Developing Transferable Skills For Your Career Success

CV updated in the light of your Foundation Degree and current work commitments

Question:

Produce a Personal Development Portfolio which will include a:

1. Formal report which identifies the transferable skills you have developed across your academic studies, personal life and the workplace which will assist you in your future career, with an emphasis upon the skills covered during lectures.

2. Personal development learning log and action plan for further skills development which covers the next 12 months (using the templates supplied).

3. CV updated in the light of your Foundation Degree and current work commitments.

Transferable skills also known as “Employment skills” are the skills that one can take himself/herself from one job to another, from one situation to another. The skills below are important to employers. These skills are learned at home, at school, or in a sports team and then these skills are transmitted into to a career.  Transferable skills are developed and used in all quarters of a human life.  Developing these transferable skills can help in being successful in ones career, as well as in personal life (home, sports, school and friendships).

These skills are vital to each and every employer no matter what career one chooses. Employers all around the World believe employment skills as imperative as technical skills or job-specific skills.  It is because most working people will make many career transformations throughout their lifetime, having these skills will make the distinction between getting the promotion or not, getting the pay increase or not and getting the work or not (Silberman, 1996).

Teamwork Skills – Teamwork is frequently a very critical part of any business, as it is often essential for employees to work together, attempting their best in any situation. The meaning of teamwork is that people will try to work together, utilizing their person skills and giving constructive feedback, in spite of any personal difference amid individuals.

To work productively in a group, team members need to be able to converse comprehensible on emotional and logical levels. Thus, we can say that communication skills are skills that are further required to develop teamwork skills, as they help can explicating the ideas, articulating feelings in a non-threatening and open way, listening warily to others, sensing what others think, imitate on the behavior and communications of the group. Working in sales I am required to communicate with different people, in class also there are pupils from different backgrounds, all this and interaction from my lie have helped me in developing my effective communication skills which are useful in each and every job.

Presently my work as “Sales Assistant” for a private firm has helped me in developing the skills that are required in teamwork, they are – Trust and self-disclosure, Openness, Respect and support. In class and at work both we are required to form groups to discuss about a particular problems, which further has helped me in developing skills like taking responsibility and accountability, giving Constructive Feedback, in developing Problem solving skills, Managing, organizing and Knowledge of roles (Reynolds, 1994). These all the skills that team work helps us in understanding and developing, these skills are explained below in detail –

The Importance of Transferable Skills or Employment Skills

1. Taking liability and responsibility: Working in group has taught me to take responsibility of my actions. In groups, members consent on what all is to be done and who will do what. Each group member then decides what he or she will do and then takes accountability for completing the assigned task. This way each group member can be held responsible for his own tasks, and not for any other task.

2. Positive Feedback: Working in group has also taught me to receive and give feedback about different group proposals. Providing positive feedback needs focusing on proposals and ideas, instead of the person for whose idea feedback needs to be given, being as affirmative as feasible and giving ideas for enhancement. Getting feedback needs paying attention, asking for explanation if the remark is not clear, and being acceptable for modification (Levin and Kent, 2001).

3. Problem solving skills: Group members of the group help the group to make and use strategies that are related to the group goals. Working in groups has taught me to make it possible to take group decision and work effectively with conflict. In intense conditions, we know when to take advice from the professor and seniors (Levin, 2002).

4. Organization and management: Working in groups has taught me to arrange and administer tasks, to run a meeting and to manage time. For example, while working in a team we make sure that everybody has a chance to involve himself, meeting goals are known and a schedule is made and pursued.

As stated above, teamwork skills are very vital for working in each and every organization, so team work skills developed by me across my personal life, academic studies and the work place will also assist me in my career which I want to make in aviation industry.

Time management is also a skill which I am trying to develop continuously, as I think I lack in certain aspects of Time Management (Breslow, 1998).

“Time management” is the way by which one systematizes and maps how long he spends on particular tasks. Time management is a skill that I have developed across my personal life, academic studies and the work place. Time management is a skill which each and every individual uses in his daily routine life. There is a particular time set for doing each and every task in our personal life, there are deadline for submitting an assignment, there is particular period of time only which we get for studying for each and every exam, at work also we are given deadline for each and every task, all this helps us in developing our Time Management skills (Bosworth, 1994).

Some benefits of time management are –

• Better efficiency and competence.
• An enhanced expert repute.
• Less pressure.
• Greater than before chances for progression.
• Better chances to attain significant career and life goals.

