Unit 1: Communication and Employability Skills

for IT

OCR Level 3Cambridge Technicals

in IT

So, you want to work So, you want to work in IT?in IT?

Are the qualifications you’re studying for enough to secure a job in IT?

There will be many skills and attributes that an employer in the IT industry will expect from their employees, beyond their qualifications.

What does an employer What does an employer in the IT industry expect?in the IT industry expect?Any employer will expect you to have certain personal skills and qualities that will enable youto do your job…

Good communication skills (written and verbal)

Good time management

Team worker, but able to work independently

Anything else?Anything else?An IT employer also wants an employee who isaware of:

Legislation relating to copyright

Legislation for the workplace when using Visual Display Units

Legislation relating to data protection

Health and safety in an IT working environment

Good working practices in IT

Communication skillsCommunication skillsare keyare key

Having good communication

skills isn’t just about being able to talk!

You also need to be able to:

Pick up cues in verbal

conversations

Proof read your documents

before sending them

Use good questioning techniques

Make good use of written

communication

What will you learn?What will you learn?After completing this unit you will:

Understand the personal attributes

valued by employers

Understand the principles of

effective communication

Be able to use IT to communicate

effectively

Be able to address personal

development needs

Unit 1: Communication and Employability Skills for IT

AIM OF THE UNIT Communication is a vital skill for any individual. The effective use of communication and flexibility of styles is a highly desirable attribute to employers to maintain good working practice. This unit identifies the principles for effective communication and introduces learners to the interpersonal skills and attributes required within a work place and how different combinations and approaches are required for a range of job roles it also identifies the different IT tools available for safe and secure communication and exchange of information within an organisation. Learners will consider approaches and adapt the way they communicate, depending on their audience.

LO1 Understand the personal attributes valued by employers (P1,M1)

• Personal attributes (e.g. self motivation, leadership qualities, respect, dependability, punctuality, problem solving, determination, independent workers, time management, team working, written numerical and verbal skills, planning and organisational skills)

• Good working practices (e.g. Health and Safety, following organisational procedures, adhering to legislation)

• Specific IT job sectors and personal skills required for the roles (e.g. Networking, Computer gaming, Computer graphics and animation, Programming, Web design).

LO1 Understand the personal attributes valued by employers

P1 Explain the personal attributes valued by employers

The assessment criteria could be evidenced by the use of an information booklet produced by the learners or in the form of a report. It is important that all areas of the teaching content are covered with examples to show a depth of understanding. Learners may choose to relate the leaflet to a specific job role to help them focus on the particular attributes required.

LO1 Understand the personal attributes valued by employers

M1 Explain the different personal skills that employers may require for specific IT job roles

The merit criterion M1 could be evidenced in the form of a table detailing personal skills required for a range (three or more) of different job roles and may be an extension to P1. Learners must show knowledge and understanding of the requirements across different roles within the IT sector and the different personal skills depending on role and be able to explain these. The use of sourced job descriptions could further enhance the learners work.

LO1 Understand the personal attributes valued by employers

Task 1

•2-3 slide presentation on a job you’ve held (current, work experience

•Principle/main responsibilities – what you did, who you reported to

•Skills required

LO1 Understand the personal attributes valued by employers

Task 2 - Highlight the following in your notes (Colour coded)

•Attribute•Skills•Training and Qualifications• Good working practices

LO1 Understand the personal attributes valued by employers

P1 Explain the personal attributes valued by employers

The assessment criteria could be evidenced by the use of an information booklet produced by the learners or in the form of a report. It is important that all areas of the teaching content are covered with examples to show a depth of understanding. Learners may choose to relate the leaflet to a specific job role to help them focus on the particular attributes required.

1)Introduction - Define your terms what are Attributes & Skills why are they important to employers2)Key attributes inc. examples3) Skills inc. examples•Training and Qualifications inc. examples•Good working practices (Health & safety, adhering to legislation. Following organisational procedures)

LO1 Understand the personal attributes valued by employers

P1 Explain the personal attributes valued by employers

information booklet a report.

1)Introduction - Define your terms what are Attributes & Skills why are they important to employers2)Key attributes and why valued by employers inc. examples3) Skills valued by employers inc. examples•Training and Qualifications inc. examples•Good working practices that are valued by employers

M1 Explain the different personal skills that employers may require for specific IT job roles

•With reference to 3+ IT Jobs/roles

Should include a supporting table Table

LO1 Understand the personal attributes valued by employers

Task 3

•Presentation details of 3 Jobs you can find advertised (3 Different fields – 1 must technology/IT Related)

What:

•Personal Skills/Attributes•Experience•Qualifications

Do they require? http://jobs.theguardian.com

Software DeveloperWe’re in the content delivery business. We have a reputation for powerful investigative journalism, a global audience and a passion for community collaboration. We’re reinventing our digital products and we need great engineers to help us.

