Training Talk - Issue 02 - Skills that are Important for Employability

A new research report, funded by the Department of Education, Science and Training and the Australian National Training Authority, highlights the skills that employers think are important for people to gain employment and to progress in the workplace.

The ‘Employability Skills for the Future’ report, released in May, aims to improve understanding of what makes a good employee and to stimulate further work in employability skills development in Australian education and training.

A feature of the report is an ‘Employability Skills Framework’, which highlights personal attributes and key skills that contribute to employability. The Framework also includes elements that assist to illustrate the application of the Framework in a range of settings. The personal attributes and keys skills are:

Personal Attributes

Key Skills

• communication skills that contribute to productive and harmonious relations across employees and customers;
• team work skills that contribute to productive working relationships and outcomes; 
• problem solving skills that contribute to productive outcomes;
• initiative and enterprise skills that contribute to innovative outcomes;
• planning and organising skills that contribute to long and short term strategic planning; 
• self management skills that contribute to employee satisfaction and growth; 
• learning skills that contribute to ongoing improvement and expansion in employee and company operations and outcomes; and 
• technology skills that contribute to effective execution of tasks. 

The report indicates that business and industry now require a broader range of skills than the Mayer Key Competencies framework that was developed in the early 1990s. Another important finding relates to the valuing of specific personal attributes that were not part of the Mayer Key Competencies. Managers also revealed that personal attributes were as important as other employability skills, and that learning skills and self-management skills should also be included in the new framework. 

Views on the report are being sought from the MCEETYA Taskforce on Transition from School, the National Training Quality Council and the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. 

The Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry produced the report. 

The report can be downloaded from the Department’s website: http:///www.dest.gov.au/sectors/training_skills/publications_resources/profiles/to_be_decided/employability_skills_for_the_future.htm             

3 February 2003

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This page was last updated on: Monday, 09 February 2004
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