What is a transferable skill?
If you’re considering switching roles or industries, you will probably wonder whether you need to requalify in order to do the job you want. In some cases, the skills you have will be enough. Many skills are considered to be transferable, meaning that they are relevant across industries and desirable to a variety of employers.
Which skills are transferable?
The majority of transferable skills would also be known as soft skills. This is because they are generally personality traits or naturally obtained skills and don’t usually require specific training or qualifications.
Although many transferable skills are obtained through the course of your career, this doesn’t mean that you can’t work at becoming better at them. Focusing on the skills you want to develop will help you to identify opportunities to strengthen your skill set and learn new approaches.
There are several types of transferable skills that relate to different styles of working and areas of expertise. These may include creativity, work ethic, and research.
Creativity - are you able to think outside the box and come up with solutions to problems? Creative thinking is useful across a variety of industries and roles.
Work Ethic - what is your approach to work? If you are someone who is ambitious and hard-working, this approach can be applied wherever you want to work.
Leadership - have you got experience as a team leader or project manager? Have you ever been a supervisor outside of the workplace? Have you received training that would make you suitable for leadership roles? If you have leadership experience in some form, employers are more likely to see your potential as a leader in their company.
Realistically, the majority of skills that you have will be transferable from one role or industry to another. For example, if you have experience as a project manager, then this is likely to be transferable into other managerial-type roles. Equally, if you are a good communicator, this is something employers across any industry will find useful.
How to Identify your Transferable Skills?
You might struggle to know which of your skills could be transferred into a new role. If this is the case, you can sometimes ask friends and colleagues what they think your strengths are. Often, those who know us best are able to identify strengths that we might not have considered.
By understanding how others see you, you can see the areas which could be a benefit to other employers.
A list of transferable skills
- Communication skills
- Research skills
- Problem-solving
- Negotiating
- Data entry experience
- Creativity
- Time management
- Adaptability
- Teamwork
- IT skills
Here at PDR Group we are here to help! Contact our team on 01892 530226, visit our website at www.pdrsolutions.co.uk or email us at applications@pdrsolutions.co.uk