A skill is the ability to do something well. The skills you have learned during your life are known as your “skillset”.

There are many different types of skills, but they can generally be split into transferable (also known as “general” or “soft”) skills and job specific (also known as “hard”) skills.

Transferable skills are skills that are useful in many different areas of life and work. For example, being punctual and reliable are both important skills to have whether we want to be a good family member, a good friend, a good student, or a good employee. Another example could be good communication skills because we all need to communicate with other people in all aspects of life.

Everybody has gained transferable skills from previous experience, even if you can’t think of any straight away.

Other examples of transferable skills are:

• Teamwork

• Time management

• Problem-solving

• Listening

• IT skills

• Managing a household

• Caring (e.g. for family members)

Job-specific skills are skills that enable you to do a certain job very well but that are not needed in other areas of life. For example, a construction worker might be very good at mixing cement.

Other examples of job-specific skills include:

• Coding

• Cutting hair

• Video production

• Using online databases

• Using a cashier till

It can feel strange to talk about your skills. You may even feel like you don’t have any skills to offer a potential employer. However, everybody has something to offer.

For example, by moving to and resettling in a new country, you have shown flexibility, determination, and resilience – all of which are very useful skills. If you have children, you will have used skills like time management, communication and, of course, childcare. It is very likely that you have many other skills, which will come clear after your Employment Adviser has helped you do a skills audit.

In a skills audit, your Employment Adviser will help you explore and record your existing skills, qualifications, and experience. This will usually be carried out in your first meeting.

A skills audit will give you a detailed record of your past, which can help you develop your career action plan. Your Employment Adviser can also help get your qualifications recognised in the UK by sending the relevant documents to UK ENIC, an organisation that compares foreign qualifications with UK ones. Your skills audit can also help with your CV and can make it easier to decide which jobs you might want to apply for now or in the future.

A useful way to talk about your skills is the STAR method. This is a way of telling a short story for each individual skill to demonstrate that you have successfully done it before.

You can use the STAR method in job applications, cover letters, and at interviews, so it is well worth learning.

Situation
Provide the context. Where were you? What were you doing?

Task
Outline the relevant task. What exactly did you have to do?

Action
Talk about how you approached the task. How did you make sure you did it well?

Result
What was the result of your action? How did you know you were successful?

Whenever you are asked to talk about your skills, remember to use this structure. For instance, if you are asked to give an example of a time you demonstrated good customer service skills, you could say:

Situation:
When I was working as a Customer Service Assistant at a local shop in Syria, a customer bought a top from the shop which had a small rip in the sleeve.

Task:
I asked the customer whether she would like a new item or if she would be happy for me to repair the original item. She said that it would be fine for me to repair the sleeve.

Action:
I took the item of clothing from her and asked her to come back in half an hour. I then used the sewing machine to fix the rip in the sleeve.

Result:
When the customer came back to collect her top, she was very happy with the repaired sleeve. She thanked me for solving the problem and said she would come back the next week to buy more clothes.

As this example shows, the STAR technique gives a full picture and allows you to discuss your customer service experience in an easy way.