Quick Overview
Transferable skills are abilities you can carry from one job or industry to another—covering how you work, solve problems, and collaborate. They matter whether you’re changing careers, re-entering the workforce, or aiming for a promotion. Employers in the UK increasingly prioritise these skills over direct experience, making them essential for career mobility.
This guide covers:
✅ What transferable skills are and why they matter in career changes
✅ The top 10 transferable skills (personal and professional) employers seek
✅ Real examples of how to demonstrate these skills in CVs, cover letters, and interviews
✅ Tips on showcasing them using the STAR method in job applications
✅ Why transferable skills are more valuable than ever in today’s job market
✅ Practical ways to improve and build these skills for long-term career growth
Jumping jobs or even changing career paths comes with its own set of fears—especially if you’re anxious about your Personal and Professional skills being relevant in a different position. The positive takeaway? There is a good chance that you own a set of transferable skills that can aid your success in landing several other jobs.
Whether it’s a change from retail to an administration role, from teaching to marketing, or just embracing a new role, transferable skills are what help you. These skills are personal or professional capabilities that are not limited to a specific title. Rather, they are a reflection of your work processes, problem-solving techniques, communication skills, and collaboration.
This is a special blog post where we uncover and explain 10 major transferable skills, categorising them into personal (soft) and professional (harder, work-based) skills. We will demonstrate how to showcase them in CVs, cover letters, and interviews and approach your skills with determination and positive clarity, confidence in abundance.
What Are Transferable Skills?
These are qualities and abilities you can transfer from one role, profession, or experience to another. Usually, they are not specific to a certain job, which is very advantageous if you are:
- Changing careers
- Entering the workforce for the very first time
- Coming back after a break from work
- Seeking a promotion or a leadership position
The most powerful CVs and interviews not only claim to have these skills but also demonstrate how these skills have been and how they will be utilised in the future.
1. Communication (Personal Skill)
Like any other customer service, project management, teaching, or tech position, being in the customer service field requires expressing clear ideas, listening, and changing your message for different audiences.
Why it matters:
These are a few of the areas that lead to effectiveness in today’s organisations. Poor communication involves the surface and underlying processes being out of sync in some crucial way, which then leads to misunderstandings, mistakes, and missed timelines. On the other hand, strong communication leads to engagement and productivity, which builds trust.
How to Show it:
Caveats to showing communication include, “Regularly explained complex information to non-technical clients and by doing that, assuring them they felt confident about their selection.”
2. Teamwork: (Personal Skill)
Very few roles are completely self-sufficient. Employees need people who are able to collaborate, work in a team, and who can conflict resolve and support other team members’ work for a common goal.
Why it matters:
Great individuals doing some work may be significantly outperformed by a great team. The ability to cooperate makes or breaks you, as your ability to work with others significantly drives the success.
How to illustrate this:
“Collaborated with various teams on a project that boosted engagement by 35% while coordinating all role-dependent activities.”
3. Problem-Solving (Professional Skill)
Every job has its problems. The ability to think critically, analyse, and provide solutions is essential, no matter the field.
Why it matters:
Problem-solvers help to improve procedures and processes, manage and reduce costs, and proactively manage issues.
How to show it:
“Developed and implemented a new solution to a recurring scheduling issue that reduced conflict by 70%.”
4. Time Management (Personal Skill)
Whether you are managing deadlines, multiple projects, or shifts, time management is a sign of maturity and reliability.
Why it matters:
Missed deadlines have tangible costs, reputational damage, and loss of trust. Effective time management enables consistent performance.
How to show it:
“Achieved all deadlines while balancing part-time employment with volunteering and university coursework.”
5. Adaptability (Personal Skill)
Staying current is essential in today’s world. Employers want to hire and retain personnel who can change with new technology, tools, positions, or other changes without loss of productivity.
Why it matters:
Businesses and entire industries have started to change at an alarming speed. Adaptable employees perform well in chaotic or rapidly changing situations.
How to illustrate it:
“Quickly adapted to remote work during the pandemic, learned new software, and kept team communication active.”
6. Leadership (Professional Skill)
Leadership is not limited to stereotypes such as bosses. It is also taking initiative, being accountable, and helping others work towards goals as a group, which can be done formally or informally.
