Labour market skills for a new economy
Whether embarking on a career change or seeking your first position, you will be better placed if you actually put time and effort into researching the current labour market.
Contents
- Trends in employment and the economy
- Jobs with good prospects
- National and state labour skills shortages
- Being competitive in the labour market
- What are your employability skills?
- Develop a career portfolio
- Enhancing your employability skills
- Selling yourself - being entrepreneurial
Trends in employment and the economy
Industry employment trends and prospects are influenced by overall economic growth, structural change in the economy, new technology, industry-specific factors (such as the impact of the drought on employment in agriculture) and international trade.
You will of course need to do specific research on the labour market that applies to you (eg. your country or region) but here is some general information on changes in the Australian labour market.
Around 940,000 new jobs were created in Australia in the five years to May 2003. Four industries accounted for two thirds of these new jobs:
- Retail trade
- Property and business services
- Construction
- Health and community services
Jobs with good prospects
There are over 150 occupations with either good or very good job prospects over the seven years to 2009/10, and most of these are skilled jobs in the following industries:
Accommodation, cafes and
restaurants- Retail trade
- Manufacturing
- Construction
- Health and community services
- Property and business services
- Personal and other services
- Cultural and recreational services
- Education
- Government administration
- Finance and insurance
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing
- Transport and storage
- Communication services
Other jobs with good prospects are: bookkeeping, specialist management, counselling, reception, services, safety inspection, policy analysis, project and program administration and human resources.
National and state labour skills shortages
Skill shortages are evident for some professional occupations and
in most trades, including engineering/metal, automotive and food
trades. There are no national shortages for information and
communication technology (ITC) skills, although some ICT skills are
in short supply in particular states. In 2003 there were national
and state skills shortages in the following professions:
- Child care
- Engineering
- Accounting
- Registered nursing
- Health (specialised)
- Secondary teaching
- Law
- Social work
Being competitive in the labour market
You need to get a good fit/match between your needs/strengths and the needs of employers.
Employers are seeking the following skills in new employees:
- Key generic skills: communication, teamwork, problem-solving, initiative/enterprise, planning and organisation, self-management, learning and technology.
- Personal attributes: loyalty, commitment, enthusiasm, motivation, adaptability, commonsense, honesty and integrity, personal presentation, personal self-esteem, sense of humour, ability to deal with pressure, reliability, and a balanced attitude to work and home life.
What are your employability skills?
Undertake a SWOT analysis. This is a self-examination of your internal 'Strengths' and 'Weaknesses', as well as the 'Opportunities' and 'Threats' facing you in the labour market. A personal SWOT analysis will help you discover those strategic advantages that can be highlighted through your application. You will then be able to make contingency and developmental plans to counteract perceived threats to your job search. This will show an employer how well you know yourself. For example at interview, you may be asked to identify your strengths and weaknesses or what you like least about yourself - the idea is to turn the weakness around into a strength, or to identify the manner in which each weakness will be overcome.
Develop a career portfolio
A career portfolio is a collection of information which you design and create to help you present the best of yourself to prospective employers. It will contain a description of the skills and attributes which you have acquired through formal studies, work experience and other activities. One of the purposes of starting and maintaining a career portfolio is to organise your own thinking about your career development. It should be a life-long file of your portable skills-set, enabling you to manage your professional or career assets. Carefully constructed, it will ensure an effective showcase of your potential.
The form and content of your career portfolio
Form
Employ any effective method of recording and displaying information, eg. ring folders, manila wallets.
Content
These documents will be tailored to individual job applications:
- Your resumé: Your resumé is like a selling tool. You must know your product well and display it to its best advantage in order to sell it.
- The covering letter: One page, approximately three paragraphs, referring to the job application and a brief summary as to why you would be suitable (this part will relate to the job description).
- Selection criteria: When a job contains selection criteria, you are required to respond to each criterion separately. In your responses, you must demonstrate the capacity to which you have knowledge of and experience in each criterion. Some organisations, especially government departments, will score responses in order to create a short list for interviews.
Further items to be included:
- Details of work experience - paid/voluntary
- Demonstrated evidence of teamwork
- Acknowledgement and application of skills
- Performance appraisals
- Work samples
- References
- Degrees, licences and certificates
You should continue to update and reflect on your portfolio throughout your life: it's one way to keep track of a busy career. It's also an opportunity to pause and reflect upon your progress and accomplishments - and this recognition, whether private or public, can be very motivating.
Enhancing your employability skills
The increasing volume of data in this information era can really
put pressure on you to find out everything there is to know before
making decisions and taking action. For educational training
choices and career choices, such information seems to be
never-ending.
Developing the ability to think critically is vital in your
research if you are to use time effectively. Focus only on what is
needed, weed out the irrelevant information, choose the material to
compare or consider and make an action list that is feasible.
The ability to investigate critically is a tool that will be used
many times during a person's career. The more entrenched it is in
your skills repertoire, the more automatically this tool will
resurface when needed.
Selling yourself -
being entrepreneurial
In a tight job market you will also need to find opportunities and develop skills to sell yourself effectively.
Ways to do this include:
- Being alert - for the right person and the right time to sell your ideas
- Noticing gaps in products and services
- Making connections that others don't see
- Creating ideas on how to fill in missing pieces
- Gaining as much industry and teamwork experience as possible - voluntary or paid
- Networking at every opportunity
- Understanding the impact of your salary costs to an organisation and being prepared to defend the type and level of your productivity.
If you follow these tips, then each time you think of changing your career or applying for a new job you will be well prepared to assess the current labour market, review your skills, experience and qualifications and promote yourself as a good match for the position you want.
(data from DEWR Job Outlook, August 2003)
Emma O'Connell, Manager - Internships & Enterprise
Programs
© The University of Melbourne 2004
