Why Developing Transferable, Employability and Career Skills is Important?

Introduction

This purpose of this report is for learners to synthesise information about transferable skills, employability skills and career skills, researched from a variety of different sources and to explain how these will have an impact on future careers. The deadline for this report is 18 December 2013 and it is to be submitted online before 12.00pm.

The report will discuss the questions: What are transferable, employability and career skills? How can these skills be developed? Why should these skills be developed? And, how will these skills affect future careers?

All information used is listed in the reference list at the end of this report, using the Harvard style method of referencing.

What are transferable, employability and career skills?

Transferable skills are skills that can be used in almost any job or career. Examples are: communication, leadership, interpersonal (people skills), IT, English, Maths, problem solving, researching, self-motivation, time-management and team working, just to name a few. They are not usually specific learned skills (or vocational skills, such as carpentry or hair dressing, for example) but rather, they are skills that are used and developed all the time.

Transferable, employability and career skills are all “soft skills”. Cottrell (2008) states that “’Soft skills’... are less easily quantifiable than academic qualifications”, meaning that it is difficult to judge how well developed these skills are in people without observing for a period of time, although examples could and should always be given of where these skills are put into practice when applying for jobs or in an interview situation. But unfortunately, there is also no way to accurately measure how well these are deve...

... middle of paper ...

...able at: http://www.hemsleyfraser.co.uk/OpenCourses/TrainingDivisions/PersonalImpactAndEffectiveness. [Accessed: 18 Dec 2013]

Cottrell, S (2008) The Study Skills Handbook. 3rd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Improve Your Skills (no date) [Online] Available at: http://www.life-pilot.co.uk/improve-your-skills/transferable-skills/how-to-develop-new-transferable-/. [Accessed: 15 December 2013]

Murphy, H., Hildebrandt, H. and Thomas, J. (2000) Effective Business Communications. 7th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

Seven C’s of Effective Communication (no date) [Online] Available at http://www.managementstudyguide.com/seven-cs-of-effective-communication.htm. [Accessed 12 December 2013]

Woodcock, B (no date) Introduction to Employability Skills. [Online] Available at http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsintro.htm. [Accessed: 17 December 2013]