“The 21^st Century Job-Hunter”

Special Seminar for pre-registered school representatives

Presenter – Dr. Leahcim Semaj of The JobBank

The Existing Jamaican Workforce - Many workers lack the qualifications for skills learnt on the job for which they can be assessed and certified.

The Existing Jamaican Workforce - 342,722 workers in the labour force lack certification

The Jamaican Workforce Profile
Size:    1.14 million, Young Workforce

Age Distribution:     

Quality: Literacy 80%      Illiteracy about 20%

Years of Schooling (As at 1998)

• 51% have 4 or more years of secondary
• 15% have 1-3 years of secondary
• 34% have no secondary education
• About 25% have training with or without certification
• Approximately two-thirds of persons under the age of 34 have no academic qualifications as measured by examination passes
• About 65% in service industries
• About 40% Own Account Workers

The Jamaican Economy

The Jamaican economy has transformed from a primarily agricultural economy to a tertiary services economy in 20 years

Jamaica’s Service Sector

• Tourism
• Finance
• Distribution
• Retail Trade

Jamaica’s Service Sector PERCENT OF GDP

• 2002                 69%
• 1997                 65%
• 1985                 60%
• 1975                 45%

Sources: Gleaner March 13, 1998/Observer, April 26, 2003 ( Dennis Morrison)

The Vision for the Workforce

• A Jamaican workforce trained and certified to international standards
• Stimulating employment-creating investments
• Contributing to the improved productivity, competitiveness and prosperity of individuals, enterprises nand the nation

HEART/NTA Philosophy on Education & Training

• The dichotomy between general and vocational education is artificial
• Both modalities complement each other
• Education makes you trainable
• Training makes you employable

The Vision for Education in Jamaica
Each Child can learn, Each one must!

Profile of the Educated Jamaican

• Loves to learn, lifelong learner, continuously developing wisdom and knowledge
• Well-rounded, agile of mind, flexible, responsible, decisive
• A foreign language skill with at least the minimum requirements for tertiary education
• Productive citizen/worker in charge of personal economic development
• Socially aware
• Conscious of what is good for society committed to sustainable lifestyle
• Spiritually-conscious and mature
• Tolerant of diversity
• Rooted in his/her Jamaican “smaddiness”

What Will 21st Century Career Success Look Like?
by Michelle L. Casto

When it comes to modern career development, one thing we can all count on is change. With the advent of technology, telecommuting, and e-commerce, how work is performed is in a state of reinvention. Self-employment and small business development will become more the norm than big business.

And career changes will be more frequent because of rapidly changing organizations and industries. Finally, the line between one's personal and professional life will become even more blurred. Since the modern world of work is rapidly changing to keep up with the demands of our fast-paced lives and lifestyles, here are some characteristics of what the new work contract will look like:

• Seeking more meaning from work
• Equating "career success" with personal satisfaction over paycheck or status
• Everyone will need their own "name-brand"
• Increased use of technology
• Finding work that needs doing
• Changing in the way management and leadership is conducted (less arrogance at the top level, more power on lower levels)
• Increased need for networking and self-marketing
• Lifelong "trying on" of various roles, jobs, and industries
• Creating a plan that is flexible, and continually assessing the "fit" of the work
• Increased representation of women and minorities in the workforce
• Changing career fields numerous times in a lifetime
• Self-responsibility: Everyone knowing they have to chart their own career direction

However, the 21st century career also offers many advantages:

• More career opportunities for everyone
• Freedom to choose from a variety of jobs, tasks, and assignments
•  More flexibility in how and where work is performed, i.e., working from home or telecommuting
• More control over your own time
•  Greater opportunity to express yourself through your work
• Ability to shape and reshape your life's work in accordance with your values and interests
•  Increased opportunity to develop other skills by working in various industries and environments
• Self-empowerment mindset
• Allows you to create situations or positions where you can fill a need in the world that is not being filled
• Opportunity to present yourself as an independent contractor or vendor with services to offer

How can you successfully navigate through the turbulent times of change and career uncertainty? By developing resiliency, exercising pro-activity, creating excellent self-marketing tools, keeping your skills up-to-date, and finding your unique life balance.

