Most widely used Job skills program in America. Teach your students the must-have employee attributes for job success.

The First Job Survival Series illustrates the social and emotional skills and personal qualities employees must have to survive and grow in the workplace. These skills and attributes can be more important to employability than technical skills or even hard work! The U.S. Department of Labor’s SCANS 2000 report referred to these as Soft Skills and included them in a list of competencies that translate to “relevant workplace know-how.”

Soft skills have been defined in the literature as the non-technical skills, abilities, and traits required to function in a specific employment environment. These include personal or character qualities, and being able to: deliver information or services to customers and co-workers; work effectively as a member of a team; and understand and adapt to the cultural norms of the workplace. Surveys of employers in large metropolitan areas reveal that soft SEL skills are crucial for workplace productivity. When polled, employers in Canada and England replied with nearly the identical viewpoint as in the US- employees with strong soft skills are in demand! They are the ones more likely to get hired, be retained and be considered for promotion.

First Job Survival Skills 1: Surviving the First 90 Days
The focus of this module is on those soft job skills that are required to survive the probationary period. These are the skills that signal to an employer, “this person deserves a chance, his first impression is ok, there are no red flags, we’ll give him/her a try.”

First Job Survival Skills 2: Attaining Permanent Status
The focus of this module is on those soft job skills identified by employers as the must-have attributes essential for job retention and promotion. Our soft skills are our “brand.” It’s what we notice about people – i.e., she’s friendly, he’s someone you can count on, she’s cooperative, he’s honest and so forth. Individuals with these attributes and qualities are the ones we want as friends, ones we are proud of as family members, and for our purposes here, are the persons that employers want to hire, hope to retain, and would like to promote.

First Job Survival Skills 3: Surviving Delusions of Grandeur
The focus of this module is on confronting the unrealistic fantasies many young people have about the work world. Work is not like school, with endless second chances, or like the neighborhood, where personal freedom is exercised, and it’s not like home, where people actually care about your welfare. Work is a much different place, with its own set of rules, expectations, and requirements. Helping students develop realistic expectations of the workplace before they get there, is what this program does. Accurate perceptions and soft work skills… so your students don’t have to learn the hard way.