Success is not Magical

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. It is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.”

If you want to prepare your children or your students for a bright future in the workforce, you need to make sure that they have the basic fundamentals. Otherwise their chances of being successful in whatever career they choose to pursue are next to nil.

Those basic fundamentals are confirmed by numerous employers on a regular basis but we as parents or teachers seem to forget them or at least forget to get our children to focus on them. How often have you heard an employer state “If they know how to read, good math, get along with others and communicate, I will hire them and teach them the technical skills’?

All research on this subject done by such as the Conference Board of Canada, Human Resources & skills Development Canada and others all agree that the nine essential skills required by someone entering the workforce are:

• Ability to read text
• Good writing skills
• Good numeracy skills
• Quality oral communications
• Thinking skills (problem-solving, decision-making, critical-thinking, job task planning & organizing, significant use of memory, finding information)
• Working with others
• Computer use
• Continuous learning

Why are these skills essential?

These skills help people perform tasks required by their jobs as well as adapt to change. These skills are used in virtually all occupations & throughout daily life in different forms & at different levels of complexity. They are transferable from school to work, job to job and sector to sector. They also provide the foundation for learning other skills such as technical skills and job/workplace skills.

Did you know that Statistics Canada suggests that there is quite a connection between great essential skills and higher salaries/earnings, stronger job security and better health as compared to individuals who do not possess the excellent above listed essential skills. The better health issue was a surprise to me but it does make sense when you think of it, right?

Okay, all you parents, teachers and students! This is a reality check! Let us all focus on finding ways to make sure our students get a real opportunity to acquire these essential skills. Great marks in school without the essential skills do not equate to success in the workplace. So make sure students get job placements and other types of opportunities that will help to develop all these essential skills.

Students, please push for such opportunities as part of your development. Your future depends on it. Bug your teachers and parents until you get regular access to such opportunities. Besides it’s a lot more fun and exciting to be doing something that you can relate to and that you know makes sense than just going along with accepting stuff that you already know will be useless when you hit the job market. Don’t put up with average. You deserve the very best preparation for your future.

For more information, please contact the EOTB's Executive Director, Denis Thibault: 613.932.0210 or denist@eotb-cfeo.on.ca