Adaptability

Global societal and technological trends are shaping the future workplace, such as changes brought about by AI, automation and as the world looks to reduce the impacts of climate change. Core transferable skills such as adaptability are becoming increasingly valuable to employers along with these shifts and can transfer across different roles and industries. 

Teach students that adaptability is the ability to respond positively and adjust to change and unexpected circumstances. In a world where technology and work environments are evolving rapidly, being adaptable helps students stay resilient, open-minded, and ready to embrace change.

The activities in this lesson support students in recognising where they already demonstrate adaptability and how they can strengthen it further. Whether it’s responding to unexpected challenges or learning new ways of working, these skills are key to thriving in both academic and professional settings.

Teaching Resources:

• Adaptability: Lesson plan and presentation slides – for use with a group of students in the classroom.
• Adaptability: Student worksheets
• Secondary school: Skills tracker – an optional resource to support students keep track of the skills they have developed and plan how they can practise them
• Adaptability icon: available to download and incorporate in your wider teaching materials to help students recognise other contexts where they are learning and utilising adaptability skills. 

Lesson learning outcomes:

By the end of the lesson students will be able to:

• Understand why adaptability is a core skill for the future world of work
• Identify the traits, skills and characteristics that make someone adaptable
• Understand that adaptability skills can be developed by anyone and be applied in many situations - not just at moments of major change.

Continue developing your students’ adaptability skills

This lesson is part of the employability skills scheme of learning for 16–19-year-olds, offering a ready-made sequence of curriculum-linked resources to help you build progression in your learners’ knowledge over time. To support your planning, visit the Scheme of learning homepage.