Career skills

How can we best prepare students for the world of work?

Education is not just about preparing students to succeed at specific subjects, but also about preparing them to contribute to society. A key part of this is what is often called ‘career skills’, or those skills which will make our students valued employees and colleagues.

In these fast-changing times we cannot be sure exactly what kind of jobs and workplaces our students will find themselves in, but we can equip them with the kinds of skills and attributes that will enable them to succeed throughout their working lives.

As English teachers we need to consider how the teaching of these skills can be integrated into our regular classroom routines, meaning that we are preparing our students in the fullest possible way for the challenges which lie ahead.

Webinars & videos | Resources | Blog

Rachael Roberts explains the importance of teaching career skills to teenage students.

About Rachael Roberts

Rachael has been in education for thirty years now as a teacher, teacher trainer, and materials writer.

She has also trained as a counsellor and lifecoach, and is very interested in the crossover between psychology and education. Career skills is one such area of crossover.

Webinars & videos

Join Rachael for a series of webinars and videos which explore how you can implement teaching career skills into your classroom.

Decision-making skills

Recording available:

In this webinar, Rachael shares some of her ideas of an effective decision-making process.

Watch now

Leadership skills

Recording available:

In this webinar, Rachael looks at some ways in which teachers can integrate teaching or developing leadership skills into their usual classroom practice.

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Teamwork

Recording available:

In this webinar, Rachael looks at a range of practical activities to help your class bond better as a group, and help individual students to both identify personal strengths and develop those abilities they are not yet confident about.

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Communication Skills

Recording available:

In this webinar, Rachael looks at four aspects of communication skills, and will present practical ideas for teaching or developing these skills in the classroom.

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Planning, prioritising and organising skills

Recording available:

In this webinar, Rachael looks at some practical strategies that English teachers can use to help teenage students improve their planning, prioritising and organising skills.

Watch now

Blog posts

Four poor communication skills (and what to do about them)

In the first article of our Career Skills series, Rachael explains some common communication problems that language learners have – and some easy-to-implement ways to help them improve. Your students will find the lessons in this article helpful in a language learning context and in their everyday lives... Read more

Feeling overwhelmed? How to reduce anxiety using to-do lists

In this second article in our Career Skills series, teacher, teacher trainer and ELT author Rachael Roberts outlines how you can reduce anxiety with well-managed to-do lists.

Rachael also goes into the psychology behind to-do lists and shows exactly how you can make the most of your own lists to get back on top of your priorities... Read more

Why do smart teens make bad decisions? And how can we help?

In this third article in our Career Skills series, teacher, teacher trainer and ELT author Rachael Roberts explains the science behind teenagers’ poor decision-making.

She also outlines how teachers can present strategies to help them make the right choices under pressure... Read more

Resources

This pocket guide to career skills offers a practical overview of the skills teenage students need to succeed in the world of work, with tips for teachers on how to develop them in the ELT classroom.

Download the guide

Training videos for teachers

Teaching communication skills

Teaching planning, prioritizing and organizing skills

Teaching decision-making skills

Teaching leadership skills

Teaching teamwork skills

Training videos for students

Communication skills

Planning, prioritizing and organizing skills

Decision-making skills

Leadership skills