Us

Development of digital products is central to the future of the Guardian. We build the products that showcase our diverse and important journalism. We create the tools that the journalists and editors use to write their stories securely, anywhere from London to Syria. We write the APIs and services that allow those stories to be distributed across the globe. We write the products and interfaces that show off and monetise that content to its maximum potential.

We mostly program in Scala and Javascript, but we use the best tool that fits the problem. We have hacks in the wild in all manner of languages. Our infrastructure lives on AWS and our own OpenStack private cloud. We encourage product teams to implement, manage and support their own stack. We do our coding in public. Sadly, the same can be said of our karaoke.

Software Developer

YouYou’re a passionate, intelligent human being who loves technology. You might love the news, or you might want to reinvent it.

You like inspiring the people you work with and being inspired by them in return. You have experience of getting stuff done.

You are a talented Engineer who is, or will be, an expert in their chosen field and has a strong interest in all software engineering disciplines

•LO2 Understand the principles of effective communication

1. Interpersonal skills (e.g. verbal conversation, lip reading, signing)

2.Cues in verbal exchanges (e.g. body language, use of intonation, nodding, summarising and paraphrasing)

3. Barriers to effective communication (e.g. language, distraction, noise, lack of concentration)

4.Questioning techniques (e.g. closed, open, probing questions, response times) 5. Written communication (e.g. emoticons, note taking, reports, letters, faxes, . email)

6. Proofing documents (e.g. grammar checking, spell checking, proofreading, . punctuation).

•Assessment Criteria P2, P3 and D1 •Learners could produce a report or presentation explaining the principles of effective communication and the potential barriers. This must draw on a range of different examples and show knowledge and understanding of all the categories identified in the Teaching Content. Learners should explain these giving examples in context.

•The distinction assessment criterion D1 learners must demonstrate their understanding explaining how some of the identified potential barriers to communication can be reduced or removed. This could be presented in the form of a report or presentation that explains their options and solutions and why they are appropriate

•Assessment Criterion P4

•This could be evidenced by the use of observation by tutors or others which should be supported by documentary evidence. There must be at least three examples of the use of effective interpersonal skills and the learner should identify the situations they are evidencing and why they thought the skills were appropriate.

LO2 Understand the personal attributes valued by employers P1, M1

Leaning Intentions

Understand the personal attributes valued by employersLearnings outcomes

Success Criteria•Reffered to 3+ IT Jobs/rolesIncluded visual examplesMade reference to techniques and decisions regarding your work

LO3 Be able to use IT to communicate effectively

LO3 Be able to use IT to communicate effectively

Research Task

Find an example of (free) software/websites that will enable you to communicate in the following ways:

Blog/ing

Vlog

Computer screen capture

Podcast

Website

Video/conferencing

Presentation

Extension – identify means of publishing

sharing these mediums

Blog/ing – ‘blogger,’ ‘Wordpress,’ Typepad’

Vlogv – Youtube, Mad video (http://www.themadvideo.com/what-for/bloggers.html?id=518e6c7e7126246d08000052&ms=247287&vid=518e62487126246b08000048?utm_source=google&utm_medium=uk-sem&utm_campaign=UK-Search&gclid=CJyYm-zs8LsCFernwgodYw4AFQ)

Computer screen capture – Camstudio, BB Flashback recorder, BandiCam, Ezvid, Wink

Podcast – Podom7atic, Juice, iTunes

Website – Moonfruit,

Video/conferencing – Oovoo, Skype, Facetime (Apple)

Presentation – Slidedog, Przezi, Visual B

Phone/Tablet Apps (App Shed)

Extension – identify means of publishing

sharing these mediums (Youtube, Istore, Moonfruit)

Assessment Criteria P6

Learners need to communicate technical information to a specified audience. For this they could prepare documentation for users which may be in the form of a “dummies” guide for an identified topic or a technical manual or leaflet or report depending on the audience they are aiming the technical information at. Alternatively, they could communicate the information orally. The evidence must show that the technical information has been communicated clearly and appropriately for the audience they have clearly identified. The details of the specified audience may be presented separately.

LO3 Be able to use IT to communicate effectively

• Communication technology

• presentation software

• word processing

• email

• web

• blogs/vlogs

• instant messaging

• video conferencing/podcasting

Assessment Criteria P5, M2, D2

Learners could provide screen shots as evidence or video evidence for their use of IT to aid their communications. They should provide explanations as to the content and purpose of the different technologies and options which may be presented as a separate document or report.

For the merit criteria M2 learners must annotate or accompany work submitted with explanations as to the choices of the IT used to aid communication. This should include details of the communications and the IT resources used and is an extension of P5. This evidence may be added to the work submitted for P5 or submitted as a separate document.

