Do you know
your child’s Employment IQ? While
channel surfing on the radio, I caught the end of a program about how part of
our unemployment problems are due to the antiquated process of how we look for
a job and the lack of job readiness.
Since I was only able to hear the last minutes of the program, I was
unable to write down the name of the person being interviewed. When I attempted to look up the broadcast and
doing a Google search I was unable to find it.
The concept of an employment IQ is
something a majority of people have not heard of, but in this global economy is
just as important to as academic knowledge.
This made me think about young adults who graduate from high school with
a low employment IQ?
While I do
not know what elements the guest on the radio believed makes up an employment
IQ, I believe, the elements of Employment IQ should consists of: 1) the ability
to understand how to connect interest, skills and education to specific jobs;
2) general understanding of the sub jobs within a job category; 3)
understanding employer expectations; 4) the ability to conduct a job search
using multiple approaches (walk-in, online, social media, etc); 5) the ability
to develop a resume for specific jobs; 6) understanding the elements of
interviewing (pre-interview research, interview questions, post-interview
follow up) and 7) appropriate dress.
While these
are the basic elements of an Employment IQ, advanced elements such as: 1) utilization
of technology in the workplace; 2) the ability to communicate effectively; 3)
the ability to work in groups; and 4) the ability to multitask projects.
If circumstances
were reversed and young adults were judged by their Employment IQ instead of their
academic achievement, parents would be asking for more instruction in job
readiness. If getting a job after
graduation from high school was more important than going to college, job
readiness would be fully integrated into the curriculum.
We know
this is not the world we live in, but shouldn’t we still want young adults to have
both a high academic and employment IQ?
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