SkillsMap® and Careers Education

SkillsMap® has been designed to be used independently by learners, but our platform testing shows that it’s most effective when used in a structured way and led by a careers professional. Educators can also use this approach if they are using SkillsMap® directly with learners.

We suggest that the first time you use it you might like to:

• Introduce SkillsMap® by sharing or showing the video
• Go to the homepage and ask learners to click on the SkillsMap® search function
• On the Subject selection page, suggest that first time around learners choose just one subject to search, for example their favourite subject
• Selecting a subject reveals 15 transferable skills developed in that subject. You could encourage them to click on the different skills for themselves and get the workplace examples
• You could ask learners to share back their responses to the skills list for their chosen subject with some structured reflective questions such as:
  • What were your responses to seeing the list?
  • Which skills were you surprised to see in the list?
  • Which workplace examples interested you?
  • Which skills do you recognise that you might already know you are using?
  • Which skills seem less familiar?
  • Which of the skills do they enjoy using in their studies or other situations?
  • Which of the skills do they think they might also be using in their hobbies, volunteering, caring responsibilities or part-time work?
• You could also ask learners to pick one skill from a subject they enjoy and then reflect on:
  • When they use this skill in the subject – can they recall a class or piece of homework where they have been using this skill?
  • Can they think of other examples of how that skill might be used in a workplace role or sector?
• You could then encourage learners to return to the Subject page and select another subject they are studying and search again
• You could also encourage them to return to the Subject page and select more than one subject if they would like to. When they see the combination of skills common to 2 or 3 subjects, you could ask them:
  • Are you surprised to see that these subjects have skills in common?
  • When do you think you use this skills in each of the subjects you chose?
  • How does the skill seem different in each of those subjects?
  • How does the skill seem similar in each of those subjects?

The majority of schools in England are required to meet the government’s statutory guidance about careers education, including Benchmark 4, Linking Curriculum to Careers. This can be a huge challenge for schools, particularly when trying to connect subjects in humanities or social sciences which don’t have obvious linear career outcomes.

SkillsMap® changes the understanding of the relationship between curriculum and careers completely because, unlike other skills platforms, it is based on the premise that all subjects are connected to careers because they all develop transferable skills. Rather than adding in a small number of skills to curriculum, SkillsMap® evidences the significant number of transferable skills that are already being developed in every subject area. While not all those skills are shown in SkillsMap® it helps get the conversation started in your school or college. Using SkillsMap® might help you find different ways to create careers education to meet Benchmark 4.

So how do we answer those three big questions we ask on the Homepage and at the start of the learner video?

Have you ever wondered how to explain to learners what the subjects they study at school or college have to do with work and their career?

• When we identify and talk about the transferable skills that are developed when learners learn different subjects we:
  • Start giving them some language for the skills they are developing
  • Start giving them a way to connect the subjects they study to the jobs and careers they might be interested in, through the common factor of transferable Skills
  • Start giving them a way to look at their own strengths and interests that goes beyond curriculum, but still connects curriculum to extra-curricular activities including hobbies, volunteering, caring commitments and part-time work
• Identifying and talking about skills and subjects in this way opens up valuable conversations for learners about the value of education, particularly when they might be struggling to engage, or be worrying about the future

Have you ever tried to explain how a subject a learner really loves at school or college will have future use to them in the workplace?

• Narratives that focus on ‘good’ and ‘bad’ or ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ choices of subject are generally focused on the alignment (or lack of it) of subject knowledge with future career choices. For some degree subjects and career paths that is true, but not in the majority of cases
• Helping learners see their qualifications as also developing transferable skills means that learners can continue to really enjoy their chosen subjects, without feeling that they are compromising their future job and career choices or their potential for employment
• In fact, employers really want to hear about learners who have a passion for their subjects, because it shows commitment and depth of interest
• And employers also like to hear that learners understand the wider value of those subjects, in terms of the transferable skills that they seek
• Conversations about combinations of subjects, particularly post-16, become easier when learners understand the skills that are developed in different subjects, and how those skills surface in different subjects:
  • For example, subjects in the same discipline (e.g. humanities) will develop similar transferable skills
  • Learners taking subjects from across different disciplines will develop a wider range of transferable skills
  • And some subjects which are often seen as less traditional actually develop significantly more transferable skills than more traditional subjects

Have you tried to explain to learners what value their qualifications have to employers?

• Qualifications are often spoken of and defined in terms of the knowledge that learners gain
• But when we show learners that they also develop transferable skills through their qualifications, we break down the idea that what they study is only connected to future choices through knowledge.
• This breaks down the idea of careers being a linear consequence of subject choices, which is really important for all learners, including:
  • learners wanting to explore different areas (e.g. moving from languages to tech)
  • learners in humanities worried about the future value of those subjects
  • learners who are struggling to see the future value of subjects that are incorrectly perceived as less academic (e.g. media studies or physical education) but which actually develop a far wider range of transferable skills than more conventional subjects
• Alongside transferable skills, subject study and qualifications also develop attributes (behaviours, qualities and values) and experience in learners, as well as knowledge. At SkillsMap®, that’s how we define employability [link to Research & Publications]. When learners understand that, they can make more sense of how their qualifications will help prepare them for all the futures they might be interested in.

Careers guidance is just one element of a school or college Careers Education programme, which will include interaction with employers, enrichment and co-curricular activities, cross-school projects, and sometimes curriculum elements too. Learners can sometimes struggle to connect what is meaningful to them with these other areas of activity, let alone to their education. Conversations that connect the principles of guidance, the learner’s experience of curriculum and transferable skills together can help bring coherence to all of these activities across a programme, and create added value for learners, Careers Professionals and educators.

A lot of careers guidance often starts with helping learners identify their passions, values, interests and hobbies. SkillsMap® supports that approach by:

• recognising that those transferable skills underpin passions, values, interests and hobbies, making connections between apparently different areas of their lives that are meaningful to learners as well as connecting to their education
• helping learners identify how their subject study is helping them develop skills they will use in a wide range of future careers and jobs
• putting names to the skills that they are developing and enjoying using
• reassuring learners that when it comes to subject choices, all subjects open up opportunities, even in the context of specific higher education requirements (e.g. for health sciences, engineering etc.)

You could use these reflective points as part of a conversation with your learners.

Transferable skills are also the core language of job profiles and job descriptions; employers sometimes call them competences. When learners have more familiarity with the language of transferable skills, they make job profiles more accessible and comprehensible. This can also open up new conversations about roles they might be interested in, but fear they are not suited for. Seeing that they are already using and developing key transferable skills for those roles in their everyday curriculum learning can really build confidence and a sense of purpose.

You could use job descriptions and role profiles to help learners see transferable skills from the employer point of view, and make connections with skills that are listed in SkillsMap® and developed in different subjects they are studying. Language may not match exactly, but the types of skills will be clear and recognisable.

Key to building that connection is helping everyone become more familiar with the language of transferable skills, and SkillsMap® can help you start exploring that language. You might also like to use the Categories and Clusters map as a different way of introducing learners to the idea of different types of transferable skills that span different subjects. This map is based on the SkillsMap® taxonomy from which the 15 skills for each subject have been chosen.