Develop resiliency (the ability to bounce back). Having the right attitude about career change is imperative to your ability to bounce back from setbacks, sudden changes, and twists and turns along your career path. You will experience a lot of career change and transitions, so you may as well get comfortable feeling uncomfortable.

Take a proactive approach to your career development. You must constantly be on the lookout for new ways to apply your gifts and talents in the new economy. This approach requires thinking creatively, actively promoting yourself/business, and being actively involved in how your career progresses. Staying involved in professional associations and continuous networking are excellent ways to connect with other like-minded professionals.

The 21st Century Workplace

What will a career in the 21st century working world be like? How do you stay employable and make your career a success in a rapidly changing workforce? What knowledge, skills and experiences do employers look for in graduates? How do they recruit?

As the world changes, so will the workforce and the nature of the jobs we do. Many of the jobs available today didn't exist ten or more years ago. To thrive and stay employable in the 21stcentry workplace, you will need to consciously manage your career and continue to build skills throughout your working life.

Employers are well aware of the change that characterises the 21st century workplace. So when they're recruiting graduates, they look for certain kinds of experience and generic skills that can be adapted to fit new circumstances.

Career Success
The key to a successful career in a rapidly changing job market is lifelong career management.

What Employers Look For
What qualifications, experience and general skills employers look for in graduates.

How Employers Recruit
A quick look at the main ways that organisations recruit graduates.

The 21st Century Workplace: Your Future Workplace  

Your career in today's working world will be very different from what your parents and grandparents experienced. The job for life, with its planned career structure and company training scheme, no longer exist. Nor do the clearly defined role and progressive rise in income and stability.

Instead, the 21st century workplace is defined by communication technologies, customers and clients, adding value, lifelong learning, portfolio careers and self-development. The positions on offer, the skills you need to get them, and what people want from their work have changed dramatically, and will continue to change.

New Technologies

Information and communication technology use in all sectors is increasing and changing rapidly. You'll be expected to keep up with changes and learn the relevant new technologies as they emerge.

New forms of work

There's a shift away from traditional forms and cultures of work, such as working a five day week, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Instead, workplaces are embracing new forms of work, such as telework, self-employment, sub-contracting and temporary employment. You'll probably move between employers more often and think and behave as though you're in business for yourself.

Integration and Globalization

The development of new technologies has resulted in increased integration and globalisation of work, so that national solutions become increasingly dependent on international conditions.

Ambiguity and Uncertainty

Prepare for a workplace that's fluid, fuzzy and fast. You'll have to learn to improvise, to 'wing' it. You must be willing to learn new skills - very often skills that are not part of the advertised job.

Lifelong Learning

With changes in the job market, employees' priorities are also changing. There is more interest in autonomous work, self-realisation, staying healthy, and other forms of lifelong learning and development. Lifelong learning is also an important part of maintaining your employability in a changeable job market.

Growth of the Service Sector

The services sector (business and financial services, leisure, catering and hospitality, personal services, health care and other services) will continue to be the fastest growing sector of the labour market. This means that there will be more positions, and different kinds of positions emerging in these fields.

Modified from 'Skills For Graduates in the 21st Century', The Association of Graduate Employers/Whiteway Research, 1995.

The 21st Century Workplace:

Career Success

To thrive and stay employable in the 21st century workplace, you will need to consciously manage your career and continue to build skills throughout your working life.

Employment is no longer a given - something that you achieve once and then forget about. Instead you'll need to consciously manage your career and continue to build your skills throughout your working life in order to remain employable.

This means staying in touch with changes in your workplace and work sector; identifying what you need to learn to keep your skills in demand; taking responsibility for your own personal and career development; and taking whatever action is needed. In this way, you'll successfully manage the relationship between work and learning throughout your working life.

