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Succeed in the workplace
Succeed in the workplace

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3 What do they mean?

View the document ‘Skills that employers want and how they can be developed’ in the Resource pack [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . This shows the types of skills employers may want, the way they might describe them, and provides an opportunity to illustrate how you might develop these through work, education or your interests. It will also act as a useful tool when completing a job application.

You will see from this that there are four clusters of skills

  • self-reliance
  • people skills
  • general skills
  • specialist skills.

The middle column details specific skills or qualities, and lists the words used to describe them. Of course, different employers might mean different things by them. So, ask questions if you can within your network or the named contact for the job advert.

Column 3 gives examples of how you might have already developed or be able to develop some of these generic skills. The examples could act as prompts for you when completing a job advert.

The next activity has some similarities with the approach you took in Week 2 when you considered your experiences, the abilities you developed from them and evidence for these. The next step is to learn to do this in relation to a specific job and the next activity gives you this opportunity.

Activity 3 Showing how you meet the job requirements

Timing: Allow approximately 15 minutes

Revisit the advert you considered in Activity 2.

Write down the six most important characteristics and requirements of the job, leaving space to note down evidence of your suitability against each point. Remember to do this in your notebook.

You might find it useful to look back at your notes from Week 2.

Comment

Think back to the first week of the course – do you feel more confident that you can match the requirements in a job advert to your abilities and also show an employer how your past experience fits with their needs?

Once you’ve decided that a job advert is relevant to you, then the next step is to present yourself to the employer for the vacancy. In the next section you consider how to strengthen your new skills with job applications still further.