We Need to Reimagine Employability Programs

Most of us want to have a job, get it quickly and painlessly, and thrive in it. Many educational organizations, and particularly non-profit organizations, offer “employability programs” — programs that are designed to educate job seekers on how to structure and format their curriculum vitae, find and apply for suitable jobs, prepare for a job interview, etc. These programs, which tend to target populations such as youth, at-risk groups, and newly arrived immigrants, consider participants’ job attainment an indication of success. Getting a job, however, is just the beginning.

What is employability?

Employability can have a variety of definitions (Williams et al., 2015). Does employability mean being able to get a job? Being able to hold a job? Landing a “dream job”? Being a successful candidate across jobs? The conceptualization of employability is debatable and, accordingly, employability programs differ in their contents.

Generally speaking, employability programs aim to facilitate labour market outcomes. In other words, their goal is to increase employment, decrease unemployment, and encourage the candidate to seek the highest paying jobs for their skill level. They expose participants to workplaces, educate them on specific skills that are required to attain employment, and emphasize the importance of a professional network (Scandurra et al., 2023).

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These are important stepping stones to job attainment. But what’s next?

Attaining versus maintaining a job

Many organizations today are plagued by low engagement and turnover. They don’t need another candidate who mastered the art of the job interview, but provides little value once they secured the position. Companies don’t want to invest their resources in someone who was trained on how to make a great first impression, but not on how to consistently perform, meet expectations, and communicate effectively.

Therefore, employability programs that are geared exclusively toward job placement are doing a disservice to both their participants and the employing organizations. Instead, complementing job attainment skills with educational components for long-term success is the way forward.

Reimagining employability programs

Workplaces are changing at head-spinning rates. Only five years ago, work from home (WFH) was a rare luxury, while today it is the standard for many organizations. With the advent of AI, many jobs and tasks have been automated and streamlined, and this appears to be the first snowball in an AI avalanche.

So how can we effectively prepare our youth for employment, beyond the interview? Below are four topics that have been empirically demonstrated as crucial for vocational success across industries, and should be included as educational elements in employability programs.

Self-motivation

The days of the boss breathing down their employees’ necks are (hopefully) behind us. Today, leaders are aware of the harmful implications of micromanagement, and with WFH being a regular part of many workers’ schedules, the ability to be self-motivated is more important than ever. This is particularly true for individuals whose work is ill-structured and ill-defined, such as creative work or project-based work (Faisal et al., 2021; Sharberi et al., 2019).

Self-motivation refers to the ability to initiate an action or achieve a goal without external encouragement, rewards, or fear of punishment. Self-motivation can be the result of intrinsic motivation, that is, the joy of engaging in an activity or pursuing a goal. It can also come from the knowledge that the activity or the goal, although perhaps not enjoyable, are important to accomplish.

Regardless of the underlying mechanisms, self-motivation is an important skill for today’s workplace. Employability programs should educate their participants on what self-motivation is, why it is an important skill for professional growth, and what are the strategies for developing and maintaining self-motivation.

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Teachability

The ability to rapidly learn new skills, accept feedback non-defensively, and let go of old beliefs and habits in favor of new and more effective ones, is one of the most sought-after qualities employers look for. Often referred to as being teachable or coachable, this type of readiness to learn requires humility, a growth mindset (Dweck, 2016), the ability to accept new challenges with openness and curiosity, and the ability to take responsibility for one’s own performance — good or bad.

While this quality comes naturally to some individuals and rather painfully to others, everyone can be taught the tenets of teachability. Furthermore, being teachable is often a springboard for vocational growth and success, and should therefore be a staple in employability programs.

Delayed gratification

People are keen on teaching their children that “good things come to those who wait.” The virtues of patience, persistence, and foregoing immediate rewards to achieve long-term goals seem even more important in the workplace. Research found that employees who are able to delay gratification are more likely to advance in their careers (Hu et al., 2022), are more creative (Liang et al., 2023), and more engaged in their work (Ren et al., 2022).

In other words, when employees are willing to persist through difficulties in the present to achieve their long-term occupational goals, this has benefits for both employees and organizations. Educating employment seekers on how to differentiate between situations that warrant exiting a workplace (e.g., harassment, discrimination, etc.) and challenging occupational experiences that may require persistence (e.g., occupational stress, organizational changes, etc.) can be tremendously beneficial for their careers.

Emotional regulation

Emotional regulation is defined as the skill to influence when and how we experience and express our emotions (Gross, 1998). An individual with a strong emotional regulation capacity will remain calm and collected, or what many describe as “professional”, through a variety of stressful, angering, or even joyful work contexts.

Emotional regulation training for the workplace does not aim to discourage the expression of emotions altogether; instead, it focuses on a controlled expression of emotions in a way that allows some release of the emotion while at the same time does not interfere with communication and functioning (Lawrence et al., 2011). Furthermore, an intentional and controlled expression of emotions can improve interpersonal functioning and enhance motivation, while excessive emotional expression can lead to shame, regret, and professional and social repercussions.

Employability programs have proven that they can be incredibly useful in helping youth and other populations get employment. However, it is not only the attainment of employment that can be problematic. Employability programs should expand their scope and help their participants acquire the skills and mindset for long-term professional and personal growth by educating participants about how to function in the workplace motivationally, cognitively, and emotionally.