Digital and language skills are in strong demand in today’s labour markets. Job candidates are expected to master not only job-related software or programming languages as part of their hard skills but also to be able to effectively communicate across digital spaces. Unfortunately these latter soft skills are rarely taught in formal education and practices are continuously and rapidly evolving. This is where the Skills-up project hopes to have an impact. By creating a toolbox and an online learning platform for teaching some of these skills to job seekers we intend to support educational providers, job coaches and other relevant stakeholders who strive to enhance the employability of those who may struggle to find employment or a new and more interesting job.
Testing the learning platform
The learning platform is currently undergoing intensive testing during local train-the-trainer’s workshops organised in the four partner countries, that is Croatia, Germany, Ireland and Spain, to ensure that the developed toolbox will be up to the task. Once the feedback will have been incorporated into the lessons these will also be translated into Catalan, Croatian, German and Irish before being tested by students.
Four topics
The online course will focus on four topics. The first series of learning modules offers recommendations for language use in digital communication, ranging from professional emails to social media posts and professional networking services. The second addresses the issue of gender-neutral and inclusive language at the workplace and in professional contexts. The third has been designed to help job candidates make informed decisions when and how to profitably use professional networking services, such as LinkedIn. The fourth, more specifically, showcases ways in which job candidates can improve their coding skills.
open access to the learning platform
Open access to the learning platform will guarantee that its content will be freely available to all interested persons and organisations either for self-study or in support of teaching the targeted skills. As an open educational resource the learning modules will moreover allow other organisations working in this field to further develop them and adapt them for target groups with more specific needs. Efforts will be made to reach out to these organisations to acquaint them with the project results with the aim of helping a wide audience to overcome skills gaps that are often barriers to successfully starting or pursuing a professional career.
