Factors that influence employability

The factors that influence a person’s employability are:

1. his/her objective characteristics, i.e., so factors such as

§ age,

§ gender,

§ health,

§ family situation,

§ socioeconomic background,

§ etc.;

2. his/her professional skills, i.e., the ability to perform a specific job task, and to perform it well and comprehensively;

3. his/her personal skills, i.e., the so-called soft skills, which are more or less adaptable to all jobs, such as:

§ leadership,

§ organizing or collaborating with others,

§ teamwork,

§ communicating adequately and effectively,

§ being flexible and available,

§ etc.

The latter, namely soft skills or transversal skills, are characteristics that are often innate and which, although they can be improved through training courses or on-the-job internships, remain much more closely linked to an individual’s personal characteristics than hard skills.

Hard skills, on the other hand, are the more strictly technical and professional abilities of each person and can be acquired through a training or a work experience.

These include, for example:

§ culture,

§ theoretical knowledge,

§ know-how

§ ability to perform certain job tasks well, etc.

Factors that influence employability also include elements such as:

§ the geographic and territorial context in which the individual lives and works;

§ the individual’s personal and physical characteristics;

§ the labour market context and what is offered or sought in specific areas or historical periods;

§ and so on.