Skills for lifelong Career Management

• Self awareness - Knowledge of your strengths, skills, values and interests.
• Self promotion - Being able to target identified needs in the workplace and match your own knowledge, strengths and skills to them.
• Exploring and creating opportunities - Being able to identify, create, investigate and seize opportunities.
• Action planning - Being able to plan and implement a course of action.
• Networking - Being able to develop and effectively make use of a network of contacts.
• Matching and decision making - Identifying or 'matching' together the factors that affect decisions, so that you can make informed decisions.
• Negotiation - Using discussion, compromise and agreement to make decisions and solve problems.
• Political awareness - Understanding the way organisations function, and how people and power structures within organisations operate.
• Coping with uncertainty - Being able to work effectively in changing circumstances.
•  Development focus - Being committed to lifelong learning and focused on your own personal and professional development.
• Transfer skills - Being able to apply existing skills to new circumstances.
• Self confidence  - Being self-reliant and certain of your own abilities.

Modified from 'Skills For Graduates in the 21st Century', The Association of Graduate Employers/Whiteway Research, 1995.

The 21^st Century Workplace: What Employers look for

You're about to complete your degree and you're starting to look for work. What do employers expect from employees in today's workplace? What skills, attributes, qualifications and experiences do employers look for in graduates? What will employers want from you?

To differentiate between applicants, employers identify the core skills or competencies a person must have to fulfil the role. These usually include:

 qualifications and experience
 technical skills
 generic skills
 personal attributes 

Academic Results

Employers want candidates who have achieved good results throughout their university course. Some will want you to have a Credit average or above and others will look for consistency of results.

Work Experience

Employers want candidates who already have some work experience. They usually prefer it if you have discipline-specific experience (i.e. work experience that's relevant to your degree). However, they also value other forms of work experience as it shows that you have developed some generic skills.

Extra-curricular Activities

Employers favour candidates who are involved in extra-curricular activities such as sporting clubs, student groups, community, music, drama or church groups. These activities show that you lead a balanced life and also demonstrate that you have developed some generic skills such as teamwork or leadership.

As a graduate, you have a unique set of skills and attributes. You will have learned a number of technical skills that are specific to the degree you've studied. For example:

• administering medication (Nursing)
• using specialist software (Design)
• using processes or strategies (Marketing)

Technical competence is obviously important to employers and is often their bottom line when selecting new graduates as employees.

The generic skills that employers most often look for are described below. In your application and interview, you'll need to demonstrate these skills by identifying situations when you've used them.

Communication Skills

You need to show that you can listen, as well as communicate verbally and in writing. You also need to show that you can articulate your thoughts and arrange them logically for your audience to understand. Your communication skills also include the non-verbal messages you send when you are speaking or writing to other people.

Team Work

In many jobs you will need to collaborate with a team of people. The team may consist of people who work in different disciplines. For instance, a product launch team might include representatives from marketing, finance, engineering and public relations divisions. If you work well as a team member, you will have a beneficial effect on the progress and success of the project.

Analytical Skills

The ability to think critically and form conclusions based on information given to you, is often crucial in a job. Whether you are aware of it or not, many jobs require analytical skills, whether it's accounting, computer programming, engineering, legal work or medicine.

Problem-solving Skills

Problem solving skills are very important. Do you remember the famous detective Sherlock Holmes? He was a good example of a problem solver. You don't have to be a Sherlock Holmes to be considered for a job, however you do need to show that you can resolve problems that are presented to you.

Creativity

Creativity is the ability to think or express yourself in an original or unique way. Creativity allows you to think laterally and see different or better ways of doing something. This skill is extremely useful at work and while you're looking for a job.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the ability to adapt quickly to new ideas, new technologies, new methodologies and cultural change. If you're flexible, you'll easily adapt to changes in the workplace and evolve with your job and easily maintain your employability. Flexiblity, the willingness to adapt and compromise, is also an important part of successful teamwork.

