Employability and job security

Essay by robby1111University, Master'sA-, May 2004

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"Education and ability to do things are not interchangeable terms. You cannot educate brains into man's head, you can help him to make the most of the brains he has."

Henry Ford. Ford on Management

The time companies provided lifetime employment and in a broader approach "Job Security" has clearly become a thing of the past. As a matter of fact, a new trend appears on the labour market in which employees have to assume their own skill development thanks to the employers that should provide many of the tools for skills renewal. Through this new trend, the perception of "security" has moved from staying in the same company to being more employable thanks to your skills development that will allow you to easily find a new job. This new deal is "employability" the notion that employers can "no longer offer job security, so companies should now offer employees the opportunity to gain skills to make them employable" (Robert Levering,1996) when they do leave the current company.

Unfortunately for both, employees and employers, the way to manage this shift from the old to the new way requires a fundamental cultural change. It is not just moved from the old employment contract to the new one. This new way of thinking also involves a shared commitment by the employee and the employer.

It's easy to compare the old aspect of lifetime employment to a "marriage" and the new concept of "employability" as a "lifetime of divorces and remarriages". It means a series of relationships driven in the same state of mind by both parties. The expectation of such a relationship is definitely different from the old commitment, in the sense that this association is based on the knowledge that the relationship is unlikely to last forever. On the other...