2. Understanding the Labour Market Today
Unit1: The Changing World Of Work
Unit 2: The Skills Employers Need
Unit 3: The Concept of Career
Pathways
Learning Objectives
4. • Labour Market Trends - Demand/Supply
mismatches
o Changes in the pattern of demand
o Demand can surge then weaken
o Usually a lag between supply meeting demand
o Phenomenon of over-qualified manual workers (often
graduates) and the growing socio-economic exclusion
of the unskilled and under-educated
o Many employers undervalue their people assets
U.1
The Changing World Of Work
5. • Labour Market Trends – technological
change
o Disruptive technologies: media (citizen
journalism); printing; retail; advertising
o Ubiquity of free information has seriously devalued
much of what used to be valuable intellectual
property
o In many economies in EU new or evolved sectors
have emerged
U.1
The Changing World Of Work
6. • Labour Market Trends – international mobility
o In EU free movement of labour has led to large shifts
of populations of young, fit often very well educated
workers from low-wage regions to high-wage regions
– this has changed the expectations of employers in
some sectors; has led to skills shortages in new
‘supplier’ regions and over-supply in new ‘host’
regions
o Ease of movement (air travel) and communication
(internet; mobile telecomms) has changed how
business is transacted
o Competition for jobs in some sectors in some labour
markets has now increased
U.1
The Changing World Of Work
7. • New career structures:
o Pluri-activity – holding down more than one job at a
time and expectation of having many jobs over time
o Emergence of unpaid internships and zero-hour
contracts
o Career advice in schools is an issue - Schools can be
too grades obsessed and not up-to-date with respect
to labour market trends and what employers need
o Rigidity of the educational system in responding to
changes in the world of work
o Cultural message that everybody can be what they
want to be
o Too little early constructive challenge with
children/young people with respect to what they
U.1
The Changing World Of Work (cont)
9. o Importance of STEM (Science Technology
Engineering Maths) - greatest demand, highest
wages
o Employers are often very precise as to what they
think they want
o But sometimes employers are too rigid – can
expect too much too quickly
U. 2
The Skills Employers Need
10. o Interpersonal ‘people’ skills
o Confidence (but not too casual)
o A commercial understanding : for example, that
deadlines are deadlines with financial implications if
they are not met
o An understanding of professional etiquette
o Good written and spoken language
o Numerate
o Evidence of good judgement, of common-sense, of
capability to take the initiative, of ability to think
independently
o Evidence of ability to work with others and take
instruction
U. 2
The Skills Employers Need
The ‘ideal’ candidate?
11. o Graduates can often sell themselves poorly by
not seeming to understand the employer
o At interview:
They need to demonstrate that they
understand what the employer is looking
for
They need to show evidence that they
have done research on the employer and
the job
They need to show that they have those
competences
U. 2
The Skills Employers Need
12. • Exercise: Identify and rate skills that employers
require for different jobs (10 minutes)
Marketing executive
Policy researcher
Administrator
ETC
ETC
ETC
U. 2
The Skills Employers Need
13. • Exercise: Write a Job Description from the
perspective of an employer (20 minutes)
U. 2
The Skills Employers Need
15. oToo often pupils/students make subject choices
without clear rationale
oThis can carry through into decision making with
respect to employment and wider life
oFor humanities graduates to develop successful
careers in the current labour market they will have to
be INNOVATIVE
U. 3
The Concept of Career Pathways
30. • The 'innovator mindset‘
o Reflect – understand your own make-up
o Positive Attitude – see failure as a form of helpful
feedback; be prepared for some who will be negative
for the sake of it
o Flexibility – be prepared to change route to
destination or change the destination
o Resilience
o Scanning
o Analysing
o Deciding
o Acting
U. 3
The Concept of Career Pathways
31. • The 'innovator mindset‘
o See value in doing (rather than doing nothing) –
life skills: sports, volunteering, part-time work,
caring – from all of these experiences value can
be mined
o Research
o Listen
o Value third party advice – collaborate where
possible
o Its YOUR responsibility
o Time is a precious, finite resource – don’t waste it
& have a sense of the value which you would like
to place on your time
U. 3
The Concept of Career Pathways
34. • Exercise: Compare the career path you thought
you would have been on at 12, 18 and now (20
minutes)
U. 3
The Concept of Career Pathways
35. • CASE STUDY: Research different careers (what
do they involve? How did employees get to where
they are now?)
