The world of business and the world of talk
Students who graduate with good oracy skills will have a real edge in the jobs market, beginning most obviously at interview but continuing throughout working life up to responsible, autonomous positions. It is increasingly important to be able to handle ‘soft’ workplace situations in which you need to think on your feet, be personable, and above all good at communicating: working in teams, leading or managing others, contributing to meetings, helping and training colleagues, negotiating with and persuading people, dealing with customers, clients, etc.
Speaking-skills thin on the ground
Research by the UK Commission for Education and Skills showed that candidates capable of working in this way were getting harder to come by in recruitment.
Many of the hardest skills to find were closely associated with oral communication skills - which were themselves ranked fifth. There is a clear need for improving these skills, both for the success of British business and for the employment prospects of students.
At the sharpest point of this need, over half of small business owners employing school-leavers (56%) ranked the communication skills of such recruits as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.[1]In 2012 even the Creative sector, which traditionally attracts over-qualified staff and graduates with marked talents for self-expression, saw 28% of employers identify good oral communication skills as difficult to obtain.[2]
Many of the hardest skills to find were closely associated with oral communication skills - which were themselves ranked fifth. There is a clear need for improving these skills, both for the success of British business and for the employment prospects of students.
At the sharpest point of this need, over half of small business owners employing school-leavers (56%) ranked the communication skills of such recruits as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.[1]In 2012 even the Creative sector, which traditionally attracts over-qualified staff and graduates with marked talents for self-expression, saw 28% of employers identify good oral communication skills as difficult to obtain.[2]
[1] Voice of Small Business Panel, snap survey June 2012, http://www.fsb.org.uk/policy/images/skills%20for%20web.pdf;
[2] Sector Skills Insights: Digital and Creative, UK Commission for Education and Skills (June 2012), p.65: http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/ukces/docs/publications/evidence-report-49-digital.pdf
[2] Sector Skills Insights: Digital and Creative, UK Commission for Education and Skills (June 2012), p.65: http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/ukces/docs/publications/evidence-report-49-digital.pdf
Employers want ‘Employability Skills’
CBI, Learning for Growth
In 2012, 71% of employers said ‘employability skills’ - self-management, teamworking, business and customer awareness, problem-solving, communication & literacy, application of numeracy and IT - should be of priority for 14-19 years education.[1]Young people also ‘need to be able to articulate that they possess them to future employers’.[2]
This table (left) describes two important speaking-skills, listening and questioning, under ‘oral literacy’, and two more under ‘teamworking’: negotiating/persuading and contributing to discussions. To these could be added the abilities to follow (and issue) spoken instructions, explain things clearly, present confidently to colleagues and engage intelligently with customers and clients. Considering how central oral literacy is to teamworking and indeed to problem-solving - and how definitive interviews are in the recruitment process - it is possible to make a case for oracy as the primary employability skill.
[1] Learning to Grow: Education and Skills Survey 2012 (CBI), p.24 http://www.cbi.org.uk/media/1514978/cbi_education_and_skills_survey_2012.pdf
[2] Fulfilling Potential: the Business Role in Education (CBI 2012), p.8 http://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/news-articles/2010/09/fulfilling-potential/
This table (left) describes two important speaking-skills, listening and questioning, under ‘oral literacy’, and two more under ‘teamworking’: negotiating/persuading and contributing to discussions. To these could be added the abilities to follow (and issue) spoken instructions, explain things clearly, present confidently to colleagues and engage intelligently with customers and clients. Considering how central oral literacy is to teamworking and indeed to problem-solving - and how definitive interviews are in the recruitment process - it is possible to make a case for oracy as the primary employability skill.
[1] Learning to Grow: Education and Skills Survey 2012 (CBI), p.24 http://www.cbi.org.uk/media/1514978/cbi_education_and_skills_survey_2012.pdf
[2] Fulfilling Potential: the Business Role in Education (CBI 2012), p.8 http://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/news-articles/2010/09/fulfilling-potential/
The full story?
‘Oral literacy’, ‘communication’, etc. are consistently ranked highly across skills surveys, but their importance is still underappreciated. If specific technical skills are discounted, the skills from the remaining ‘transferable’ group which scored as patchiest or most difficult to find are teamworking and customer-service, which are both significantly coextensive with an oracy skills-set. It is also worth noting that the real work which communication does in employment has not been analysed: indeed, distinctions are rarely drawn between oral and written communication in identification of skills-gaps, as though writing a report and contributing to a meeting were the same thing.
The prevalence of scenarios in the modern workplace in which interpersonal skills and dialogue are crucial to day-to-day operation, alongside the repeated identification of closely related skills sets as failing to fulfil expectations and need, suggests the importance of recognising this difference, and of developing oral communication skills with the same resources and sense of purpose which we currently apply to reading and writing.
The prevalence of scenarios in the modern workplace in which interpersonal skills and dialogue are crucial to day-to-day operation, alongside the repeated identification of closely related skills sets as failing to fulfil expectations and need, suggests the importance of recognising this difference, and of developing oral communication skills with the same resources and sense of purpose which we currently apply to reading and writing.