Developing Employability Skills through Conscientious Writing Practice

Beyond the obvious need for clear writing in a professional environment, the ability to write “conscientiously” contributes in other ways to a person’s employability. I chose the word “conscientiously” instead of “well” because while the latter implies the structural aspects of language, such as grammar, form, and style; the former includes a rigorous process of researching, selecting, and organizing information with an eye toward informing, persuading, or influencing an audience.

Take, for example, an interview in which the interviewee is competing for a professional job with a number of others with similer education, skills, and experience. The interviewee needs to convince the interviewers that he or she is the best choice among the lot. To do this requires many skills developed through the writing process: researching the company and, if available, the interviewers to understand their needs (in Writing 101, “Who is your audience?”); creating a narrative that shows how the interviewee’s education, experience, and character perfectly meet those needs; and persuading the interviewers that he or she is the one to hire (Writing a persuasive essay).

On the job itself, these and other skills developed through the writing process will continue to be needed.

Any thoughts or comments on this?

Comments

Robert,

I appreciate what you've said here.  I take two main points from your message.  The first point is that adult learners/job candidates need to develop a narrative to sell themselves to potential employers.  This requires research and writing skills.  The second point is that these writing skills will continue to be required once a person is employed.  My question is how you, and others, see these connections between writing and career pathways happening in adult education writing classes?   

Please feel free to share your thoughts with the Career Pathways CoP.  Others may have thoughts to share that will benefit all of us in thinking more about this connection.

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com 

Robert and Mike, technical writing that is focused on a career path or interest requires many of the skills you are discussing. As one site defines it, "Technical writing is a type of writing where the author is writing about a particular subject that requires direction, instruction, or explanation. This style of writing has a very different purpose and different characteristics than other writing styles such as creative writing, academic writing or business writing. (http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/word-definitions/definition-of-technical-writing.html ).

The  models or examples at the site below might inspire more practice in this area. In fact, Robert, the practice might provide a good addition to another discussion in Reading and Writing CoP, dealing with alternatives to teaching the five-paragraph essay. Writing about career interests can also lead to learners becoming more self aware in terms of their occupational interests and pathway choices.

https://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/textbook/models.html

Leecy

To technical writing, I would add journalistic writing, copywriting, and any other form of professional writing that requires the writer to have a good understanding of the nature of the audience and write in a style and tone that is appropriate to that audience. And, as Michael said,  adult learners need to create a narrative, starring themselves, that sells them to potential employers, coworkers, clients, etc. after they are employed. Creative writing skills would be helpful not only in preparing the narrative in advance, but also in rewriting it on the fly when interviews and meetings don’t go as planned.

I agree with Leecy’s thought that “[w]riting about career interests can also lead to learners becoming more self aware in terms of their occupational interests and pathway choices.” Part of a successful job search requires understanding your strengths, weaknesses and interests and how these match up with different career paths and specific companies/organizations within that career path. Researching these options and writing about how they see themselves fitting or not fitting in with them could be a very productive exercise for learners.

Hi, Robert and Leecy, 

I'm curious what resources you've seen teachers use to help students learn about different career fields, their educational requirements, employment numbers, salary averages, etc. If we're hoping to have students participate in research as part of this form of writing, should teacher provide them with a reference list of where to find credible information, or should it be left up to the learners to discern what resources to use?  I ask this, in part, because there are a lot of great, freely accessible resources online, but there are also many others that may not be as accurate, up-to-date, or neutral in the delivery of this information.  What are your thoughts?

Thanks,

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator 

Mike,

Regarding hoping to have students participate in research as part of this form of writing, doing this depends on the students’ abilities, the availability of reliable Internet and the right computing equipment, and the availability of teachers who are experienced in doing this type of research themselves (If you plan to climb Mount Everest, you want a guide who has been up and down the mountain many times, not someone who has taken a webinar and pulls out  a rubric).  In another thread, there is a discussion about ESOL for educated professionals. For this demographic, the teacher might provide them with a reference list to get started, but those with experience in doing research should quickly be able to do this on their own. At the other extreme, a low-level ESOL learner with 3 years of substandard education in their country of origin will need a lot more hand holding. In all cases, the goal should be to have the learner independently identify the kinds of information they need to seek to solve a particular problem, filter out the good information from the bad, and then apply what they’ve learned. These are skills increasingly required not only by the 21st century workplace, but also in most other aspects of 21st century life.

