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Finding Your Employability Skills

Build the skills you need to enter, take part, and grow in the world of work with our newly updated Employability Skills Toolkit.

What Is This Toolkit, and What Can You Expect to Get Out of It?

The Employability Skills Toolkit is a guide to the skills needed to adapt and succeed in the world of work. It includes explanations and descriptions of these skills and ways to build them.

The Toolkit includes key information about how to become job-ready and exercises to practice and apply what you have learned. These activities encourage thinking about which skills you have, which skills you may need to work on, and how you can improve them.

The updated version of the Toolkit also includes information on how to prepare for and succeed in the future of work. To help you understand some of the skills that are in high demand by employers, you’ll find new content on digital skills and social and emotional skills. Given the impacts of technology and automation on the working world, this version of the Toolkit also includes a new section on how to develop a change-ready, lifelong learning mindset, which is essential to help you navigate job transitions.

Toolkit Takeaways

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Employability skills, like social and emotional skills and fundamental skills.

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Planning, and how it can help you accomplish your goals from beginning to end.

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Navigating career changes in the ever-evolving future of work.

Access the Toolkit

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Education & Skills     July 19, 2022

This toolkit provides a step-by-step guide to the skills you’ll need to adapt and succeed in the world of work as you continue to grow and move through life. You’ll find explanations and descriptions of these skills and ways to build them. This toolkit includes key information about how to become job-ready, as well as exercises to practice and apply what you’ve learned.

Toolkit  •  91-min read

What Will You Learn About in the Toolkit?


Employability skills are the skills you need to enter, take part, and grow in the world of work—whether you work on your own or as part of a team. Understanding and applying these skills will help you create a set of tools that can improve your ability to grow and succeed.

Employability skills fall into four categories:

Fundamental Skills

These form the basis of your employability skills.

Social and Emotional Skills

These include your ability to read and manage emotions and build relationships.

Personal Management Skills

These are your personal skills, attitudes, and behaviours.

Teamwork Skills

These are the skills you need to contribute productively to a group.


Planning helps you accomplish your goals from beginning to end. It includes outlining your goals, creating strategies, and checking in on your progress and success. It’s about being proud of your strengths and honest about your challenges. Being a good planner lets you view your challenges as skill-building goals, while also being prepared to overcome obstacles and build resilience.


Today, it’s rare for someone to spend their entire career doing the same job at the same place. People may go to college or university to train for one particular job, but often end up doing various jobs throughout their lives. Though people may change jobs, they tend to use and build on similar skills in their different jobs.

This process of going from one job to the next is called a job transition. Sometimes people move to a different job because they want to try something else; in other instances, they may be displaced from a job.

Are You Supporting Job Seekers?

Intentionally designed to prepare Canadians for the future of work, the Toolkit and its accompanying resources are helpful for job-seekers, but may also be used by people who support career development in others. For example:

Educators

To help you create lessons on how students can become job-ready and understand what it takes to get and succeed in a job.

Career Development Practitioners

To share with your clients who are preparing to look for a job and want to reflect on and sharpen their employability skills.

Newcomer Support Professionals

To use in your programming or offer to your clients in support of their job-seeking journeys.

Learn More

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OpportuNext

Want to learn more about how to plan your career path or navigate a job transition with a similar skill set? Check out OpportuNext, a free career tool created by The Conference Board of Canada.

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The Future Skills Centre Podcast

Presented by The Conference Board of Canada, this podcast covers many topics relevant to the future of work, career transitions and development, and how best to prepare for the changing skills and talent needs in Canada.

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Future Skills Research

As a consortium partner of the Future Skills Centre, The Conference Board of Canada continues to produce cutting-edge insights on the future of work.

In Partnership With

Toronto Metropolitan University
The Conference Board of Canada
Blueprint
Government of Canada