Career progression

WATCH: The world of work is changing and here's how qualifications can help you stand out in the talent pool

August 31, 2021

Have you ever wondered what the value of the right qualifications are in the new world of work? Or how vocational qualifications can improve your employability?

In this short video, we unpack how the world of work is changing and what role qualifications play, how vocational qualifications aren't always viewed as valuable or seen as prestigious as more traditional qualifications (and why that’s changing), and what skills employers expect you to have today.

Watch below:
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Why industry values employability more than you think

August 31, 2021
Our world of work is constantly changing. The skills and knowledge learned in our early schooling years, or perhaps a qualification earned in our early twenties, will no longer be enough. According to research, learners are finding themselves overqualified, under-skilled, and in some cases, both.

Technological advances are fuelling social, economic, and environmental challenges, so the world around learners is changing as rapidly as the wider world of work, which makes constantly evolving one’s workforce skills package a mission critical proposition.

The findings show that today’s learners no longer possess the skills required to meet the job market’s requirements and are unable to clearly communicate the skills they do have in ways that can boost their employability prospects. While this is alarming, there’s a solution to the skills gap problem, and it lies in the hands of the learner.

Through Pearson’s Future of Skills research, conducted in partnership with Nesta and the Oxford Martin School, we found that the future of work is far from a doom and gloom dystopia, where headlines of robots taking our jobs run along the news tickers at the bottom of our television screens.

It is instead the very things that make us human that will in turn make us more employable, such as things like being able to think outside the box to solve a problem, creativity skills to discover new efficiencies, or the ability to display leadership traits to drive outcomes, which are said to be missing from the talent pool leading to a skills gap in the wider employment marketplace. And more specifically, as the research suggests, these are the skills that are most in demand:
- The teaching and learning of oneself and others
- Understanding nuanced systems, whether those be human relationships, or the interface between humans and machines Creativity, such as originality and the ability to generate ideas, and be able to think flexibly
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Episode 14 — Want a career change? Here's how you can get your dream job

August 31, 2021

Welcome to episode 14 of the Art of Learning podcast.

We catch up again with Simon Young, Pearson Asia’s BTEC Portfolio Director, to chat about the value of the ‘right’ qualifications in the new world of work, and how vocational qualifications can improve a learner's employability.

We discuss how the world of work changing and what role qualifications play (00:50), how vocational qualifications aren't always viewed as valuable or seen as prestigious as more traditional qualifications, and what employers value in learners, as well as learners who have taken vocational qualifications and ultimately gained extra skills and knowledge that gives them an edge in the marketplace (07:32), what Simon sees as some of the more important soft skills that a vocational qualification can help with enhancing and growing (09:48), plus much more.

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The world of work is changing. What skills do you need to be employable?

July 23, 2020
The world of work is constantly changing. Globalisation, automation and advancements in technology are presenting opportunities for future workers, and unique challenges for global employers as we enter the fourth industrial revolution.

And as business leaders pivot to adapt to the pace of change, experts are claiming that we’re only beginning to grasp the extent of how advancements, such as digital transformation, are re-ordering modern work.

The skills that are in demand for global companies can be contextualised in two parts: soft and hard skills. While these skills are not new, they’re as relevant as ever for today’s learners seeking to increase their employability, and ultimately to set up a framework for a successful career.

What are soft and hard skills?

Soft skills are considered essential interpersonal skills, or characteristic traits, that enable our ability to get work done at a high level. Think leadership skills, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Hard skills are related to technical knowledge, such as presentation skills, project management skills, reading and writing.

Stuart Connor, Pearson Asia’s Qualifications & Assessment Director, says that there are six in demand skills that stand out, and these are the skills that global employers are actively seeking when they’re looking to the next batch of workers. These are:
- Digital literacy – ability to make best use of available technology
- Sales skills – ability to build relationships and influence others
- Data analytics – ability to interpret information to make right decisions
- Communication – ability to collaborate effectively across cultures, borders, languages
- Learning agility – ability to continuously learn, unlearn, relearn, and apply learning
- Innovation – ability to inform and adapt to change
For Stuart, AI will exert an increasingly outsized impact on the global workforce agenda, so getting ahead of the curve now is important for today’s learners.

“There's a premium for workers that use technology well, and the data says that companies who use AI successfully are 12 percent more productive than those who don’t, and that’s because they're able to take technology and make it work within their domain. The ability to make use of technology is key, so employers want to hire people who have that skill.”

Is English the global communication medium?

Pearson’s Simon Young, BTEC Portfolio Manager in Asia, says now that supply chains and customer bases are truly global, multinationals have identified English language proficiency as a key skill.

“It seems that English has become a key skill for communicating in business in any role. So, in countries such as Thailand, where you might see a strong local workforce, the interaction with other divisions does require a strong ability to communicate in English. English has become the global communication medium.”

In addition to skills in demand for global businesses, governments in Thailand and Vietnam have crafted policies over the past decade that are built on targets to raise English language proficiency of workforce entrants.

These efforts help to attract increased investment into their economies. By mandating such policies, the Thai and Vietnamese governments see the value of language learning as global employers do – a key ingredient for professional success.

Stuart says that English language skills underpin many of the soft skill competencies that employers are looking for, especially as it relates to personal and social capabilities, such as collaboration, networking and empathy.

While employees see English language proficiency as key to career progression, Stuart says there’s work to be done – and benefits to be had – for the next wave of workers in terms of shoring up their English language skills.

"In a survey Pearson undertook in 2015 with 26,000 multinational employees, around 92 per cent said they considered English as important to their career progression, yet only 7% believed they could communicate effectively in English at work, which is a significant gap.

“But one of the benefits of becoming proficient in a second language is that it hones a range of soft skills. Language skills alone will not make someone employable, but someone is far more likely to be employable if they have language skills, as it supports the development of many of the other skills needed to be employable. When employers talk about soft skill gaps, such as communication and collaboration, having an additional language can be extremely helpful.

“If you’re Vietnamese or Thai, and if you can speak English, you are ticking a multitude of soft skill boxes, too.”
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Career progression

WATCH: The world of work is changing and here's how qualifications can help you stand out in the talent pool

Why industry values employability more than you think

Episode 14 — Want a career change? Here's how you can get your dream job

The world of work is changing. What skills do you need to be employable?

What are soft and hard skills?

Is English the global communication medium?

Discover the knowledge and skills you need to build a better future by linking English language learning with assessment and qualifications.

Learn more