Shaping You to Get Hired Support

The material on this page is excerpted from Starting Strong: A Mentoring Fable. The authors explain strategies for active listening in a mentoring situation. Their advice could also apply to many other situations where listening is critical.

Source: Supervision. Oct 2019.
Etiquette is not just for those aspiring to the level of Miss Manners anymore. Today organizations are sending managers in record numbers to "finishing schools." American businesses are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on etiquette seminars. It is not uncommon for companies to pay $2500 a day to ensure their managers learn how to mind their p's and q's in most business situations. Surprisingly enough, it is the basics that are attracting the most interest.

U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology. 2020.
The article offers some rules of business etiquette including direct eye contact are the best ways to give an immediate impression when you meet new people; emails are the main form of communication in the workplace; and interact with others in your field and expand your knowledge to further your career.

Probate & Property. May/Jun2020.
Emails are probably the most common form of written legal communication, but like the dress rules for business casual, there's little guidance on the current etiquette for this more informal medium. This article goes over the "current conventions for polite emails."

Source: Enterprise/Salt Lake City. Oct 2020.
The article focuses on four basic business survival skills necessary to face the uncertainties in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The author observes that businesses are looking for people with the ability to learn, adapt, perform and progress so they can contribute to the success of the organization. The skills mentioned include Asking questions, Staying focused and Thinking clearly.

Source: Education Week. 3/3/2021.
The article discusses key job skills students need post-pandemic. Topics include agility and flexibility; growth mindset and resilience; teamwork and collaboration; and learn to learn.

The activities in this section seek to teach participants about the importance of enthusiasm and a positive attitude in the workplace. Participants will hear strategies for turning negative thinking into positive thinking and displaying and discussing enthusiasm during an interview and on the job.

The activities in this section focus on each of the five individual soft skills presented in this publication (communication, enthusiasm/attitude, teamwork, networking, and problem solving/critical thinking), but in a broader framework. This is because professionalism, is not one skill but the blending and integration of a variety of skills.

Source: What Works Clearinghouse. 2021.
Because of the emphasis on career pathways in CTE programs for the past decade and the availability of rigorous evaluation results on this topic, this practice guide is focused on community college-based CTE interventions through the lens of career pathways. This guide draws upon studies of interventions that include one or more of the career pathways components defined under the WIOA. It focuses on promising interventions where there is evidence of improved educational or labor market outcomes. This guide provides community colleges with five specific recommendations for supporting occupational skills training through career pathways.

International Journal of Higher Education. 2021.
Higher Education systems need to undergo significant transformation to produce graduates who are highly skilled and prepared for their roles in the impending workforce. Despite an improvement in university throughput rates, unemployment remains predominantly high, which could be attributed to the misalignment between mandatory workplace skills and those possessed by graduates. The focus of the study was on the exploration of skills acquired from the new General Education modules introduced into the curriculum of undergraduate programmes. Hence, the study discovered learners' perspectives on the relevance of the skills acquired from these modules in the undergraduate programme to ensure survival in the workforce. The methodology adopted in the study was a quantitative survey research design, using the questionnaire as the data collection tool from a census of the first-year learners registered in the undergraduate programme. The results provided significant evidence to support the view that the skills acquired from the General Education modules in the undergraduate programme are indispensable in industry and enhanced critical thinking of the learners.

Education Sciences. 2021.
Globalization, digitalization, and the permanent alteration of information have led to important changes in the world of work. This demands a realignment of essential skills in order to access job positions in the coming years. In order to face up to the digitalization process, education is one of the ambits that has most come to a tipping point. This adds an urgency to the need to bring skills in line with the new demands of the job market and the challenges posed in the 21st Century. The methodology was based on a systematic review of the most commonly-used databases. It analyzed and synthesized the existing information on the skills required for the future job market and educational proposals to facilitate their acquisition. At the beginning of the search, 2045 records were selected. However, following the application of the exclusion criteria, a total of 63 records were included. From this in-depth analysis, it was uncovered that the most in-demand skill for the job market relates to the management of technology. Different proposals were located which targeted these skills in educational settings. The majority of these pertained to innovative projects emanating from digital and technological phenomena.

Source: Consortium for Policy Research in Education. 2017.
Numerous countries suffer from a shortage of technicians and skilled workers, particularly in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), due to a mismatch between the skills and interests of the students graduating from or leaving the current education system and the needs of the labor market. Often, parents and students place a high priority on entering and completing university, and as a consequence, many students pursue academic education in secondary schools in order to gain entrance to university, only to find themselves entering the job market lacking the skills they need for employment and advancement. Further, in some countries, the vocational school system is not well-respected by the public and focuses heavily on preparation of youth for specific jobs in one firm rather than preparing them for careers within an industry as a whole. This literature review aims to synthesize the research evidence about the effectiveness of various strategies used by national governments, non-governmental organizations, technical schools, and industries to strengthen both the quality of the technical workforce, as well as the avenues through which individuals can access career and technical programming.