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Employers are looking for graduates who can quickly fit in to their organization and produce added value for their company.  The graduate who is flexible and can adapt easily is most likely to achieve success both for the company and for themselves.  Transferable skills (i.e.. those skills which can be applied in a variety of different contexts) are highly valued by employers.

What are Transferable Skills?

There is no definitive list of transferable skills; they are simply skills learned in one context that are useful in another.  These skills are therefore defined as a mean a set of generic skills which individuals need in order to be effective members of a flexible, adaptable and competitive work force and for lifelong learning. 

The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) was appointed by the Secretary of Labor to determine the skills our young people need to succeed in the world of work.  The Commission's fundamental purpose is to encourage a high-performance economy characterized by high skill, high wage employment.

According to the report, a high-performance workplace requires workers who have a solid foundation in the basic literacy and computational skills, in the thinking skills necessary to put
knowledge to work, and in the personal qualities that make workers dedicated and trustworthy.

High-performance workplaces also require other competencies:  the ability to manage resources, to work amicably and productively with others, to acquire and use information, to master complex systems, and to work with a variety of technologies.

SCANS 2000 outlines both "fundamental skills" and "workplace competencies"

Basic Skills:

Reads, writes, performs arithmetic and mathematical operations, listens and speaks

• Reading locates, understands, and interprets written information in prose and in documents such as manuals, graphs, and schedules 
• Writing communicates thoughts, ideas, information, and messages in writing; and creates documents such as letters, directions, manuals, reports, graphs, and flow charts 
• Arithmetic/Mathematics performs basic computations and approaches practical problems by choosing appropriately from a variety of mathematical techniques
• Listening receives, attends to, interprets, and responds to verbal messages and other cues 
• Speaking organizes ideas and communicates orally.

Thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes, knows how to learn, and reasons
 

• Creative Thinking generates new ideas 
• Decision Making specifies goals and constraints, generates alternatives, considers risks, and evaluates and chooses best alternative 
• Problem Solving recognizes problems and devises and implements plan of action 
• Seeing Things in the Mind's Eye organizes, and processes symbols, pictures, graphs, objects, and other information 
• Knowing How to Learn, has  efficient learning techniques to acquire and apply new knowledge and skills 
• Reasoning--discovers a rule or principle underlying the relationship between two or objects and applies it when solving a problem

Displays responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity and honesty

• Responsibility--exerts a high level of effort and perseveres towards goal attainment 
• Self-Esteem--believes in own self-worth and maintains a positive view of self 
• Sociability-demonstrates understanding, friendliness, adaptability, empathy, and 
• Self-Management--assesses self accurately, sets personal goals, monitors progress, and exhibits self-control 
• Integrity/Honesty--chooses ethical courses of action

Resources:

Identifies, organizes, plans, and allocates resources

• Time--Selects goal-relevant activities, ranks them, allocates time, and prepares and follows schedules 
•  Money--Uses or prepares budgets, makes forecasts, keeps records, and makes adjustments to meet objectives 
• Material and Facilities--Acquires, stores, allocates, and uses materials or space efficiently 
• Human Resources--Assesses skills and distributes work accordingly, evaluates performance and provides feedback

Works with others

• Participates as Member of a Team--contributes to group effort 
• Teaches Others New Skills 
• Serves Clients/Customers--works to satisfy customers' expectations 
• Exercises Leadership--communicates ideas to justify position, persuades and convinces others, responsibly challenges existing procedures and policies 
• Negotiates--works toward agreements involving exchange of resources, resolves divergent interests 
• Works with Diversity--works well with men and women from diverse backgrounds

Acquires and uses information

• Acquires and Evaluates Information 
• Organizes and Maintains Information 
• Interprets and Communicates Information 
• Uses Computers to Process Information

Understands complex inter-relationships

• Understands Systems--knows how social, organizational, and technological systems work and operates effectively with them 
• Monitors and Corrects Performance--distinguishes trends, predicts impacts on systems operations, diagnoses deviations in systems' performance and corrects malfunctions 
• Improves or Designs Systems--suggests modifications to existing systems and develops new or alternative systems to improve performance

Works with a variety of technologies

• Selects Technology--chooses procedures, tools or equipment including computers and related technologies 
• Applies Technology to Task--understands overall intent and proper procedures for setup and operation of equipment 
• Maintains and Troubleshoots Equipment--Prevents, identifies, or solves problems with equipment, including computers and other technologies

Links to More Information

Transferable Skill Survey
http://www.d.umn.edu/student/loon/car/self/career_transfer_survey.html

SCANS

21st Century Skills
http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/matrix.htm

John Hopkins University SCANS
http://www.scans.jhu.edu/NS/HTML/Map.htm