It is because of the above mentioned benefits of time management that I am trying to improve my time management skills by following the below mentioned tips –

1. Making a list – Of late I have started to make list o each and every task that I have to perform. You may also set reminders on your computer and phone to remind you of the tasks that you have to perform. One of the most significant things about making a list is to ensure that the list is achievable. While making list I always prioritize tasks and work accordingly. I divide my list in three parts— work, personal and home.

Developing Teamwork Skills

2. Setting deadlines –I set a deadlines and try my best to stick to them and not push them. I try to set my deadline a few days prior to the task that actually has to be done. This lets you to still get the task done yet if additional things will get in the line.

3. Stop multi-tasking – I am trying my best to stop multi-tasking, as the truth is that our minds work healthier when we are really proficient to concentrate and focus on one thing at a time.

4. Delegate responsibilities – Whenever we work in a group I try to delegate the responsibilities and divide the task, this results in completion of the task on time as each member of the group has to look after his or her own task.

5. Using my downtime – I have started using my downtime, whenever I am waiting in the traffic or waiting in a dentist’s clinic I use this time to make and prioritize my list and plan according.

6. Rewarding myself – Whenever I achieve the task that I had assigned to myself I try to reward myself in my own way. I make sure that the reward which I chose is health and does not put my time management plan further backwards.

I am sure that developing my time management skills will make my future jobs more enjoyable and rewarding.

Customer service is the prerequisite of service to consumers prior to, through and following a purchase. Customer service can take the shape of a telephonic call, a face to face communication, and self-service schemes. Customer service is an enormously vital part of preserving current client relations that are helpful to ongoing revenue. Following combination of skills is needed to develop customer service efficiently (Hills,, 2001).

Patience is not only significant for handling customers, who habitually want help when they are mystified and aggravated, but patience is also vital for business at large. 

The skill to actually pay attention to consumers is critical for giving immense service for a number of motives. Not only is it significant to notice each and every individual consumer communication, but it is also vital to be watchful and helpful to the feedback that is received.

While communicating with the customer you need to be careful about how your various communication habits are interpreted by the customers.

It is very important to know your product; this does not mean that you have to know each and every technical detail of the product, but you should know enough to help the customers when they face problems related to product.

Your language is a very significant part of affiliation, and people (particularly consumers) make view about your company based on what kind of language you use.

There are times when you will not just be able to help the customer; the solution in this kind of problem is to just take help of another person from service team.

There will be times when you neither won’t be able to see the customer, nor will be able to hear his voice; in such situations it becomes extremely important for you to understand behavior psychology of the customer and act accordingly (Ciotti, 2013).

To develop your customer service skills effectively you need to have some leadership on influence so that you can encourage concerned consumers that your product is good for them.

An immense work ethic and a readiness to do what is required to be done is a main skill when giving the best service.11. Readiness to LearnAn employee should always have a willingness to learn, this skill can help a long way in career.The above mentioned skills are the skills that combine to form customer service skills, while working as a sales assistant, I have to deal with a lot of customers which has helped me in developing my customer service skills and these skills will also be useful in my next job where I want to work as a Traffic Control Officer.

With time I have also developed supervisory skills, these skills I have developed while working in my present company where sometimes I am required to supervise working of my subordinates, supervising small groups in schools and sometimes in school sports team have also helped me in developing my supervisory skills (Collin, 2012).

From this we can say that team work skills, time management, communication skills, customer service skills and supervisory skills are some off the skills that I have developed through my lifetime – while playing in sports team, while in school and while at work. These are the skills that will be helpful for me to work in my next organization.

References

Bosworth, K., 1994. Developing Collaborative Skills in College Students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 Breslow, L., 1998. Teaching Teamwork Skills, Part 2. Teach Talk, X, 5. 

Ciotti, G., 2013. 15 Customer Service Skills.[Accessed on January 2015]

Collin, C., 2012. Customer Service. Available on [Accessed on January 2015]

Hills, H., 2001. Team-Based Learning. Burlington, VT: Gower.

Levin, P., 2002. Teamwork tutoring: Helping students working on group projects to develop teamwork skills. 

Levin, P., and Kent, I. 2001. Draft manual on teamwork tutoring.

Reynolds, M., 1994. Groupwork in Education and Training. London: Kogan Page.

Silberman, M., 1996. Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject. Boston.