Community colleges and state universities do a great job with education. But they don’t necessarily make students job-ready. In today’s highly competitive market, job readiness is a distinct advantage. Candidates who come to the job ready to work on day one are more attractive to employers.
Whether you are just launching your career or are hoping to move on from where you currently are, your job readiness will impact your employability. So why take chances? Online training can make you job-ready in a reasonable amount of time.
What It Means to Be Job-Ready
Making sure you are job-ready is one of our goals here at ProTrain. But what does ‘job-ready’ really mean? Being job-ready means possessing the right combination of knowledge, skills, qualifications, and attitude to perform the tasks necessary to do your role. Note that job readiness goes above and beyond mere technical abilities.
Job readiness includes the ability to adapt your knowledge and skills to a real-world job. It includes using what you know to be the best possible employee, communicating what you know effectively, and being able to perform your role without having someone looking over your shoulder.
6 Components of Job Readiness
Employers know what they want whenever they prepare a hire. Specifically in terms of job readiness, there are six key components they look for:
- Hard Skills – Hard skills are the specific, role-related skills and knowledge required to perform the job at hand. They include everything from software proficiency to knowledge of industry regulations.
- Soft Skills – Soft skills enable a person to work as part of a team. They include things like communication, time management, and problem-solving skills.
- Qualifications and Training – Employers look for individuals properly trained and qualified to do the jobs they are hiring for. Employers appreciate certifications, licenses, and degrees (to a certain extent).
- Mindset – A job-ready candidate has a proactive mindset. They are a person who is willing to learn, open to feedback, and generally positive.
- Personal Readiness – Personal readiness is integral to job readiness because it demonstrates that an employee is reliable and stable. Personal readiness is what makes an employee able to manage stress and time constraints.
- Awareness – Employers are looking for people who are aware of both the industry and the job they hope to get. They want employees who understand what the job entails and what the industry expects from them.
Mindset, personal readiness, and awareness are up to you. We can help with hard and soft skills as well as training and qualifications. Our online certification courses are ideal for making you job-ready before you start applying.
The CompTIA Example
A perfect example of job readiness is the IT professional looking for that first job right out of college. His degree is great, but he is lacking the hard and soft skills necessary to beat out other candidates. Here is how we can help:
ProTrain offers dozens of CompTIA certification courses. CompTIA is a nonprofit trade association and industry leader in vendor-neutral IT certifications. The organization has a reputation for providing the skills and certifications to make job-ready IT professionals. We invite you to take a look at our full selection of CompTIA courses if you are a current or future IT professional.
Job readiness does not happen by accident. It requires a decision followed by action. If you are ready to get started, send a message to info@protrain.edu or call (800)-371-2963 and speak directly to one of our career counselors. We are ready to make you job-ready.
