Transferable Skills

People Skills

Communication
- The ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing;
- Good communication skills are imperative to building relationships and clearly transferring information between people;
- Communication skills are used in the workplace while writing and editing documents with appropriate structure, tone, and grammar.
Teamwork
- As a skill, teamwork refers to the ability to build relationships and work collaboratively with others in a group;
- Individuals who can work effectively with others are a vital asset to any organization or group;
- Team work means shifting appropriately between leadership and supportive roles in a group dynamic to accomplish its needs and goals, and encompasses communication, conflict resolution, and negotiation.
Leadership
- The ability to take the lead, delegate tasks, make decisions, mentor, and motivate others;
- Demonstrating leadership means bringing new ideas to fruition and respectfully leading others as key to the success of a project or team;
- Effective leaders delegate tasks and responsibilities that compliment individual strengths, are able to motivate and mentor others, take initiative to lead projects or groups, and make proactive decisions that align with a group’s goals and values.
Diversity and Intercultural Awareness
- Considering, respecting, and actively learning about different cultures and diversity;
- Respectfully working with a diverse, cross-cultural population is essential in an increasingly globalized and diversifying world;
- Possessing intercultural awareness means demonstrating respect, openness, and support of differing values, beliefs, and world views in order to build and manage inclusive relationships with individuals from diverse populations.

Research and Planning Skills

Planning and Organization
- The ability to plan, organize, manage, and complete projects or tasks effectively while meeting deadlines;
- Effective time management and organization skills are essential to managing workloads, meeting deadlines, and producing quality work in a professional environment;
- Good planning and organization skills include setting goals and managing priorities to meet established objectives, outcomes, and timelines, and demonstrating an ability to organize and carry out multiple tasks or projects at the same time.
Research and Information Management
- Refers to the critical identification, gathering, and organization of relevant information;
- Skills in research and information management are important for identifying reliable sources of good information and data, determining the suitability of information for projects or research, and organizing information and data using appropriate technology and methodology.
Technology
- Technology skills encompass the ability to understand, learn, and implement basic technologies to perform tasks;
- Quickly adapting to new technology and computer software is an essential skill in a rapidly advancing society;
- Technology such as basic word processing, social media tools, presentation software, spreadsheets, and document management tools are all commonly used in most workplace settings.

Thinking Skills

Critical Thinking:
- The ability to analyze, contextualize, make connections to, and reflect on information to create, evaluate, and find deeper meaning;
- Thinking effectively and providing evidence to support ideas are essential to reaching well-informed conclusions;
- Critical thinking is used to synthesize and organize information from a variety of sources, perspectives, and frameworks in order to identify key concepts, ideas, and assumptions.
Creative Problem Solving
- Identifying a problem, to which creative solutions may be explored, evaluated, and implemented;
- Creative problem solving involves looking at problems from multiple perspectives in order to generate innovative solutions that are quickly adaptable to adjust to shifting requirements.
Numeracy
- Numeracy refers to the ability to work with basic numbers, identify possible required measurements, and draw conclusions from numerical information;
- A basic understanding of numbers can be used to translate numerical data into meaningful and usable information;
- Numeracy skills include the ability to analyze, manipulate, and draw conclusions from numerical or statistical data, formulating estimations and verifying calculation accuracy, as well as creating, reading, and interpreting graphs and tables.

Personal Skills

Positive Attitude and Initiative:
- To have a positive attitude and display initiative means striving to be positive in your outlook on life and work while seeking new ideas, solutions, and opportunities that instill a communal sense of pride, purpose, and positive growth.
- Positive attitudes and initiative involves showing interest and effort in your completed work and demonstrating a readiness to learn, try new things, and improve professional performance.
Self-Management:
- Taking responsibility for being productive in an academic and work environment;
- Taking ownership over necessary learning, actions, and productivity helps with personal progress and confidence in developed skills;
- Self-management means planning ahead and managing time, money, and other resources in order to achieve goals, as well as cultivating an ability to identify personal strengths and weaknesses that provide opportunities for learning and self-development.
Resilience and Effective Coping:
- Allowing the use of healthy strategies for coping with stress and change, and grants the ability to learn and grow from challenges and setbacks;
- Finding healthy ways to cope with stress and failure result in the ability to gain valuable experience from all sources, not just success;
- Developing resilience and effective coping strategies will help manage setbacks, stress, and emotions in professional and personal settings.

Transferable Skills Chart

Source: https://students.carleton.ca/degree-to-future/know-your-skills/

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