Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2012, and its figures for Spain are from that month: 24% unemployment, around 50% youth unemployment, a 28% early school-leaving rate and a 54% figure for people without primary education. The training plans it describes were under discussion at the time.
Once again, we have to look at the times we’re living in to talk about employability and finding work. We know that employability is an employee’s ability to demonstrate their professional skills so as to keep their job, contributing their knowledge and abilities.
Training plays a part in both. It’s the link that connects the two. So I insist that today’s formula for finding a job is to have a CV that’s more than just interesting: one full of experience that backs up the candidate’s talent, plus additional training that turns the candidate into a specialist in the field.
Today, before and after are very different. In the past, companies trained their employees in whatever complemented their studies with their everyday work. Today, they look for candidates who are already trained and specialised in the job they’re trying to fill.
Training policies
Spain’s Secretary of State for Employment is considering measures to improve the situation of job seekers by linking the world of work with the world of education. The main lines of action are:
a) A bilingualism plan to bring training closer to international markets, which companies increasingly demand.
b) Continuous training throughout working life, to avoid figures as high as a 24% unemployment rate, reaching 50% among young people.
c) Linking training to companies’ current needs, steering people away from studies with no demand and training candidates in the options the labour market most needs.
d) Preventing early school leaving, which currently stands at 28%; these are people who will find it hard to get a job in today’s labour market.
e) Giving everyone a minimum level of education: as of today, unemployment reaches 54% among those who haven’t finished primary school.
Employability
It’s common knowledge that doctors and lawyers don’t stop studying when they start working at the hospital or law firm. Both professions have to keep up to date with the treatments, medicines, medical advances, laws, rulings, regulations and so on that come out every day. And I wonder: is it only doctors and lawyers?
Doesn’t your trade get updated? You can be sure that recent graduates have more up-to-date knowledge than the company veteran who never refreshes their training. It’s like your Facebook profile: every day you have to show what you bring to your network of friends.
Doesn’t your trade need updating when it comes to computer tools? Office software has come a long way in recent years, and not just the popular programs, but also custom software built for the work you do. Can you use it?
Your company’s market may once have been exclusively Spanish. I suspect it has probably had to open up to international markets: are your language skills up to it? Do you think the company can count on you in a market beyond our borders?
These reflections can help you grow professionally within your company, but also keep your job up to date and alive. In crises like this one, companies that need to cut their wage bill will find it very easy to let go of the employees who don’t bring any extra value to the company, in this case, up-to-date and ongoing training for their job. They will be the first to go when people have to be added to the endless unemployment lists.
Further reading
Featured image: Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
