Changing your job or the industry you work in can be a daunting prospect. The idea of starting over or being out of your depth is scary, not to mention the fear that you will lack the right skills for your desired role.
However, transferable skills are becoming much more important to employers and can help put you ahead of the competition when it comes to advancing your career.
Transferable skills can be used in all kinds of jobs, work environments, and industries. They are highly valuable to being able to adapt and succeed in a range of roles, and they are great additions to your resume.
But what are transferable skills and how can you identify them? Let’s take a closer look.
What are transferable skills?
Transferable skills are the fundamental skills that go beyond a specific role or business. They are beneficial in most roles and help prepare people to work in a range of different work environments. These skills include things like communication skills, teamwork, critical thinking, initiative, and resilience.
Instead of worrying about specific technical skills, building up your transferable skills is likely to be more beneficial – in fact, research from Seek shows that 3 in 4 employers believe that candidates with transferable skills are more likely to land a job.
The same Seek research shows that the five most important skills for employers are transferable skills. These skills are:
- communication skills (36%)
- teamwork/collaboration (32%)
- critical thinking (28%)
- attention to detail/thoroughness (27%)
- self-motivation/initiative (23%)
Benefits of transferable skills
There are many benefits to having transferable skills. One of the most important is that they allow you to adapt to and handle many different work environments. This makes changing roles or careers much easier as you already have the essential skills necessary to succeed.
Here are some of the main benefits:
- Flexibility: There is a lot of competition out there, so employers want to see candidates who have flexible skills and can handle many different tasks. People who have flexible skills are much more likely to be able to handle change and tackle different tasks thrown their way.
- Portability: You can take your transferable skills with you whenever you change jobs, and adapt them to different roles as you progress through your career.
- Employability: Recruiters and employers look for transferable skills in prospective employees. They are important for strengthening your resume, as they demonstrate that you can learn quickly and adapt.
How to demonstrate transferable skills
You can use transferable skills to work in a range of jobs and industries, and they will help you to make the move from one role or industry to another, but how exactly do you demonstrate these skills to employers? One way is to include them under the skills section in your resume and give detailed examples in interviews.
There are also qualifications that you can receive that will demonstrate your ability to display transferable skills. The BSB50420 Diploma of Leadership and Management for example, allows you to develop and solidify transferable skills such as communicating with influence and critical thinking. You can then easily demonstrate these skills by adding this qualification to your resume.
Other good qualifications for demonstrating these skills include:
- BSB20120 Certificate II in Workplace Skills
- BSB40120 Certificate IV in Business
- BSB30120 Certificate III in Business Customer Engagement
If you’re interested in finding out more about our courses and how they can help you with transferable skills, get in touch with our team by calling 1300 99 6732 or contacting us here.