For the distinction criteria D2 learners must expand the reasoning for the choices of the IT they have used and justify in detail why these options were chosen above others, the alternatives and why they were rejected making reference as to how it has aided their communication.

LO3 Be able to use IT to communicate effectively

1) Introduce your project – Who is your specific audience and what is the technical information they need (what will you be communicating, to whom and why)

2) Content – how has you information been communicated effectively and appropriately to your specific audience? What did you communicate, what choices did is you make for this audience?

3) Information technology – explain the technologies you used to communicate the technical information? Which technologies did you use, what is their purpose why are they appropriate/what are their advantages in this instance? How did you use them?

Dist – why were the technologies you chose more appropriate than other alternatives (what technologies did you reject/not use)

Specific Audience 1Tesco goes for the grey pound with its Super Silvers crack tech squad

Tesco has launched a UK-wide initiative to make buying a smartphone easier for those over the age of 50, after research showed that older shoppers are more daunted by the prospect of buying a mobile phone than going to the doctors or their bank manager.

Tesco Phone Shop talked to many customers in the over-50s category and 48 per cent said they felt "baboozled by jargon used by technology store staff". It has, therefore, created the Super Silvers, a nationwide "hit squad" of older mobile phone experts who can talk to their peers in jargon-free terms.

There are eight in the squad at present, including Arthur Gardner, Peter Statham and Jean Thomas, the the last of them having worked for Tesco for 29 years and the Tesco Phone Shop for the last 11 months. She applied because she loves technology and claims she "would not be able to live without her iPad".

It's certainly a lucrative market if the Super Silvers can help entice the grey pound. Tesco's research also found that more than two thirds of the over-50s it quizzed thought it was important to keep up to speed with the latest tech and 54 per cent of all those asked said they enjoyed learning about new advancements.

Long gone are the days when you'd be scared to let your nan near the TV remote control.

Specific Audience 2Good design can cash in on the grey pound

As the trends continue for increased life expectancy and active mobility well into later life, new ways of responding to ageing must be embraced by businesses. A cursory review of products designed for the elderly reveals a pricey and stigmatised cocktail of sterile colour palettes, oversized feature clichés and unsophisticated engineering.

There is no need for creative apathy. The business opportunities presented by the elderly market are enormous. Some 80% of the UK’s wealth is controlled by the over-50s.

Consumer products tend to be designed with young demographics in mind, but savvy businesses are starting to embrace the commercial value of meeting the needs of the over-65s in fresh ways. Any business wanting to access this market needs to start by truly understanding their potential customers. A good design agency will send an open-minded multidisciplinary team out of the office to get immersed in the lifestyle of the target user. Observational research is a powerfulway of breaking a cycle of ingrained beliefs that drive companies to think they know what their customers want “because that’s what we’ve always done”.

Emotional and physical well-being contribute equally to older adults’ ability to maintain their independence, while lower levels of energy and poorer senses challenge this. New ways must be sought to maintain the quality of interactionwith the surrounding world. The best products talk to their potential customers on an emotional level, as well as satisfying functional needs.

A rigorous design process will achieve this by involving users in the development, simulation and prototyping of the emerging concepts. This allows data gathering to expose the quantitative and qualitative value of the innovation as well as users’ emotional reactions.

LO4 Be able to address personal development needs

Identification (e.g. self assessment, appraisal meeting notes, feedback, performance data)

Recording needs (e.g. target setting, appraisal records, performance management reviews)

Addressing needs (e.g. work shadowing, team meetings, training, conferences)

Learning styles and characteristics (e.g. active or reflective, visual, auditory or physical)

Preparing a well structured CV and application (e.g. focussed, accurate, relevant, proofed).

Strength and weaknesses

Find and complete an online S&W test

Complete a preferred learning style test

Print your CV

Assessment Criteria P7, P8

You must put together a personal development plan and evidence it in an appropriate format. They should clearly identify their objectives and the steps to be taken to achieve as well as their own negotiated timescales. This must be followed over a period of at least three months so that progress can be monitored and reviewed. Evidence may include review meetings, assessment outcomes where the learner and tutor get together in order to evaluate progress within the plan. Strength and weaknesses

Gantt chart

CV

Plan

Review notes

Development Plan

3x updated copies of each

Review Meeting

Development Plan – print 3x updated (colour )

Assessment Criteria, M3

For the Merit criteria M3 learners could use their CV and covering letter as evidence this must include two copies one the actual copy for an employer and the other annotated to show tools, techniques and decisions on the information included by the learner and the reasons. Learners should also include copies of job descriptions to support the decisions made and approach taken and identify where the improvements they have made or are making as part of their development plan are affecting their application.