Leadership

Leadership can take many different forms. Generally, leaders are people who have vision and are goal-oriented. They tend to be high achievers, take risks and motivate other people.

Cultural Fit

Cultural fit is not the same as your ethnic background. It refers to the way you fit in with the work environment of a company - the way staff relate to one another and the way business is conducted.

Time Management Skills

Employers want employees to have good time management skills, because they work more effectively, are less stressed and distracted and they achieve more.

Personal attributes are the qualities or characteristics you have as a person. These attributes can affect the way you work independently or with colleagues. Employers are interested in graduates who have helpful personal attributes like:

• motivation and initiative
• attention to detail
• honesty and integrity
• strong work ethic
• self-confidence
• friendly, outgoing personality
• tactfulness
• good manners and courtesy
• good sense of humour

The 21^st Century Workplace: How Employers recruit

The job market can be bewildering when you first start looking for a job. You're not sure where to begin or what employment possibilities organisations offer graduates. What are selection criteria? How do employers recruit the best applicants?

Graduate recruitment programs are run by many organisations in both the public (e.g. government) and private (eg. multinational business) sectors.

The Selection Process

The first stage is your initial application. At this point, most employers will be looking at your qualifications and experience (academic results, work experience and extra-curricular activities). In the subsequent stages, employers are mainly interested in your technical and generic skills. They use a range of different selection techniques to recruit the best applicants for the graduate program.

Other graduate positions are any other jobs offered to graduates by an employer. Most graduates get their first job through means other than graduate programs.

These other positions are often advertised: online, in newspapers, on noticeboards or by recruitment agencies, etc. However, many positions are unadvertised so you must find out about them through other sources, like networking, information interviews and friends and contacts.

When an employer advertises a job, they usually provide 'selection criteria' for the job. Selection criteria tell you:

• what skills and qualities the employer thinks applicants should have for the job
• what skills and qualities you need to demonstrate in your application.

In other words, in your application you must demonstrate that you have the skills the employer is looking for. You need to match your application exactly to the selection criteria they provide, and use examples that demonstrate exactly when and where you have used the skills they require.

What if there are no job selection criteria?

Sometimes selection criteria are very vague, particularly for jobs advertised by recruitment agencies. If you are applying for an unadvertised job there may be no selection criteria at all. In such cases, you need to adopt a different approach to finding out what the employer wants.

If you know the name of the organisation, you can do some research to find out what skills or competencies they're looking for in graduates. Read their graduate literature, check their website, or ring them up and talk to a Personnel or Human Resources Officer.

If you don't know the name of the company, because the position has been advertised through a recruitment agency, then you can phone the agency and speak with the consultant handling the position. Ask them for more detailed information about the position so that you can put together a better application. 

Employers might use one or more of the following selection techniques to recruit the best applicants for the job. Resumes, application forms and interviews are the most common techniques used. For graduate programs a range of techniques is used. All these techniques, however, are designed to give you an opportunity to demonstrate your skills and capabilities.

• Resumes
• Application forms
• Interviews: individual and/or group
• Psychometric tests: numerical and/or verbal reasoning, logical reasoning, personality, etc.
• Portfolios
•   Work samples
• Presentations
• Case studies

Assessment Centres: a longer process, using a combination of techniques        

Values

Values are what you judge to be important in life, or your principles and standards of behaviour. Your values can have a profound effect on the kind of degree you choose to do and the career directions you take once you've graduated.

People's values may be even more important than their interests. You are most likely to choose a degree, career, employer and workplace that support your work values. So it's important to identify what your work values are. The values quiz which follows may help you.

Rate the following Work Values on a scale of 1 to 5. A score of 1 means the value is not at all important to you in the workplace; a score of 5 means the value is very important to you in the workplace. When you submit your response, you'll get a list of your work values in order of importance. You can use this list as a reminder when you make career decisions.