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Core Skills for Employability

Build confidence, develop skills, and take positive steps towards employment, training, or further support.
  • 5 weeks
  • Awareness level
  • Online or in-person
Looking over the shoulder of a Core Skills for Employability learner in Stranraer sitting at a table with her daughter on her lap, pictured doodling on a large sticky note next to half-eaten apple. The table is filled with mugs, paper, and coloured sticky notes and surrounded by other learners.

Supported by

Scottish Government
Perth and Kinross Council
Angus Council

On this page

Overview

A supportive first step towards employment.

This course focuses on confidence, communication, teamwork and problem-solving through practical, hands-on activities. You'll learn through a local employability design challenge, working together to explore everyday experiences and build skills that are directly relevant to work and life.

Flexible delivery

Delivered online or in person through small, supportive groups at a comfortable pace.

Accessible learning

Learn through practical activities and real-life challenges regardless of previous qualifications or experience.

Inclusive space

Built around respect, collaboration and individual strengths - everyone can participate, contribute and grow.

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for anyone who would benefit from support to move towards employment, training or further opportunities.

  • young people preparing for work or further study

  • people who are unemployed or economically inactive

  • parents and carers returning to work

  • individuals facing barriers to employment

  • career changes looking to build new skills

  • people lacking confidence

  • volunteers developing their professional skills

How will this course help you?

We will help you to feel more confident about taking your next steps into employability support, training, or work - when you feel ready.

We will help you to improve your communication, teamwork, practical problem solving and creative thinking skills.

The course will give you the opportunity to try out and increase your confidence using digital tools and working with others online.

You'll leave with a certificate to help you show potential employers what you're capable of.

An orange sticky note which says

Case Study

Supporting Families, Shaping Services: Tammy's Story

Earlier this year, Tammy began learning about service design while helping to build something entirely new. As a Key Worker within Dumfries and Galloway Council's Fairer Futures programme, Tammy and her colleagues weren't stepping into an existing service.

Read more on LinkedIn

Course structure

This course is structured to follow the design process known as the Double Diamond.
You'll learn about understanding experiences, finding things out, solving problems, generating ideas, and communicating solutions.

Week 1

Experiences matter

You'll explore your own experiences and how these shape everyday decisions.

Taking part in a local employability design challenge, you'll practise describing experiences clearly and begin building your confidence, communication and teamwork skills.

You will gain
  • An awareness of the impact your experiences have on your decision-making.
  • Understanding of what a "service" is, and the process used to design them.
  • Ability to describe service experiences.
  • Experience in gathering knowledge from multiple people and finding the patterns and connections.

Week 2

Listening, learning, and sharing

You'll develop your active listening and communication skills by planning and carrying out simple conversations.

These skills will support you with interviews, working with others, and communicating at work.

You will gain
  • Understanding of the relationship between numbers and information gathered from lived experience
  • Awareness of user research, including approaches, ethics, and informed consent
  • Experience in planning user research
  • Experience in planning and practicing conversations
  • Awareness of user research methods 

Week 3

Research week

You'll have a break week, allowing time for reflection and applying your learning through a simple, supported task.

You'll be asked to to do a small research task (for about 30 minutes) to find out more information you can bring with you to week 4.

You will gain
  • Practical experience following a user research plan
  • Hands-on experience with a small selection of user research methods

Week 4

Making things better together

You'll learn all about problem solving and working together with others.

You'll chat about the things you've learned so far, identify patterns and work collaboratively to define problems and explore how you might solve them.

You will gain
  • Experience in analysis and synthesis of user research
  • Ability to define problems and develop opportunity statements

Week 5

Creating and sharing ideas

You'll generate ideas, develop simple solutions, and practise presenting them clearly.

You'll get the chance to build your confidence, creativity, and adaptability.

You will gain
  • Awareness and experience of rapid idea generation tools
  • Ability to filter and prioritise ideas
  • Experience in service prototyping
  • Experience of communicating service ideas
  • Providing critical feedback

Where this course is offered

Angus

Fully funded for parents in Angus
This programme is fully funded through the No One Left Behind approach, providing flexible, person-centred employability support for parents at different stages of their journey.
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Perth and Kinross

Fully funded for parents in Perth & Kinross
This programme is fully funded through the No One Left Behind approach, providing flexible, person-centred employability support for parents at different stages of their journey.
Learn more about courses in Perth and Kinross
We are exploring opportunities to deliver this course across Scotland.

This course is fully funded in Angus and Perth and Kinross but we are continuously exploring opportunities to deliver it elsewhere in Scotland. We have previously delivered similar courses in Dumfries & Galloway and Glasgow.

If you work in employability and would like to discuss how we can deliver this course in your area, we'd love to hear from you.

Get in touch

Teaching and certification

This is an interactive course delivered by service design experts who are highly experienced in training with a learn-by-doing approach. This course is taught in English.
There are no exams or formal assessment.
Service Design Network

Service Design Network accredited

We are accredited by SDN which means our courses meet a globally recognised standard.
Learn more about Practitioner Accreditation