Social Enterprise Projects: Market-Driven Solutions

Social Enterprise Project and Mock Job Application

Largely, a social enterprise project is a multifaceted concept. The Social Enterprise project can be defined as a concept addressing basic needs that have not been met or solving social problems using a market-driven approach (Defourny & Nyssens, 2017). Social enterprise activities and skills are modelled to build opportunities, provide creative programs and goods, foster environmental growth, and generate potential hope. The European Commission reports that there are currently about 40 million participants in the social entrepreneurship market, including over 200 million volunteers worldwide – and rising (Distasio et al., 2020).

According to the study by Social Enterprise Great Britain (SEUK, 2018) – ‘The Invisible Change,' the social entrepreneurship industry in the UK contributes three times as much to the economy as to agriculture. This is much higher than previously thought. Social projects contribute £60 billion to the UK’s, 3% of Gross Development Product (GDP) and 5% of all employment. Social enterprises give job applicant employment opportunity in that dream job furthermore; it will make he/she marketable as employers seek to employ persons with social enterprises principles and ethics. As a social enterprise person employer always believes that s/he, have the basic transformative product and services that benefit the organisation in one way or the other (Barraket et al., 2016). Essentially, an individual under social enterprise program tend to employ the skills of taking care of multiple responsibilities in an organisation. Social enterprises pursue a broad variety of sustainable growth approaches through non-profit, corporate and hybrid businesses (Defourny et al., 2018).

On the other hand, the main purpose of the Mock Job Application provides the job applicant with the basic skills or the mechanisms on how to pass job application interviews and get your dream job (Huss et al., 2017). In addition, the application allow applicants to practice their interview skills and to be equipping themselves with the skills needed for an actual interview, hence giving them advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, the mock interview environs will give applicants the actual picture of the real interview when it comes to a real scenarios and the activities that take place during the interviews. This is where an applicant gets to familiarize themselves with interview questions and also the etiquette needed during the interviews. With that, all in mind missing a chance of employment is not very easy as an applicant will be equipped to tackle such kind of job questions. Through mock job application, an applicant gets to work on his/her anxiety during the actual interview as it is one of the main reasons why people miss getting hired. That is the reason as to why the application gives a person the chance to work on these things (anxiety) by practising and preparing for the Job. Getting orientation with the person in the position of an employer to you gives you a better chance to build in your confidence.

Reflective report on “academic/employability/wellbeing

Due to initial non-submissions, I am not able to include a new section at the beginning of the assignment (up to a maximum of 200 words) in which I am supposed to give a comment on what I changed in my assignment in response to any feedback received. As this marks my first submission.

In today's society, a key element of being successful is building and subsequently boosting on one’s employability. This acts as a mark to put one marketable in the job market morphed by competitiveness and heighten demand for skills and experience. Ideally, being employable demands being ahead of other potential employees applying for same position. Hence, requires constantly reflecting on personal attributes because it gives one a clear identification of oneself. It highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses as well as ways to improve on one’s skills and wellbeing for a better chance to being employed in a competitive market. The skills can orient you as you go through your education process and while working. Moreover, it can equip you with entrepreneurial skills and hence give you the general abilities to get employment. With the development of technology that increases rapidly so as the employment competitions as companies need to employ the individual with skills matching market demands. To combat competitors in the competitive market, managers are keen on bringing candidates with a range of abilities into the work setting and require multi-skilled workers to accomplish various tasks (Baruah et al., 2017, July). Graduates who join the workplace also ought to acquire the qualifications that companies require.

Employability means an achievement that makes graduates more likely to gain jobs and succeed in their selected jobs and benefits them, the workforce, the community, and the economy. They have a variety of skills and attributes (MacCallum & Casey, 2017). A common misconception about employability is that it is the same as working and getting a job, or the high employability guarantees a job for you. As the definition suggest, employability is better able to exist and to succeed in the labour market.

