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What career skills are the most valued by employers?
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30 April 2015
Transferable skills can be adapted between jobs; they are not specific to a single role. Building these skills greatly expands your career options because they have broad appeal to potential employers.
Below are key transferable skills that you should develop to boost your career progression.
1. Communication skills
Good communication is about conveying thoughts and ideas effectively, as well as listening to others and understanding what they are attempting to communicate. Key communication skills include:
-Speaking effectively and writing concisely
-Listening carefully and providing feedback
-Expressing ideas and feelings constructively
-Negotiating and persuading others
-Developing rapport with others
2. Leadership and management skills
Effective leadership and management is about directing and motivating others to achieve individual, team and company goals. Key transferable skills include:
-Managing groups and delegating responsibilities
-Planning and coordinating tasks
-Solving problems and managing conflict
-Making and implementing decisions
-Motivating, coaching and training others
3. Planning and research skills
Planning and research skills enable you to articulate needs and formulate a strategy to accomplish specific objectives. Transferable skills in planning and research can include:
-Identifying needs and required resources
-Setting goals and identifying courses of action
-Gathering relevant information and evaluating results
-Forecasting, predicting and monitoring situations
-Analysing, interpreting and disseminating information
4. Teamwork and interpersonal skills
These skills are about the contribution you make to groups and the way you relate to and interact with others to achieve a common goal. Key transferable skills include:
-Sharing credit and accepting responsibility
-Contributing and encouraging the ideas of others
-Developing rapport and respecting other opinions
-Negotiation and influencing others
-Modifying communication to suit the situation
5. Self-management skills
Self-management is about how you direct your own activities toward the achievement of objectives. Transferable skills in self-management include:
-Managing time and organising priorities
-Setting goals, meeting deadlines and solving problems
-Working well under pressure and accepting responsibility
-Ability to get along well with others
-Self-evaluation and decision-making
Summary:
Develop key skills that can be applied in your current role and transferred to any future role. Capitalise on the broad appeal of skills such as:
- Communication
- Leadership and management
- Research
- Teamwork
- Self-management
Future employers will value these professional and personal characteristics, so it is important to build your ability in these areas.
