A Systematic Literature Review of Teaching Employability: A focus on soft skills

Abstract

Employability skills are important to be successful in any job in the job market. Colleges and universities should focus on teaching these skills to students to prepare them for the world of work. There are an abundance of studies that have highlighted the skills gap. This paper aims to bring together the literature to review how these skills are best taught to students. Five Databases - SocIndex, Education Resources Information Centre, British Education Index, Education Abstracts, and Education Research Complete - were thoroughly reviewed. Papers on teaching, training or learning of soft, transferable, employability, life, leadership or management skills from the years 2015-2023 were gathered. Results showed that certain classroom activities and games can be used to teach certain skills to the students. Part-time or full-time employment, internships and volunteer work also lead to development of skills such as leadership, communication, and social skills. Higher educational institutions can hence employ the pedagogical methods and approaches mentioned in these studies to teach employability skills to students.