• http://www.newrycareers.com/
U. 3
The Concept of Career Pathways
Editor's Notes
Explain that this is a three hour lecture which will be interactive and involve exercises. Say that there are three units:
Unit 1 The Changing World of Work considers labour market trends with respect to demand and supply mismatches, technological change, international mobility and the emergence of new career pathways.
Unit 2 The Skills that Employers Need. Notes that employers can be rigid in their thinking. To overcome this candidates have to emphasise their interpersonal skills and to differentiate themselves from their competition. Two exercises will help your training group to consider the recruitment challenge from the perspective of an employer.
Unit 3 presents a Careers Pathway framework for your training group to consider. It lays particular emphasis on planning, resilience, flexibility, hard work and having an innovative mindset. Two exercises will focus each individual on understanding his/her own make-up as a vital first step to enhancing their strengths and ameliorating their weaknesses. A case study presents a number of short videos of employees in various sectors in Northern Ireland explaining how they got to where they are in their careers.
Engage your training group by asking them to identify labour market supply and demand mismatches which they are aware of. Emphasise that change in the pattern of demand is particularly fast-paced in some sectors (e.g.: financial services) and some countries (e.g.: UK). Make the point that surges in demand don’t always sustain. Cite construction booms as an example. Also the ‘dotcom’ bubble of 2000/2001 as another. Educators have to adapt to change in the labour market and inevitably this takes time.
These changes have social consequences some of which have yet to be revealed and understood: the disaffection of underemployed highly educated graduates on the one hand and the social exclusion of the unskilled under-educated on the other.
All of this is further complicated by the tendency among many employers not to appreciate the asset value of their workforce and employees generally.
Ask your group to give examples of new technologies or business models that have displaced once profitable product providers. Examples you might want to give are Airbnb and Uber.
Make the point that the internet has helped to devalue intellectual property – internet users expect high grade information to be provided for free. Give examples of sectors in the EU which have been subject to great change: Lifestyle/personal services; biomedical; agri-food; renewables; ICT; leisure tourism.
Lead a discussion on the effects in your local labour market of in or out migration - Is your region losing skilled people or is it hosting an influx of new people hoping to find employment?
A basic though not always understood point is that as competition in the labour market increases those seeking to secure employment have to become more competitive in their behaviours. Demonstrating an understanding of how to ’work’ the new systems of transacting business (such as e-commerce; e-marketing; social media) can be important.
Emphasise the point that few people today can expect to stay in the one career for life or with the one employer for more than a few years. Careers will be journeys marked by changes in direction, periods of stop/go. Careers will be increasingly kaleidoscopic. In some countries zero hour contracts and unpaid internships present a further challenge for people trying to make a career.
Yet – and this is a point to stress if you have educationalists in your group-schools and HEI’s are slow to adapt. They tend to be focused too little on the needs of their students and of the labour market and too much on grades. Suggest as a discussion point that it maybe naive if not misleading for students to be told that everyone can be what they want to be and to follow their dreams. In that context might it be that there is too little constructive challenge of children and young people by educators and parents? Could it be that proposing that ‘Everyone can be a winner’ will not prepare the young for the Darwinian realities of today’s EU Labour Markets?
The intention of Unit 2 is to focus your group on the perspective of employers. Emphasise that employers are the buyers and they have a lot of choice. What are they looking to buy? By understanding their needs prospective employees can increase their chances of getting ‘that job’.
Some general points to open with:
- Demand is greatest and wages are highest in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths–based disciplines (STEM).
- Employers tend to be very precise in what they think they want but they can also be too rigid & expect too much.
Engage your group with the question ‘what constitutes the ideal candidate for a job?’
Then take them through each of these points:
The importance of interpersonal skills and demonstrable confidence;
Evidence of appropriate competences;
Evidence of an ability to make good judgements, to demonstrate common sense;
Evidence of being able to work both on one’s own initiative and as part of a group as well as under instruction when appropriative.
Ask your group do they think graduates sometimes sell themselves poorly. Then take them through what candidates need to demonstrate at interview. They need to show that they understand their prospective employer and the purpose of the job that they have applied for….
This is a quick 10 minute exercise – ask your audience to identify and rate the skills that employers require for three different jobs. Use a flip chart. Make this as interactive as possible. The intent of this exercise is to reinforce your group’s understanding of the employer perspective.
If you have time it is a useful exercise to ask each member of your audience to write a ‘job description’ from the perspective of the employer for a job that you describe (this can vary depending on the make-up of your groups). To do this effectively will take at least 20 minutes.