In my tiny nonprofit, resources relating to career fields are whatever is on the bookshelf, much of which is simplistic, generic, and probably outdated. Add to that the limited Internet availability in the region and the lack of tutors with in using the Internet for research at any level, which makes the process finding good resources on the Internet difficult as well.

Because of the nature of most of our learners, the focus is more on developing basic survival skills rather than on a more long-term view. This is not because the the people in leadership positions are short sighted, but, rather, because of all the conflicting priorities they need to deal with. On top of that, we are losing yet another executive director after only 9 months. It’s difficult to make and implement long-term plans when the organization’s management and staffing is in near-constant flux.

Because the realities of the 21st century are dramatically different and more demanding than those of the past, adult education strategies and structures that were adequate in the past are falling increasingly short. Instead of the traditional bottom-up, grassroots approach, I think we need the same kind of national commitment toward adult education as we are attempting to have toward K-12, a sort of no adult left behind. This would include steady, reliable funding sources and an adequate infrastructure (e.g., real classrooms with reliable Internet access and equipment). 

Hi, Robert,

I am glad that you were able to follow the panel discussion on skilled immigrants in the AELL and Career Pathways communities last week. As you note here, "at the other extreme, (is) a low-level ESOL learner with 3 years of substandard education in their country of origin..."  

The Career Pathways and Diversity and Literacy communities will be hosting another panel during the last week of February on promoting greater Latino participation in career pathways programs.   You can read the full event announcement and panelist bios here.

I hope that you, and others interested in the topic of incorporating career exploration into the adult education curriculum, will join us for this event.

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com

I'm not currently in the classroom but I would definitely screen career websites and provide a list of reputable sites for my students. In Ohio we have Ohio Means Jobs, a portal where adults can find out about careers, look for jobs and training opportunities, and write and post a resume. Some states, Maine and New Jersey are two I know of for sure, have Career Information System sites Created by intoCAREERS, at the University of Oregon. A state sprcific  log in is required. There are 3 areas for different audiences - middle school, high school, and adult. In addition to the usual career information, there are interviews with folks working in the career. 

I collected some career exploration sites for a project I was working on and would be happy to share those if anyone is interested.

Hi, Di -

Thanks for sharing these resources.  I'd also encourage those who are interested to take a look at the LINCS Learner Center's Get Job Skills site.  This is an excellent one-stop resource for teaching and researching more about careers and training opportunities.  For example, Career One Stop offers assessments to help learners use their interests and transferrable skills - those acquired from prior work and life experience - to learn about new careers. This site also provides information on technical and soft skills required in different careers, along with average state and national salaries, and contact information for local training providers.  

This is just one of the ten different career-focused resources available on the Learner Center's Get Jobs Skills site.  It would be great to hear more about the career exploration sites that you researched for your project.  I also encourage others to share what they have found works best with the learners in their communities when it comes to researching careers.

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com

I'm happy to share them. Each link has a brief annotation and an approximate grade level. There are two more at lower reading levels but the links are not working. If I find the sites again, I'll post those, too.

http://jobdescriptions.net/ - job categories, connected text, descriptions, education, certification, and trade groups at 11/12 GL

http://www.pacareerzone.org/index - job families, nice text at  level 11 - 16

http://www.careeronestop.org/ - charts with wage info for each state, descriptions at 11/12 GL

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/ - occupational outlook handbook, job descriptions more prose than bullets and at 11/12 GL

http://www.act.org/world/world.html   - short descriptions at 6-8 GL

http://www.careertech.org/career-clusters/ - bulleted lists, complex text

http://www.iseek.org/careers/clusters.html  - bulleted lists at 4/5 GL