About preparing for employment

Employability is the combination of factors and processes that enable young people to progress towards employment, to stay in employment and to move on in the workplace. 

It is vital that there are opportunities for people to improve their employability skills and increase their competency and capacity to enter the labour market prepared for work and the current working environment.

Skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work

'Building the Curriculum 4' proposes that all children and young people are entitled to opportunities for developing skills for learning, life and work.

The skills are relevant from the early years right through to the senior phase of learning and should provide them with a sound basis for their development as lifelong learners in their adult, social and working lives.

The skills should be developed across all curriculum areas, in interdisciplinary studies and in all the contexts and settings where young people are learning. Opportunities to develop skills may be offered in different ways appropriate to learners’ needs, whether through active learning, interdisciplinary tasks or the experience of learning in practical contexts.

The skills include literacy, numeracy and associated thinking skills; skills for health and wellbeing, including personal learning planning, career management skills, working with others, leadership and physical co-ordination and movement skills; and skills for enterprise and employability.