Learning basic employability competence : a challenge for the active labour insertion of adolescents in residential care in their transition to adulthood

The teaching of basic employability competence from a very early age is of preventive value in the transition of young people in residential care to adulthood. The present research relates employability competence (finding and holding down a job and gaining promotion in the labour market) with positive career outcomes and employment opportunities. In this study, conceptual methods for understanding employability are analysed and some existing international studies of employability skills are reviewed, although all of these are deemed partial approaches to the needs of children and young people in residential care. Our proposal, the IARS (Infancia y Adolescencia en Riesgo Social [Children and Young People at Social Risk]) Employability Competence Framework, developed by means of a collaborative and integrated approach with experts, provides a complete picture of how employability competences are important for preparing young people in residential care not only for active labour insertion but also in terms of their comprehensive development. A selection of a cluster of eight employability competences (self-organisation, decision-making and problem-solving, teamwork, communication, perseverance, professional project development, flexibility and responsibility) and their components are presented, as well as its educational implications within children's homes ; El aprendizaje de las competencias básicas de empleabilidad en los primeros años de vida de los jóvenes tutelados adquiere un valour preventivo clave para afrontar su proceso de transición hacia la vida adulta. Las investigaciones relacionan las competencias de empleabilidad (entendida ésta como la capacidad para encontrar y mantener un trabajo y promocionarse en el mercado laboral) con un mayor aprovechamiento de las oportunidades laborales y resultados de carrera positivos. En este estudio se enfatizan diferentes definiciones y enfoques teóricos sobre las competencias de empleabilidad, si bien se consideran aproximaciones parciales de acuerdo con las ...