CORE Strenghten Your Life Skills: For Teenagers and Young Adults – English
Unit 2 – The professional fields: Step 3
Task 1
Reading the job introduction
Every job or profession requires certain Job-Specific Skills (or Hard Skills) and Transferable Skills (or Soft Skills). Job-specific skills are those abilities that allow a candidate for employment to adequately fulfill a particular job function. Some skills are attained by attending school or training programs. Others can be acquired through experiential learning on the job. The skills that are needed for a specific job are known as a skill set.
When hiring, employers will usually include the required skill set for the job in the job posting. The applicants who most closely match the required skills will have the best chance of being selected for a job interview.
Read the following examples of job-specific skills, tips for identifying job-specific skills, and advice on how to match your skills and experience with those required for a job.
Task 2
Making a list
- Explore the jobs which are most appealing to you and find out which competences they require.
- Use the internet to research applicable job descriptions and further information.
- Make a list on a sheet of paper with two columns: job-specific skills and transferable skills.
- Think of what you must learn to acquire these skills and mark them with an (x).
Example:
Job Title: [Your text]
Job-Specific Skills: [Your text]
Transferable Skills: [Your text]
Task 3
Discussing the required skills
Find a partner and present your list.
- Together with your partner discuss which other skills are needed for your chosen jobs.
- Go back to «Task 2» and correct the listed skills if necessary.
Task 4
Sharing your thoughts!
- Share the results of your discussion with the whole group.
- If possible, present a display of your results to the class. Do you see any similarities?
- Finally, share your insights about the needed «Job-Specific Skills» and «Transferable Skills» for your chosen job in a post. Read other postings and make comments regarding if you would add other skills or a skill is not needed for the posted job.