Des Employability Skills

Discuss, review and justify the advantages and disadvantages of employability skills and employment skills in the current marketplace.

Discuss the difference between employability skills and
employment skills within the context of the music industry

Employment Skills

Employment Skills and Employability Skills may be easily confused skills on first hearing, but the two have significantly different meanings. Employment skills are those which allow us to find work and enter the workplace. In short employment skills are the tools which allow us to locate relevant jobs and secure an interview and maintain our position.

        “Employability is the capability of getting and keeping satisfactory work”
        Institute of Employment Studies, 1999

A list of important employment skills is below:-

              • Good verbal and physical communication
              • Good written communication skills
              • A good and effective CV
              • Significant experience
              • A good portfolio of qualifications and CPD
              • Presentability and confident manner
              • Good IT skills
              • Good interview skills (Anticipating questions)

In the milieu of music honing these skills to your highly competetive sector is more important then ever. The music sector relies strongly on networking and ‘who you know’. That is not to say that it is not a meritocracy, but that like many professional sectors people will tend to rely on people that they can trust to deliver a product.

Depending on the particular area of the music sector in which the hopeful candidate is looking for work the way that they can best present themselves may change. Some may require strong interpersonal skills, others may require and excellent promotional pack or strong organisational skills. It is at this point that employment skills and employability skills begin to converge

Employability Skills

Employability skills are are the...