How was the Framework Developed?

The Employability Skills Framework was developed as part of the Support for States Employability Standards in CTE and Adult Education project, an initiative of the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education. The first step in the framework development was to inventory existing national, state, and local employability standards and assessments to identify the types of competencies that were deemed important. The inventory highlighted many commonalities across the various skill sets and led to the recognition of nine universal skill areas within which all individual skills could be categorized. These nine skill areas, in turn, were clustered into three overarching categories: applied knowledge, workplace skills, and effective relationships. These categories form the foundation of the framework. Users may access the framework to learn more about specific skill areas and individual competencies, as well as to assess relationships among the various sets of skills included in the inventory.

Framework development was guided by a technical work group (TWG) composed of representatives from career and technical education (CTE), adult education, workforce development, and business. The TWG reviewed the initial inventory, convened to discuss the framework, and provided feedback on successive drafts. Finally, the framework was reviewed by groups of stakeholders, including employers, professional associations, and federal agencies. Stakeholder discussions focused on opportunities for cross-agency collaboration and the framework's relevance to a broad range of potential users in CTE and adult education, as well as throughout the education and workforce systems.