Skills developed at work
Recognise the skills you have and relate them to your career plans
OU graduates tend to display a great communication style that generally comes with experience. They also tend to demonstrate a fantastic ability with customer service, which again links into that communication style because they have the experience and they know how to deal with situations, and typically for us they demonstrate a much greater degree of leadership and work ethic.
Charlie Leake, Enterprise Rent a Car
You should try to develop the skills which are essential for work, such as communicating effectively, interacting with people, being aware of the ways in which you learn, and managing your time effectively. Enhancing your capabilities in these areas can help you make the most of opportunities at work.
You may not recognise the wide range and high level of skills and abilities you have.
Identifying your skills
Note down all the jobs you have done.
- What did you learn from each one?
- What skills did you develop in these job roles?
Record your work and personal achievements
The Work and personal achievements form (RTF, 14KB) (completed example RTF, 24KB), helps you to think about your experience and provides an example of how you can start to identify the generic skills you have.
If you haven't already done so, use the second part of the Employability skills activity to relate your work skills to the skills valued by employers.
Continue with the career planning activities by moving on to look at Forward planning.
Need more help?
Contact a careers adviser if you'd like more help reviewing your skills and experiences.