Developing Personal and Employability Skills

Our Core Purpose

The primary purpose of RDUTC is to develop work-ready young people with the academic, technical, personal and employability skills required to move onto successful careers.  To this end the development of personal and employability skills has equity with academic and technical development, underpins everything we do and is fully embedded within our Vision Statement. 

We focus on the following six key personal and employability skills which have been prioritised by our Employer Partners: 

1. Team Work 
2. Leadership
3. Communication
4. Independence
5. Resilience
6. Entrepreneurship

Personal and Employability skills are developed through the following strategies: 

• our forty-hour week
• our dress codes
• our Professional Values and Behaviours policy with its focus on: health and safety; personal and organisational reputation; productivity and efficiency 
• our approach to independent study
• our Employer Projects
• our Work Experience and Apprenticeship Recruitment programme 
• our University Awareness programme 
• our Careers Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) programme 
• our Careers Expos (RDUTC runs three Career Expos each year which are attended by all our Employer Partners and many other businesses in the region.  These events enable our students to gain extensive knowledge of the career opportunities available to them.  They also create important networking opportunities)
• our annual Further Education Expo (This event is open to all Further Education providers in the region and enables our students to gain knowledge of the post 16 education pathways available to them after Year 11)
• our extensive Personal Development curriculum (This provides opportunities for students to develop character, leadership and team-working skills, independence, resilience, confidence, creativity and oral and visual presentation skills.  It also allows them to engage in activities to extend their specialist knowledge and experiences and, very importantly, to have fun!)  Opportunities include: 
• Generic Employability Skills Projects led by our Employer Partners 
• The Reading Widely and Often programme including Forensic Reading and ‘Charlie’s Challenge’ – See Communication Skills (Literacy) policy
• Debating Club, including Youth Speaks
• The Culture Vultures programme