This final unit, Unit 3 presents a practical ‘what’ and ‘how’ perspective for your audience with respect to their preparing themselves for their career journey. The concept here is that a career maybe a series of destinations rather than a single place. Today’s graduates need to scope out pathway options and prepare themselves for what will be a journey with challenges, changes of direction and some unforeseen destinations.
Open this introductory slide by making the point that too often the subject choices which have led humanities graduates to where they are today were not thought through. This approach can no longer be an option if one wants to secure gainful and rewarding employment in the future. Because the labour market in the EU is so challenging for humanities graduates, they more than almost any other group need to be innovative in their approach to ‘breaking through’.
Emphasise that this is your career.
Your responsibility………
But also emphasise that it is simplistic and a ‘cop-out’ to say that there aren’t any jobs – actually in almost all EU jurisdictions there are, if one looks in the right places. They may not be the ‘dream jobs’ that graduates may have expected to secure after graduation. But careers today are about progression along pathways along which there may be some less attractive destinations. The important thing for graduates competing in tight labour markets to demonstrate is their preparedness to work hard and to be flexible.
Even within sectors that don’t appear to be growing retirees are leaving on an ongoing basis and some of those will need to be replaced – however such jobs are difficult to predict and some may not be advertised externally. So sometimes submitting speculative CV’s for employers to keep on file can be a good approach so that organisations know that there is a pool of potential new recruits whom they can make contact with when they need to. Job hunting graduates should also lodge their CV’s with recruitment agencies as these are increasingly used by employers to source replacement staff.
Emphasise that beyond qualifications it is the ‘real you’ which will determine whether or not you get the job.
Tell your audience that they should assume that they will be competing with others with qualifications at broadly the same level and that therefore it is the other differentiators which will decide whether or not one is selected for interview.
A life in employment needs planning. Use the analogy of a journey from one place to another. Pose the question to your audience would they take off on a journey not knowing whether the destination was journey northwards or southwards and so on. Ask them would they not also have to decide on their mode of transport, whether or not they needed to stay over, what it would cost etc ……. So it is with career planning.
Ask your audience members to begin considering in which direction they think they are heading and to ask themselves whether they think it is the right one……..
Make the point that even where a destination is known, there can be different routes to get there, many of which involve diversions and stopovers.
Suggest to your group members that they need to be prepared for obstacles – overcoming blockages, some deliberate and others unintentional barriers. This is a normal part of making a modern career.
The skill that all seeking to carve out a rewarding life in our complex, hyper-competitive world, need is resilience. Read out the statement in this slide – it carries great meaning. Stress the importance of a positive attitude and learning from failure. If one fails it is for a reason – try to identify that/those reason(s).
Suggest to your group that being flexible, being prepared to change route is also essential.
Give examples from your experience of the mantra: ‘The harder you work, the luckier you get’ – so many of today’s successful people were knocked back, discouraged by others, but they picked themselves up and kept trying – they just didn’t give up!
Reflect on the three essential human factors that differentiate the successful and self-fulfilled from the unhappy under-achievers – resilience, flexibility and hard work.
This is your ‘so what’ point – say that all of us will gain in our lives if we adopt an ‘innovator mindset’ i.e. to understand yourself, be positive, be flexible and be resilient. Thereafter one should scan for opportunity, analyse what one sees, clarify one’s decision options and then, critically, act. It is indecisiveness that so often neuters ambition.
Emphasise that everything your group members do in their lives can have relevance for recruiters. It is always better to be seen as someone who does rather than someone who does nothing.
Stress the importance not just of researching options but also of listening to the perspective of others and of being open to collaborating with others. Ask have any in your group who have been recent students benefitted from group study. Finish by stressing that time is not an infinite resource – ‘procrastination is the thief of time’.
‘Mapping Me’ is a very powerful exercise to help people better understand themselves – the central proposition here being that self-awareness is the first step on the path to fulfilment and success.
The exercise can take 30 minutes in a training setting. Engaging candidates in the process is important even if time is constrained. They can take their ‘Mapping Me’ maps home and complete them in their own time. This is anyway a very private exercise. Suggest that they date their maps and hold on to them for review in years to come…..
Another useful exercise is to get audience members to write down what career path they thought they would have been on now back when they were 12 years old and when they were 18. What path do they actually think they are on now? Suggest that they hold onto this also for review in years to come. What it will demonstrate is how almost inevitability they will have had to adapt. If they expect to have to adapt then it won’t be a destabilising shock when it has to happen.
