Transferable skills

With major employers slashing jobs in aviation, telecoms, manufacturing and finance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that no job is safe. It’s time to become chameleon-like in your approach to the job market.

If your sector is in decline, or if you fancy a change of direction, pinpointing your transferable skills can help you move across job titles and into new industry sectors. After all, despite the gloomy headlines many UK employers are actively recruiting.

What are transferable skills?

Transferable skills can be specifically job-related, technical or general skills that can be applied to a variety of jobs in a number of industries. Many employers look at more than just job titles, preferring to concentrate on a candidate’s relevant skills and experience.

Generic skills high on employers’ wish lists include IT, numeracy and languages. Other general skills include:

• Communication
• Research and planning
• Human relations
• Organisation, management and leadership
• The job market

While some sectors have been hit by redundancies, others are keen to recruit. There are jobs for teachers, nurses, secretaries and construction staff. Many retailers and leisure companies are also actively recruiting.

Even within sectors where there are job losses, there are often pockets of opportunity. For example, some high-tech companies may not be currently hiring IT staff but there are opportunities within the IT departments of many major companies. link to Career News/ jobs gloom, or jobs boom]

Taking responsibility for your skills

Andy Westwood, deputy director of policy at workplace campaigning body the Industrial Society, suggests taking responsibility for your working future. ‘Individuals need to look at their set of skills and ask, ‘what do I need to stay in work?’ It’s all about individual motivation. If, for example, someone has been working in manufacturing for a long time, they may choose to undertake some IT training. Self determination is at the heart of lifelong learning,’ he says.

Transferring across sectors

Retail

‘Retail has a turnover of up to 50 per cent a year,’ says John Dean, chief executive of the British Shops and Stores Association. ‘This means there are a huge number of opportunities for people from various sectors, particularly on the shop floor.’ The sector is full of opportunities for people with customer-facing skills.

Airline cabin crew would be ideally suited to retail work, as would people from manufacturing with sales experience. Financial services team leaders could be equally effective in managing teams within a retail environment. In the run-up to Christmas, most retailers are set to recruit.

Management

General management skills are highly desirable, so good managers can often transfer between sectors. The key is leadership, and businesses across the board are on the hunt for managers with proven leadership qualities.

Charities

Charity fundraisers are scarce and could make a good choice for those hit by an advertising recession. Any skills gained in advertising, marketing, PR and communications are highly appropriate for this type of work.

It can pay to think laterally regarding movement across sectors. There is, for example, a dire shortage of trust fundraisers, who raise money from wealthy trusts formed by rich families and companies. According to Stephen Perrett, managing director of charity recruitment agency Execucare, the job requires good business skills, precise communication, analytical skills, plus the ability to deal with large complex organisations and pull together people of different disciplines. It may not sound obvious but a chartered engineer would have these skills.

Finding a new job

Research different sectors and see what opportunities are out there by visiting job sites such as totaljobs.com, which regularly features 60,000 vacancies. Alternatively, recruitment agencies have a good overview of sectors and will be able to let you know if you have the right transferable skills to move over and what additional training you might need.

Marketing your CV for a change of career

Your CV and covering letter should present your experience in a way that is applicable to the job you’re looking for. So if you’re seeking a career change it is advisable to move away from a chronological CV format and instead lead with bullet points highlighting relevant core skills.

‘Ensure that your covering letter sounds positive about previous work experiences and keen for new challenges,’ says the author of Creating a Successful CV, Simon Howard.