Employee skills are thought to be skills not only necessary for one’s career, but also for progress within a company to achieve your potential and efficiently contribute to business tactical guidance (Fleuren et al, 2018). Today, despite the qualification, companies pay more attention to the graduates' skills, values, beliefs, and but no standard of employability skills is available. The employability qualities that students will have are focused on the operating requirements of the business and the standards of specific businesses vary (Fleuren et al, 2018). The implications of the employability capacities of organizations are nearly similar and can be separated into the following eight basic competences, by way of a variety of literature research: "time management, communication capabilities, skills in problem solving, self-management, preparation, and coordinating skills, organizational expertise, lifetime learning, and interventions”.

Timing is one of my main learning and employability capabilities. I will consider this expertise my focus easily, like the preparation of workloads, to get to offices or colleges promptly. I can organize and prepare myself to meet the time limits within a certain period when I plan for my time for university work. Time management is an essential factor that all managers look for from a person. I strongly believe that time is the best factor that make all kinds of work deadlines meet by an employ. For that reason, no employer would exclude employing a person who is time conscious. That is the reason as to why from time to time I do polish my time management abilities as it is my number one priority.

Communications skills is another attribute that I also work on from time to time, communications skills are very important for any employer. I will always learn how to communicate better with the client during a business closes. Attracting and sustaining consumers base in business need proper polished communication skills. To change someone’s perspective is not that much easy as it involves a lot to do with communications. According to a survey conducted in UK companies, communication is one of the main attributes employers seek from university graduates. About 40% of employers voted for communications skills, 39% for work ethics, and 32% for employee personality (Rowe & Zegwaard, 2017). One can argue that communications work almost 90% in the work environment as it is among the factors that also improve employ communications and employ relationships within the organization. Moreover, it helps in collaborative and coordination of work within the organization enhancing is good relations between the employer and the employee through good communications skills. Effective communications is key in consumer relation as well as passing instructions and feedback within an organisation.

Teamwork is also another primary factor for an employer, which should be given much weight and focus. I practice teamwork in school I always like doing my project work and assignments in a group for me to be able to build that teamwork spirit for feature employment skills. It made me develop and be more independent to improve my abilities further as it set premise for expressing, airing viewpoints, and working with other team member hence exploring new depths that allow me to push beyond my borders and to meet new changes and challenges in the future. By applying my interpersonal skills, I could make friends easily. This also included the use of my communication skills during discussions in the group, in which I demonstrated my co-operation skills with others during a shared task. Cooperation alongside different people is a critical ability because we all have diverse interests and experiences. I did not only communicate with them but also benefit by listening to their views. This aspect factors in my reluctance to connect with individuals with diverse cultures in an unfamiliar environment, which allows me to move away with my comfort zone. I feel that it has been a very good experience. Work done in a team promotes growth and knowledge as well as enhancing experience gathered. Teamwork equips you with new knowledge and new skills development about things that you were not sure of moreover it makes you accomplish your tasks in time. That is the reason as to why employers always seek to employ persons with teamwork skills this makes easy within the organization, as inject team coordination, working together, and collaborative approach in solving problem. I believe through the experience building good teamwork I stand a chance of getting employment based on enhanced skills and values held.

Due to competition around the globe, companies will always face challenges, some that need critical thinking/solving, and others, which need restructuring by the employees (Wilton, 2020). Therefore, as a feature employ of any organization outside there, I believe that problem-solving skills are also among the primary factors an employer will be looking out from a graduate. Quick problem-solving skills are very essential, as they will not make the organization lose more time while looking for solutions for a particular problem. The faster they solve the problem more they build the organizations image and brand as this saves as what organizations strive to build every day.

