New Cambridge online module helps English teachers boost students’ employability skills

English language teachers who want to help their students improve their core skills for the workplace can benefit from the new Employability Skills module from experts at Cambridge University Press & Assessment. The short module has been designed to help improve students’ understanding of the skills they will be expected to know in the workplace.

The module has been launched in response to research from Cambridge that showed many graduates entering the world of work do not have the essential ‘soft skills’ they need for success. This research led to the Employability Skills Framework for ELT, which maps out the most important employability skills that graduates need and is used throughout the module.

The Employability Skills module is for adult and young adult learners with an intermediate level of English (B1 of the CEFR and above). It is simple to use and can be taught alongside general and academic English courses and is available on the digital and mobile friendly ‘Cambridge One’ platform. The module is made up of eight one-hour units covering key areas of competency, such as teamwork, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving and emotional intelligence.

‘Teaching employability skills is more important than ever, and this has been the driving force behind our new Employability Skills module,’ commented Dan Hutchinson, Propositions Director at Cambridge University Press & Assessment. He continued: ‘Employability is so much more than just having the appropriate qualifications and knowledge. Our research shows that many graduates are entering the workplace without the essential soft skills, and that’s why we developed the employability skills module to address these key areas and help students to improve their core social, personal and emotional skills’.

The module comes with realistic workplace situational videos with interactive and reflection activities and a speaking or writing task for students to complete at the end of each unit. There are also teacher notes, student worksheets, video scripts and glossaries for teachers to use in the classroom.