Why it matters:
Leaders, as the name suggests, influence performance, champion others, and tackle problems.
How to illustrate it:
“Mentored two new hires, helping acclimatise and increasing productivity within their first month.”
7. Attention to Detail (Personal Skill)
Precision is key in data, design, finance, healthcare, or safety. Being careful and thorough tends to decrease mistakes and increase the quality.
Why it matters:
Your team and your clients need protection, and one mistake can be magnified; therefore, Attention to detail is a necessity.
How to illustrate it:
“Marketing content was proofread, and irrelevant data was corrected that could have damaged the reputation.”
8. Digital Literacy (Professional Skill)
In any field, you will be using digital tools such as emails, databases, spreadsheets, CRMs, or content platforms. Familiarity with technology is a prerequisite.
Why it matters:
Central to any business activities are digital tools. Your digital literacy makes you smarter, faster, and easier to train.
In a previous position, I reduced the admin workload by 3 hours a week by automating data entry processes. This was done using Excel.
9. Emotional Intelligence (Personal Skill)
Leading, serving customers, providing healthcare, or functioning in a team all require Emotional Intelligence. This is the ability to understand, manage and express emotions—one’s own and others.
Why it matters:
Employees with Emotional Intelligence tend to perform better in the management of stress, conflict, and the overall workplace atmosphere.
How to show it:
Calmly resolving conflicts, as in “Helped de-escalate a heated situation between two team members, facilitating a calm resolution.”
10. Initiative (Professional Skill)
Savvy employers want self-starters—people who, without waiting for permission, do what needs to be done. Taking initiative demonstrates engagement in the company and that an employee is a proactive visionary.
Why it matters:
Proactivity is crucial. It drives innovation and growth, and it alleviates management’s workload.
How to show it:
Proactive Initiatives can be demonstrated as: “Proposed a customer feedback form, analysed the results, and applied the insights to enhance the service processes.”
How to Highlight Transferable Skills on Your CV and Cover Letter
Now, I will outline details on how to effectively make use of these skills.
On Your CV:
You may list relevant skills under a “Key Skills” section. Make use of short phrases, and by using a short paragraph under every job or role, demonstrate how you effectively utilised the skills.
Sample:
“Worked with the marketing and sales departments to execute a multi-channel marketing campaign which applies considerable teamwork, organisational skills, and project coordination skills.”
In Your Cover Letter:
Select two to three skills which the potential employer considers relevant and explain why those skills are important, along with providing a relevant story which showcases them.
Example:
“A restructuring of the organisation put my adaptive skills to the test. I spearheaded the effort to understand the new systems and trained my peers, ensuring timely service delivery.”
In Interviews:
Explain how you applied your transferable skills to real-life situations using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result) method.
Interview Question: “Describe a situation where you managed competing priorities.”
Response: “At my previous job as a receptionist, I answered telephone calls, managed the front office, and even coordinated the manager’s calendar along with handling guest appointments. I developed a daily checklist that I followed, and it improved the error rate in bookings by nearly half.”
Why These Skills Matter More Today Than Ever
In the UK and anywhere else in the world, employers have started looking for transferable skills more than in the past, particularly in:
- A flexible and remote work arrangement
- Industries with a customer focus
- Emerging areas like digital marketing, care, and administration
- Entry-level and apprenticeship opportunities
If you’re changing jobs, facing redundancy, or starting a new role after a long period of inactivity, focusing on these skills gives you an edge.
Start Improving These Personal and Professional Skills Today
The best part is, these skills can be taught.
Through reflection, practical work, and online classes, you can enhance your verbal and non-verbal skills, instructional skills, ability to lead, and more. Whether it’s an entry-level position or something more, starting with a strategic approach to building skills is a no-brainer.
Taking one of our online courses will equip you with skills that will boost your confidence and employability while also making you more attractive to employers.
Conclusion
A successful and flexible career path begins with having a set of transferable skills. Understanding and honing your personal and professional strengths allows for seamless mobility between roles, industries, and career opportunities.
If you are pondering your next step, instead of asking, “Am I qualified?” consider, “What skills do I bring and how can I prove them?”
The right transferable skills make opportunities much closer than you think.
Do you want to build your career with skills that open doors for you?
Enrol in our career-ready courses today. Start developing the transferable skills that every employer seeks.