Drama and Theatre Studies and Employability Skills Workshop (24th Jan 2017)

1. What do you want to do when you leave Long Road

2. What do you want to do as a career

3. What skills do you think you will need to do those things?



 4.  With the person sitting next to you write a list of the skills you have gained or developed by studying Drama and Theatre Studies

Together work out how the answers given for question 4 will help you achieve your goals from questions 1/2?

What are Higher Order Thinking Skills?

What are Employability Skills?

"Employability skills are those basic skills necessary for getting, keeping, and doing well on a job.

These are the skills, attitudes and actions that enable employees to get along with their colleagues and managers and to make sound, critical decisions.

Unlike occupational or technical skills, employability skills are generic in nature rather than job specific and cut across all industry types, business sizees, and job levels from the entry-level worker to the senior-most position.

What specifically are those skills, attitudes and actions, i.e., employability skills, necessary for getting, keeping, and doing well on a job? Employability skills, while categorised in many different ways, are generally divided into three skill sets:

Basic Academic Skills
Reading · Writing · Science · Math · Oral Communication · Listening

Higher-Order Thinking Skills
Learning · Reasoning · Thinking Creatively · Decisions Making · Problem Solving ·

Personal Qualities
Responsible · Self Confidence · Self Control · Social Skills · Honest · Have Integrity · Adaptable and Flexible · Team Spirit · Punctual and Efficient · Self Directed · Good Work Attitude · Well Groomed · Cooperative · Self Motivated · Self Management"

http://www.foretica.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/employability-skills.pdf

Which skills are college leavers and graduates lacking?

A report from universitiesuk.ac.uk says 'The skills employers find most lacking in university and college leavers are a mix of job-specific and general employability related skills; a majority also cite lack of work experience.'

This report says that core skills "refers to literacy, numeracy and IT, while ‘employability’ refers to a longer list including team working, analytical skills, problem solving, communication, entrepreneurship, leadership, etc."

"The CBI/Pearson Education and Skills Survey asked employers specific questions about graduate applicants’ ‘job-readiness’, finding that 14% reported dissatisfaction with graduates’ basic numeracy skills, 17% reported dissatisfaction with basic literacy and use of English, 19% reported dissatisfaction in their analysis skills, 21% problem-solving, 26% team working, 29% communication, 33% self-management and resilience, and 46% relevant work experience."

"CBI found that between 14 and 29% of employers reported dissatisfaction with graduates’ literacy, numeracy, analysis, team working, communication, problem-solving and self-management skills. Eighty-nine per cent of employers surveyed by the CBI reported that such ‘attitudes and aptitudes’ for work were among the most important factors considered when hiring a graduate, followed by work experience (66%) and degree subject (55%)."

"Chevalier and Lindley (2007) analysed differences between graduates working in what they deemed ‘graduate’ and ‘non-graduate’ jobs, and found little difference in academic skills, but ‘large differences’ in ‘entrepreneurial, management and leadership’ skills – where there was an association between lacking these skills and falling into a non-graduate job.20 Green and McIntosh (2007) point to planning, problem-solving and communication skills."

Supply and Demand for Higher Level Skills
December 2015

Why a Drama and Theatre qualification is great if you want to work in business

Why a Drama and Theatre qualification is great if you want to work in business

The article below was written by Brian Sibley

There IS no weakness in having a theatre background. There is only strength. Here are just a few skills that a theatre degree gave me that have served me enormously well in business:

You have advanced critical thinking and problem solving skills: taking a script and translating it into a finished production is a colossal exercise in critical thinking. 

You have to make tremendous inferences and intellectual leaps, and you have to have a keen eye for subtle clues. (believe it or not, this is a skill that very few people have as finely honed as the theatre people I know. That’s why I listed it #1).

You’re calm in a crisis: You’ve been on stage when somebody dropped a line and you had to improvise to keep the show moving with a smile on your face, in front of everyone. Your mic died in the middle of a big solo musical number. You just sang louder and didn’t skip a beat.

You understand deadlines and respect them: Opening Night is non-negotiable. Enough said.

You have an eye on audience perception: You know what will sell tickets and what will not. This is a very transferrable skill, and lots of theatre people underestimate this, because they think of theatre as an ART, and not as a BUSINESS. I frequently say (even to MBA-types) that theatre was absolutely the best business education I could have gotten. 

While the business majors were buried in their books and discussing theory, we were actually SELLING a PRODUCT to the PUBLIC. 

Most business majors can get through undergrad (and some MBA programs, even) without ever selling anything. Theatre departments are frequently the only academic departments on campus who actually sell anything to the public. Interesting, isn’t it?

You’re courageous: If you can sing “Oklahoma!” in front of 1,200 people, you can do anything.

You’re resourceful: You’ve probably produced “The Fantasticks” in a small town on a $900 budget. You know how to get a lot of value from minimal resources.

You’re a team player: You know that there are truly no small roles, only small actors. The show would fail without everyone giving their best, and even a brilliant performance by a star can be undermined by a poor supporting cast. We work together in theatre and (mostly) leave our egos at the stage door. We truly collaborate.

You’re versatile: You can probably sing, act, dance. But you can also run a sewing machine. And a table saw. And you’ve probably rewired a lighting fixture. You’ve done a sound check. You’re good with a paintbrush. You’re not afraid to get your hands dirty for the benefit of the show. In short, you know how to acquire new skills quickly.

You’re flexible: you’ve worked with some directors who inspired you. Others left you flat, but you did the work anyway. Same goes with your fellow actors, designers and stagehands… some were amazing and supportive, others were horrible and demoralizing to work with (we won’t name names). You have worked with them all. And learned a little something from every one of them.

These are the top reasons I’ve found my theatre degree to be a great background for a business career.