Exploring Essential Employability Skill Needs for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) face significantly lower employment rates. Soft skills are critical for successful workforce inclusion, these skills are non-technical interpersonal and self-regulatory skills, such as, communication, teamwork, and problem solving, that make one stand out in the working field. This systematic review aimed to identify key employability skills for individuals with ID and synthesize strategies used to develop them. Following PRISMA guidelines, the review was registered on OSF (10.17605/OSF.IO/DRAU9). Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar were searched in April 2023 and March 2025 using keywords such as "soft skills," "intellectual disability," and "employment." Inclusion criteria: adults with ID or employers with experience with individuals with ID, focus on employment-related skill development, and publications from 2013–2025. Twenty-one studies met inclusion criteria. Communication (n=19), social skills (n=14), hard and quality work (n = 10), attitude and motivation (n = 9), and autonomy and independence (n = 8) emerged as core skills, but the heterogeneity of terms and conceptualizations used across studies indicates that these skills are difficult to categorize consistently. Common strategies included vocational programs (n=7), mentoring (n=6), video modelling (n=4), and, less frequently, specific skill programs (n=2), audio coaching (n=2), role-playing (n=1), and sport (n=1). Findings highlight the need to strengthen targeted programs for employability skill development and to further investigate the role of underexplored approaches, such as sport, alongside greater inclusion of employer perspectives in future research.