What Employers Want

If you are a teacher in a secondary school or FE college, a careers adviser, or parents of a teenager, and you need to help your students or children maximise their employability and get them ready for what employers want, this handbook is for you. As teachers and careers advisers know, key skills and functional skills are an important part of the secondary school curriculum. But now they are increasingly important to employers too, as recruiters are finding that many young people don t have the right skills for work when they leave school. In the current tough job market, employers expect the best from applicants and want staff who are good communicators, IT literate, good with numbers, problems solvers and team players. Even if it is a first job, there is a high expectation that job applicants will be prepared, and they risk losing out on that hard-to-get first job if they can t demonstrate these skills. The great news is, it s more than likely that your student or child already possesses many of the skills employers want; they just don t know how to match them to a job description or convince recruiters in their CV and cover letter that they do have what it takes. But help is at hand. What Employers Want: A work skills handbook is designed specifically to help students to do just that. It s an essential guide for all 14-19 year olds, whether they are school pupils, recent school-leavers, taking vocational courses at school or an FE college, or are about to apply for their first job.