What is the difference between employability and personal skills

Identify and value your employability skills. While at university: Make the most of opportunities within your studies to develop employability skills, eg, through group project work, presentations, student exchange programs, internship subjects, industry and community project units and mentoring programs.

Get involved in extracurricular activities such as clubs and societies , sport , public speaking, special interest groups, or community activities, as these experiences will also provide you with evidence of skills for your job applications.

Gain work experience through internships and vacation work , voluntary work for not-for-profit organisations, casual work and paid part-time work relevant to your field where possible.

Maintain a record or portfolio of your work experiences, volunteering roles, and activities. Make a note of skills gained and qualities demonstrated. Gather evidence of achievements and outcomes, including positive comments made by supervisers, peers and customers, and include these in your portfolio. Why identify your employability skills?

Taking the time to identify your employability skills can help you to: identify skill gaps and plan your skill development to build a portfolio of skills valued by employers recognise the value of your skills and build self-confidence write effective job applications including resumes , cover letters and selection criteria responses perform well in behavioural interview situations by clearly articulating skills you can bring to the job. How to spot your employability skills 1.

Examples of employability skills Skills sought by graduate employers include teamwork, communication, planning and organising, problem solving, and so forth. Communication skills. Teamwork skills. Problem-solving skills. Initiative and enterprise skills. Planning and organisational skills. Learning skills. Technology skills. Self-management skills.

Career skills workshops Register via Sydney CareerHub. Skills assessment quizzes Sydney Careers Toolkit. Depending on the position you are applying for, you may need a certain set of sub-skills to solve problems effectively, including research, analysis and decision-making. Being able to organize and plan effectively is important because it helps you and your employer save time, effort and money by improving workflow.

It ensures that assignments and projects are completed on time and prevents confusion and errors that can be costly to the company. To be a good organizer and planner, you should be able to identify tasks, prioritize them, create schedules for them and complete them on time. If you are in a leadership position, you need to develop systematic processes for achieving goals and delegating tasks appropriately.

You can develop organizational and planning skills by:. Taking initiative means recognizing a problem and solving it, preparing for a potential crisis by taking preemptive action, taking advantage of opportunities and having a positive attitude.

It shows that you can think for yourself and take the necessary actions without being instructed to do so. As a person with initiative, you have a strong drive to succeed and a desire to keep improving yourself through continuous learning, which makes you valuable to any organization.

Employers consider initiative one of the key employability skills and value employees who possess self-motivation to complete tasks without being asked.

The flexibility and courage of such employees can push organizations to innovate and achieve a competitive edge. Related: Character Traits: Definition and Examples. Self-management refers to the ability to perform job duties satisfactorily with little or no supervision. For higher-level employees, it also means delegating tasks to ensure you complete them on time. Additionally, self-managed employees can motivate themselves to deliver solid work performance consistently.

If you have good self-management skills, you can help your supervisor or manager save time and effort simply because you need minimal guidance and assistance from them. Also, being a self-motivated person means you may be less likely to have productivity issues. These abilities can make you an appealing candidate to most employers. Related: How to Get Motivated at Work.

Employers look for good leaders because they can benefit organizations in many ways. As a leader, you play an important role in ensuring that your team shares the same vision as the company and works in unison with other teams and departments to achieve a common goal. Additionally, you can develop strategies for achieving objectives, keep your team constantly motivated and monitor work performance to produce better results for the company.

Leadership skills are important at every level. If you are seeking a managerial position, you need to be a good leader to motivate your team members. You can also benefit from having some leadership ability in entry-level positions because it may help you stand out and climb the ranks faster. You can show leadership by directing and motivating your coworkers, setting objectives and goals for your team, improving work practices and coaching your colleagues.

Having strong learning skills means understanding new concepts and methods quickly, taking on new tasks, adapting to change and having the tendency to improve your knowledge and skills continually. Employees who have good learning skills may help employers fill challenging roles more quickly and reduce the cost of staff training.

Good learners are especially desirable to companies that are at the forefront of innovation because they can help transition to new methods and technologies more smoothly.

Companies search for candidates with technical skills to help them use the latest technology and stay ahead of their competitors. Depending on your job, the technology skills you need may vary greatly, from word processing and sending email to video editing and using programming languages. If you can grasp technology-related concepts and learn how to use new technologies quickly, you may be more attractive to employers.

It also, however, means being able to look around and see what needs doing—and then do it. This sounds simple, but it requires a wide range of skills, mostly personal rather than interpersonal.

First of all, doing what you say you will do means being organised , and managing your time effectively. You need to know how long things will take, and that you have the time to do them to the required standard.

You also need to be able to identify what to do first, so that if anything is missed, it is less important. Our page on time management explains how you can do this. Being reliable also means being trustworthy and conscientious. For example, this might mean not leaving work too often when things still need doing. Trustworthiness and conscientiousness are both parts of self-regulation or self-management , which in turn is an important part of emotional intelligence.

Self-regulation means that you have the self-discipline to do things that you may not want to do, but which you know are necessary.

The final element of being reliable is using your initiative to identify where work needs doing, and getting on and doing it. Daniel Goleman, who developed the concept of emotional intelligence, identified initiative as a key part of self-motivation. To develop your ability to use your initiative, you may find it helpful to work on some techniques for creative thinking , which are also helpful in addressing the final area: a willingness to learn.

A willingness to learn means being open to new ideas and experiences, and always looking to improve your skills and knowledge. Sometimes this is referred to as personal development , but that term is also used for a more formal process, of goal-setting, action and reflection. Whether you choose to make your learning process formal or informal, there is no question that the modern world requires all of us to continually update and revise our skills.

Change is a constant in most workplaces, and the most valuable employees are those who embrace personal change , and recognise that it offers more opportunities than threats. Employers generally want people who are resilient , adaptable and flexible—another key part of self-regulation and emotional intelligence.