Communication is one of the Employability Skills found in a Training Package. Each qualification in an AgriFood Training Package has an Employability Skills summary.
Each employability skill has a set of facets. The facets are the aspects of the Employability Skills that a sample of employers identified as being important work skills.
The following table contains the Employability Skills facets for Communication identified in the report Employability Skills for the Future:
|
Skill |
Facets: Aspects of the skill that employers identify as important. The nature and application of these facets will vary depending on industry and job type. |
| Communication that contributes to productive and harmonious relations across employees and customers |
|
Communication is fundamental to most jobs and is commonly defined as ‘the sending, receiving and processing of messages’.
Workplace literacy involves the use of a range of communication skills that require people to describe, explain, locate, organise and use information. It may also include gestures, hand signals and jargon used by a workplace and the volume and tone of voices in exchanges between workers. Numeracy skills are also involved, for example estimating quantities, measuring things and expressing ideas in diagrams and graphs are also involved.
Communication in a workplace occurs at all levels and in a variety of contexts, for example workers reading safety procedures, and supervisors writing reports or dealing with clients on the phone. The media for communication also varies. It can be spoken - face-to-face or on the telephone, or written - on paper or electronically.
Workplace communication happens whenever people work together to get things done. Often, unspoken rules are developed about what to do in particular situations.
Here are some examples:
|
Workplace literacy |
Example of application |
| Reading and using different types of information | Reading and understanding work instructions, standard operating procedures, letters and notices, electronic data and emails |
| Writing and recording information | Completing proformas, report sheets, tender documentation, work plans and specifications, incident report forms and notes |
| Listening to different types of information | Receiving verbal work instructions from supervisors, information provided in training sessions, answering the telephone |
| Giving different types of verbal information | Discussing problems with others, offering solutions and feedback, reporting issues or incidents to the supervisor, using the telephone |
| Performing a range of numeracy tasks | Estimating a quantity of supplies to be ordered, calculating quantities for mixing of chemicals and materials, measuring distances or materials lengths |
Can you think of specific examples of the workplace communication required in your workplace? Do you explicity deal with these skills in your training?
Trainers can assist with the development of workplace communication skills by employing these grassroots strategies in their training.
Go to Employability skills for a series of useful resources.