Your ability to identify key skills you have got may open you up to more career opportunities. It may also help you understand if you have a skill or knowledge gaps that should be addressed with further training.

What kinds of skills are there?

At work, you will mostly use a combination of following skills:

• Employability skills
• Transferable skills
• Specialist skills

Employability skills

Skills, qualities and attitudes that employers say are essential for their workplace usually called Employability skills.

The skills are:

1. Positive attitude
2. Communication
3. Teamwork
4. Self-management
5. Willingness to learn
6. Thinking skills
7. Resilience

Transferable skills

A transferable skill would be one that you can use in a diverse kind of situations or jobs – you can transfer them from one function to another.

Examples include:

• Ability to motivate and organise others
• Ability to work with facts and figures
• Communication skills: verbal and written
• Accuracy
• Good eye for detail

Specialist skills

Specialist skills normally relate to a particular job or group of jobs.

Examples could be:

• Fluency in Latin or German
• A heavy vehicle driver’s licence
• Proficiency in Adobe Photoshop and InDesign

Why you need to identify key skills

Knowing the skills you have will help you:

• Determine what sort of job you might like to do
• Select what areas you need to focus your study or training on
• Create your CV when you are applying for jobs