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SMP Solutions Guide to Transferable Skills

 

Skills are a key part of everyday life not just in the workplace. Whether you are a manager, a warehouse operative or a mum working minimal hours to pay the bills, everyone has skills that help them in their work and life in general.

 

Awareness of your skills can help your career

If you are looking to move up the career ladder, change career or get back into work, it pays to have a good understanding of the skills you have to offer a potential employer in order to market yourself more effectively.

 

How do you define skills?

Skills are ‘talent or abilities that you have developed or acquired’. In general this means that skills can be taught and learnt by almost anyone. Driving is a good example. However, just because you have learnt the skill it doesn’t mean to say that you are good at it and how true this is with driving!

 

What are transferable skills?

In the business sense, these are any skills that are ‘portable’ that you can take with you to almost any type of job. Although you might be able to drive, unless you are looking to take on a job which involves some aspect of driving, then it is not relevant to a potential employer.

 

What do you do in your work and your life?

Really analysing and reviewing (2 transferable skills!) what you do or have done in your career and outside of work can help flesh out good skills.

 

We all have to communicate with people in various ways, face to face, telephone, email, through reports and presentations. Some are better than others but you may your skills for granted.

 

Do you naturally get on well with people and can relate to them, regardless of who they are and what they do? Inter-personal skills are much sought after in the workplace today, as many people are impatient and just want the end result.

 

Report writing is a great skill that many people overlook, especially if you have to write 1 page summaries. You may not do this in your work but belong to the committee of a club. It makes no difference; this is a skill that is very portable!

 

We spend much of our lives planning, organising and co-ordinating activities.

 

If you have kids then some of these skills can be very fine tuned but you may not necessarily use them much if at all in your daily work. Likewise you may be the person that always seems to organise the social calendar or holiday for your friends.

 

Are you good at influencing people to help sell concepts or ideas? Selling is not just about what happens in shops!

 

Do you like to be part of a team, whether it is at work or through sport? Team working, as with all the other bolded words, are most definitely transferable and sought after skills!

 

You may spend hours at home researching things on the internet and really enjoy this but never think that you have researching skills.

 

Can you use a computer? Most people can so have at least basic PC skills. What kind of software have you learnt? Most PC users have a working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Outlook or Outlook Express for email.

 

Think about the ways in which you use technology both at work and at home and you may well be surprised at the amount of skills that can be used in many jobs, as most jobs these days involve some need for IT skills. 

 

Do you have to constantly work out your household bills and how much money you have each month and how long it will last? You may not have a job in Finance but this is still budgeting, something that all businesses need.   

 

This list goes on but rest assured that you have many more skills than you realise. If you really struggle with this type of analysis and are looking to market yourself to a potential employer with your CV or at an interview, then it is wise to invest in some career coaching to move you forward to ensure that you get the job or career you really want!

 

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                                                           'helping you unlock your potential'
                                                                   www.smp-solutions.co.uk

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