Recently I tried unsuccessfully to have a conversation with a jobseeker and it really hit home that sometimes we really can’t blame employers for not hiring us. It is our job to make sure that we are not just looking for jobs, but we are able to not only get the job, but keep it after we’ve gotten it. This depends heavily on our level of employability.

Employability is the capability of an individual of gaining employment initially, maintaining employment and if needs be, obtain new employment. What does this mean to you? Basically how employable you are depends on the knowledge, skills and attitudes that you possess, and how you utilize those assets and present them to both current and potential employers.

Many people need different levels of support as it relates to being able to overcome physical and mental blocks which they may have when it comes to learning and personal development. This is not just about your academics, as you need to be “market ready”, meaning the employer should see within you the potential to benefit their organization. Bearing this in mind we should always be trying to change our situation by improving ourselves which inevitably will lead to an improvement in circumstances. So we need to do things differently in order to access training and even more importantly employment.

It should be noted that employability does not depend on you just knowing about or having the knowledge, skills and attitudes which is employer-relevant. You need to exploit these assets in order to market and sell them in your interview or on the job.
We should in our quest to gain employment, not just sit and complain about the non-existence of opportunities. Instead we should be seeking to constantly improve the skills and assets we were blessed with, so when opportunities present themselves we are ready to grasp them and that job.