I strongly believe that I possess self-management skills another important set of skills needed by every employer form fresh graduates. Every company would like to employ a graduate with personal self-management skills that will assist him/her in managing and accomplishing organization tasks exclusively. Self-management is important because most managers do not always like to follow up their employees to do what they are required of them. Essentially, it is a responsibility of an employee to manage oneself that include being competent in duties allocated. I believe nobody would employ an individual then constantly remind him/her of her/his duties. This should not be confused with monitoring and keeping performance index but rather an employ should have a sense of what is required and respectively output expectation. Arguably, self-managing start by the simple things around you that include taking charge of one tasks and being responsible.

Personal SWOT analysis

Strength

I have good teamwork and time management skills. I always draw on concepts with other users while operating collectively so that as a team member I can create plans for assigning tasks to the group users such that everyone likes the tasks to which they are just assigned. I also uphold self-management as centre to individual, team, and organisational success. I can handle my time well with little follow up or being pushed. Planning is my core attribute where I outline and arrange accordingly tasks to be carried out in order of priority.

Weakness

I do not have some professional background, even a part-time job background. A times, I have problem being objective and not willing to consider both aspects of things while addressing issues. I use the knowledge in conversation that I have. I am introvert and am not comfortable in holding conversation with other people.

Opportunities

Soon, I will consider a part-time position that will boost my skills level and abilities. Due to cultural and skills set, I am more employable in the UK. Statistical show that 65% of foreign companies indicate a stronger desire to hire a graduate with international work experience. They are more inclined to attract students with foreign job experience than others. (Rowe & Zegwaard, 2017). "The hopes are strong that China is in the future, and requires an enormous amount of skilled specialists, becoming the biggest person capital market in the world.

Threats

In recent days, foreign students prefer to come home with "explosive" development rates, which would intensify competition in employment. English graduates are faced with the same challenges not just for foreign students who are faced with heightening demand for skills and values as requirement for employed. The work shortfall and the number of unemployed students in recent years have been the focus of a 'substantial bottleneck' – putting increased pressure on the labour sector this year (Wilton, 2020).

Conclusion

Getting a good job is not all about that degree one is working on or holds, this all depend on your employability. Students fail to work on their respective employability issues and tend to think that only holding academic qualification is enough to be employed. Arguably, academic qualifications enables one to be considered for an interview then it upon an individual to demonstrate their value through skills held and what they can do for them to secure the job. As such, one has to work on enhancing his/her employability for a better chances of getting employed in addition to holding certifications and meeting employment standards. Essentially, one is responsible for one’s employability skills.

Reference

Baruah, B., Ward, T., & Jackson, N. (2017, July). Is reflective writing an effective Peer Assessment tool for students in Higher Education?. In 2017 16th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (ITHET) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Defourny, J., & Nyssens, M. (2017). Mapping social enterprise models: some evidence from the “ICES” project. Social Enterprise Journal.

Defourny, J., Nyssens, M., & Brolis, O. (2018). Mapping and Testing Social Enterprise Models Across the World: Evidence from the “International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) Project.

Fleuren, B. P., van Amelsvoort, L. G., Zijlstra, F. R., de Grip, A., & Kant, I. (2018). Handling the reflective-formative measurement conundrum: a practical illustration based on sustainable employability. Journal of clinical epidemiology, 103, 71-81.

Huss, R., Jhileek, T., & Butler, J. (2017). Mock Interviews in the Workplace: Giving Interns the Skills They Need for Success. Journal of Effective Teaching, 17(3), 23-37.

Kanabar, K., & Sant, S. (2019). ENHANCING MANAGEMENT STUDENT’S EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS THROUGH SOCIAL WORK: LITERATURE REVIEW. NOLEGEIN-Journal of Business Ethics, Ethos & CSR, 10-15.

MacCallum, J., & Casey, S. C. (2017). Enhancing skills development and reflective practise in students during their programme of study. New Directions in the Teaching of Physical Sciences, (12).

Rowe, A. D., & Zegwaard, K. E. (2017). Developing graduate employability skills and attributes: Curriculum enhancement through work-integrated learning.

Wilton, N. (2020). Do employability skills really matter in the UK graduate labour market? The case of business and management graduates.