Recognising and building personal skills lesson

Communication, leadership, teamwork and resilience are among the top personal skills employers look for when recruiting, with each skill being used differently depending on the industry, role or context. The activities on this page allow your students to identify which of these skills they already possess and how they can be adapted, whether you’re looking for shorter activities or a more in-depth lesson plan:

Teaching resources:

• Recognising and building personal skills: Lesson plan and presentation slides – full lesson plan for use with a group of students in the classroom
• Strategies for improving your skills: Quick-fire activity – 10 minute activity for a group of students in the classroom, can be used as an icebreaker for the lesson plan
• Recognising and building personal skills: Online lesson film – interactive film for remote or in class learning

How can you use this lesson to help your students identify and demonstrate these skills?

It concentrates on the top personal skills that employers look for, in activities that also encourage students to recognise their own ability in these areas. Students get the opportunity to explain how they demonstrate these skills and plan how they may use them differently in a variety of work situations.

Lesson plan

(30 - 40 minutes)

This lesson is designed to help students understand which skills are most sought after by employers and how they may need to adapt these in different situations. In turn, this will enable them to go on and develop other areas of their skillset, such as teamwork and communication.

Lesson learning outcomes

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

• Recall the top personal skills employers look for which are essential for success
• Explain how they already demonstrate these skills in their everyday lives
• Evaluate how they can build on these skills and adapt them to a workplace setting 

Quick-fire activity

(10 minutes)

This quick-fire activity can be used as a starter to the lesson, as an ice-breaker activity or at the end to allow students to put what they have learnt into action.

Through a class discussion and supporting student sheet, the Strategies for improving your skills quick-fire activity focuses on helping young people to identify practical steps they can take to build their personal skills. As a class you will first discuss the different places students might already be practising their skills, like during extra-curricular activities then students will reflect on how they can improve those skills further.

Online lesson film

(5 minutes)

LifeSkills has partnered with education charities The Talent Foundry and Business in the Community to create Online lesson films that can be watched anywhere.

In this one, Emma talks about why these top skills are important in the workplace, and why it is good for students to be able to identify their own skills. This film can be used in the classroom, or as part of a remote learning plan. It could also be used to introduce students to the topic of personal skills before they take part in the full lesson, or as homework to consolidate the learning.

Further ways to develop students’ personal skills

There are other tools and resources that you may want to explore after completing this lesson. These include the Personal Values interactive tool where it will guide students on what they value the most through ten realistic workplace scenarios. You might also complete the activities on Exploring personal strengths for employment which incorporate our interactive Wheel of strengths, showing young people which skills align to what job roles. Why not build personal skills like Staying positive (resilience) and Leadership as a focus into your wider curriculum? Refer to our Content guide to find out how LifeSkills resources can be used in PSHE, English lessons and much more.