You are a VET teacher preparing students for internships. The local labour market has shifted, with employers increasingly seeking digital skills and adaptability. One of your students is resistant, saying they “just want to focus on the traditional skills” they already know. You must decide how to guide the student so they see the relevance of adapting their skillset to evolving labour market needs.
Your task is to guide the student to see the connection between their current training and the evolving labour market. You must listen to their concerns, present evidence about new employer demands, and encourage them to reflect on how adaptability can improve their employability. You should balance reassurance (valuing their existing skills) with motivation to explore new ones, and model practical strategies that make change feel manageable. The goal is to help them recognise that adapting to the labour market is not about discarding their strengths but about building on them to stay competitive and resilient.
Exercise 1: Multiple choice
What is your first step when addressing the student’s reluctance?
Choose one of the following options.
Exercise 2: Sorting
Arrange the actions in the right column in order, from the most effective to the least effective for building adaptability. List them so that 1 represents the most effective action and 4 represents the least effective.
Action 1
Action 2
Action 3
Action 4
Encourage reflection on personal strengths
Connect the student with employer feedback
Provide examples of emerging roles in the labour market
Facilitate a short skills-upgrading exercise
Hint
Exercise 3: Multiple choice
Imagine the student has now accepted a short digital upskilling workshop. Halfway through, they feel overwhelmed.
What do you do?
Choose one of the following options.
