AI-Driven Employability
It’s very common to hear the expression “good fit” to describe a young person that an employer wants to bring into their team: “they don’t need experience, but it’s important to have a good fit”; “we can teach the technical part here, but the young person needs to have a good fit”.
But what exactly is this “good fit”? Especially when it comes to youth, this translates into a set of behavioral and socio-emotional competencies that significantly contribute to their employability and success in the world of work. Here are the top 5:
- Communication: Speaking appropriately about one’s point of view, efficiently describing processes and workflows, actively listening to others, and knowing how to use non-violent communication in moments of crisis and disagreement.
- Interpersonal Skills: Competence focused on establishing healthy relationships in the work environment, learning to put oneself in another’s shoes, maintaining professional behavior especially in situations of disagreements and pressure.
- Organization: Time management, task management, negotiating deadlines, prioritizing demands, and organizing schedules and commitments.
- Proactivity: Involves initiative and a desire to solve problems, requires taking initiative and resourcefulness as well as a sense of professional empowerment and a vision that the old idea of “this is not my area” no longer works.
- Self-confidence: Believing in one’s ability to generate value and contributions to the company and colleagues, recognizing one’s talents and potential, also requires a willingness to continuously learn in order to develop permanently and thus grow in competencies and skills.
Investing in training focused on Soft Skills greatly helps in the employability of young people starting their careers as well as in their career development journey. Should high school incorporate this work into its curriculum? Should higher education invest in complementary training focused on Soft Skills and their applications for the world of work? There is much to reflect on…
Lúcia Rodrigues Alves is an educator, teacher trainer, content creator, and developer of educational projects. She serves as the Director of New Business and Partnerships at the Wadhwani Foundation in Brazil.
