Embedding employability across the curriculum

LifeSkills helps to support a whole-school approach to employability and skills education. We had the opportunity to visit Ernest Bevin School in Tooting, South London, to speak to staff from across the school about how we can help.

We learned lots from the session and here we share some ideas of how you could use LifeSkills resources in your school, perhaps to deliver a mini-inset to staff to inspire them to bring more employability into their teaching and other duties.

It’s a fast-moving world for students, and it’s crucial that educators remain up to date on what external help there is out there to open up the world of work to students – and LifeSkills can help.     

Here are five things we learned from the session.

• A healthy level of competition in the room works wonders for teachers as well as students. Try playing a few of the interactive games for students on the LifeSkills site, such as Play The Boss. Participants decide against the clock if a CV will make the cut – some informative discussions will ensue which would be great to have with students so they consider how they present their best selves to employers.
• Everyone likes a lively discussion. Participants could line up, facing each other, and debate either side of a question such as ‘Can you be TOO honest in your CV?’ – a great launching point to discuss people’s style of persuasion and negotiation. Try it with your students too – they will consider immediately whether they are coming across as too aggressive or whether they have a gift for bringing people round to their point of view. All key workplace skills.  
• Employability needs to be embedded across the whole school. The commitment of teachers of Citizenship, Business, Psychology, as well as careers leads and heads of year for KS3 and 4 is key to raising young people’s aspirations. Bringing the ‘outside’ world into all subjects can help students see that learning is relevant to later life.
• A whole-school approach to embedding employability can help you meet Ofsted criteria. Department for Education guidance from January 2023 expects schools to “prepare all students for future success in education, employment or training, provide unbiased information about potential next steps and provide good quality, meaningful opportunities for encounters with the world of work". 
• Aside from LifeSkills, there are lots of organisations and programmes out there that offer free resources and support to help your students develop their employability – take a look at  Plotr for a psychometric game which matches your students skills to roles, Inspiring the Future for inspirational speakers from the world of work who will visit school, and Future First to get set up with an alumni network of old students.

Use the LifeSkills resources to deliver lesson plans on writing CVs, how to network, creating a positive online footprint, and more…