Brownfields Toolbox

"Employability skills are transferable core skill groups that represent essential functional and enabling knowledge, skills, and attitudes required by the 21^st century workplace. They are necessary for career success at all levels of employment and for all levels of education. Two national studies -- one by the American Society for Training and Development (Carnevale, Gainer, and Meltzer 1990) and one by the Secretaries Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS 1991) -- are foundation works in identifying employability skills…"  Source: Employability Skills: An Update, ERIC Digest No. 220.

Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)

(http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/)

In 1990, the Secretary of Labor appointed a commission to determine the skills young people need to succeed in the world of work. The commission's fundamental purpose was to encourage a high-performance economy characterized by high-skill, high-wage employment. Although the commission completed its work in 1992, its findings and recommendations continue to be a current source of valuable information for individuals and organizations involved in education and workforce development. The Department of Labor's Web site includes several online documents about SCANS. One of the documents, Teaching the SCANS Competencies, provides expanded definitions of the five SCANS competencies as well as the key concepts involved in incorporating them into the school curriculum. Approximately 10 pages are devoted to each competency. Other resources for integrating the competencies in the teaching of core subjects are identified. In addition, examples of teaching the SCANS competencies or engaging in skill identification efforts are drawn from 27 different schools, apprenticeship, and business-education partnership programs. Another chapter describes the Indiana PLUS Program. There is also a chapter devoted to teaching SCANS to students with limited English proficiency. Finally, sample assessment items are included. This report is also available from the Government Printing Office (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/), call (202) 512-1800 or fax (212) 512-2250. The stock number is 029-000-00438-2.

The Professional Development Program (http://www2.ed.gov/G2K/standard.html) is an employability skills training curriculum developed by Skills USA. The program guides students through 84 employability skills activities that help meet the competencies set by the U.S. Secretary of Labor's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS).

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has developed the Employability Skills Certification Program. The intent of the program is to recognize a student's mastery of employability skills, which have been identified through SCANS. To learn more about this program, read Guidelines for Implementing Wisconsin's Employability Skills Certificate Program.

In the report, Best Practices for Job Training Programs in Brownfields Redevelopment Initiatives, the EPA-funded Brownfields Job Development and Training grantees considered the following to be best practices in employability skills:

• Teach participants how to complete a job application.
• Assist participants in completing a resume and stress the importance of keeping it up to date.
• Conduct mock job interviews to develop skills.
• Stress the importance of attendance and punctuality, and track attendance.
• Develop specific plan to help participants improve skills and work ethic.
• Add attendance sheets to portfolio.
• Develop list of references during training experience.
• Provide general life survival skills.
• Stress manners, how to dress, and etiquette.
• Negotiate ways to clear or pay past traffic fines and other fines and civic responsibility.
• Improve communication skills; for example, ask student to explain why he or she should be hired.
• Reinforce that a positive internship establishes a solid foundation for future employment.
• Provide business structure as part of the program.
• Incorporate civic responsibility into program.
• Stress drug testing in the program.
• Provide an understanding of liability for employer.
• Incorporate conflict management skills into program.
• Send participant to multiple interviews to get practice and improve interview skills.
• Videotape interviews to provide feedback.
  
  
  

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