Students need to understand both the personal attributes valued by employers and the principles of communicating effectively whilst developing effective communication skills and addressing their own personal development needs.
Non-technical skills and attitudes, known as soft skills, and the technical skills and knowledge required for specific jobs in IT are key to employability.
Soft skills are those skills relating to an individual's ability:
- to communicate and work effectively with others
- to use appropriate language
- be dependable and conscientious
- to generally behave in an acceptable manner in the workplace
Soft skills compliment hard skills, which are:
- knowledge
- understanding
- technical skills required to do a job
Communication and Employability in IT students will come to appreciate the soft skills they need to develop to become effective employees. Students will identify and consider their own soft skills and, through practise, improve these skills.
Communication skills are key to success in any sector but are particularly important in highly technical sectors such as IT, where the language used can become full of jargon. It is important that learners are able to communicate with non-technical staff and understand when different types and vehicles of communication are appropriate.
IT provides specific software packages and advanced tools that can be used to improve the effectiveness of communications. Students should be able to improve their general communication skills over the next year and ensure they understand how to exploit specific application packages and tools.
