Employability skills are highly sought after by organisations of all types, be they public or private sector, academic researchers or business, government or non-governmental organisations. You may also hear them described as:
- ‘transferable’ or ‘workplace’ skills that are useful in nearly all roles and all organisations; or
- ‘durable’: skills which will continue to be valuable even as technical skills, tools and knowledge evolve or become outdated.
It takes time and hands-on experience to develop and hone employability skills effectively. Employability skills encompass both how you use what you know to generate ideas, develop and deliver services and products, and how you work effectively with others to build alignment, seek consensus and implement change or deliver results. But they are rarely formally taught and quite hard to pin down in terms of clear learning milestones and measurable outcomes.
We recommend that you consider your current employability skills, and look for opportunities to improve them while at Oxford. You will be building some of these skills through your academic work, and it is possible to ‘develop the mindset’ by reading, through online research and networking. You can also enhance your knowledge, understanding and qualifications through Online and Self-Directed Skills Development. However, employers will seek evidence of how you have developed your skills in an applied, real-world setting. To this end it is important to seek hands-on experience that can be used to provide clear examples of how you have used these skills and strengthen your case with evidence of the quality and impact of your contributions.
The Careers Service offers lots of ideas for developing your employability skills within and outside the University setting. These include our own employability programmes as well becoming involved with student societies, volunteering and other extra-curricular activities. The skill-specific sections above offer a variety of ideas to stimulate your thinking and to help you identify ways you might continue to broaden your skills and experience.
