I had the opportunity to attend the event entitled ‘English for Employability’ that took place in Çeşme, İzmir on 22-23 March 2019. The event was organized by Pearson Assured and brought the directors of schools of languages across Turkey together. This two-day event started with a gala dinner where the participants had the opportunity to meet the other participants and continued with a full-day session on the following day.

The second day started with Grant Kempton, the coordinator of learning consultants at Pearson, and Ken Beatty, an expert in the area of Computer Assisted Language Learning and author/co-author of more than 100 textbooks. The participants were asked to work in groups of 6-7 on the given scenario related to employability skills, and prepare a poster that responds to the following questions;

• What’s the rationale for Employability Skills Proposal (ESP)?
• What people/stakeholders should you consult to plan the ESP?
• How will the ESP work in practical terms?
• What resources are necessary to put the ESP in place?
• Where will the ESP fit in the existing curricula?
• How will we know if the ESP work?

There was a presenter in each group, who was responsible for presenting the poster to the other groups, and the other group members were supposed to listen to each group’s presentation and make comments and/or ask questions during the gallery reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this workshop I had the opportunity to discuss with different directors from both state and foundation universities to what extend the employability skills are considered when planning the courses, and the ways of how these skills can be focused more in the system. After this workshop, Buğrahan Atabay, the head of Sales at Bayer, gave a speech on the skills to be demanded in the current and future business world. The event was unique in the sense that it brought together people from both the schools of languages and the business sector.