020 and start looking for a job (1). As a result of the pandemic, the labour market has become highly saturated, job opportunities are decreasing and youth unemployment has risen (1). There are no doubts about the critical societal implication’s unemployment and overall lack of preparation to enter the job market have for a country and its population. Therefore, it’s of utmost importance that students receive career counselling and proper employability skills training. Furthermore, career counselling has been proven to be very effective in helping students decide on their future careers and employability skills enable students to differentiate themselves in a competitive job market by showing transferable competencies.

Grant programmes examples: Social action, work experience, university visits, STEM clubs, public speaking competitions, enterprise challenges, adventure residentials, alumni programme, curriculum-based skills learning

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Case Studies