Facilitator Guide: What Does Success Look Like?

Many entry-level learners—including those with lower educational attainment or English as an additional language (EAL)—face significant personal and systemic barriers when identifying their own capabilities. As a facilitator, your role is to guide them past self-doubt, reframe negative experiences, and help them articulate what they bring to the workplace using the virtue of wisdom.

Core Concepts & Background Information

To support your group effectively, draw upon these core concepts from the underlying skills framework:

1. Identifying Strengths

Individual strengths extend far beyond formal qualifications or CV work history. Help learners explore these six distinct areas:

• Skills: Practical abilities developed over time (e.g., listening, problem-solving, organizing).

• Knowledge: Understanding gained through education, daily life, or personal interest.

• Experiences: Past situations that have built personal resilience or practical expertise.

• Relationships: Networks and support from others that encourage personal and professional growth.

• Positive Behaviours: Everyday habits and characteristics (e.g., patience, kindness, determination).

• Positive Attitudes: Constructive mindsets that allow individuals to navigate challenges effectively.

2. Self-Awareness 

Self-awareness means accurately identifying both strengths and weaknesses. In any workplace, individuals draw on five main areas:

• Knowledge: Understanding processes and tasks (builds confidence; gaps cause hesitation).

• Relationships: Building trust and teamwork (poor relationships cause conflict).

• Character Strengths: Virtues and qualities like honesty, patience, and decisiveness.

• Essential Skills: Core transferable abilities that make daily tasks manageable.

• Experience: Learning from past situations to tackle new ones.

3. Emotional Reactions

An emotional reaction is a rapid, natural response to a situation or future idea, often accompanied by physical changes (heart rate, smiling) and thoughts.

• Emotions reveal values and priorities (strong feelings show what matters to us).

• Emotions highlight hidden beliefs (doubt signals a need for more information).

• Emotions act as a guide or warning (feeling uneasy suggests we need to stop and assess).

4. Redefining What It Means to "Do Well"

"Doing well" does not mean being perfect or superior to others. It simply means making progress, learning, and focusing on small positive results. Signs of doing well include:

• Internal Signs: Feelings of satisfaction, confidence, motivation, engagement, and achievement.

• External Signs: Receiving positive feedback, making steady progress, taking on increased responsibility, and building stronger skills. Note: Remind learners that how feedback is given varies across different workplace cultures.

Overcoming Barriers

1. The "I Have No Experience" Barrier

Learners at entry level often assume that because they lack a long CV, they have no strengths.

• Reframing Experience: Expand the definition of experience. Home management, caring responsibilities, volunteering, navigating complex life challenges, or organizing family routines all require vital workplace skills.

• Prompting Reflection: Avoid broad questions like "What are your strengths?" Instead, ask specific, situational questions:

  • "Think of a time you helped a friend or family member solve a tricky problem. What did you do?"

  • "What is something people often ask you to help them with?"

2. Managing Emotional Barriers in the Job Search

Rejection or the prospect of an interview frequently triggers acute anxiety or feelings of inadequacy.

• Reframing Strategy: Frame emotions through the lens of wisdom. Anxiety is simply the body’s natural response to something new and important—it is not a terrible thing or a sign of failure.

• Prompting Reflection:

  • "When you feel nervous about a new situation, what is one small thing that helps you feel calm?"

  • "If a friend felt upset after a job application didn't work out, what encouraging advice would you give them? Can you give that same advice to yourself?"

3. Overcoming Modesty and Cultural Barriers

Many learners feel uncomfortable "boasting" about themselves due to cultural norms or low self-esteem.

• Feedback Strategy: Introduce third-party feedback as an objective tool. Asking others for input removes the burden of self-praise.

• Activity Idea (Strength Exchange): Pair learners up. Have them tell a short 2-minute story about a challenge they overcame. The listening partner must identify two strengths demonstrated in the story (e.g., patience, problem-solving, calm under pressure).

Delivery Tips for the Session

• Keep Vocabulary Concrete: Break down abstract terms like self-awareness into actionable concepts: "noticing what you are good at and what you find tricky."

• Normalize Imperfection: Emphasize that everyone—even management—has areas they need to develop. Growth is a lifelong process.

• Focus on Small Wins: Use clear visual tracking (like the Skillsbuilder Tool or checklists) to help learners see their progress build incrementally over time.