Hi, and welcome to this B1 Business English lesson. Work through this at your own pace. There is no rush, and come back anytime.
- Warm up with a question about your own skills
- Read an article about transferable skills for the main idea and for detail
- Practise what you understood in the Reading Quiz
Warm-up: skills in unusual places
Before we start, here is something to think about. Pick a skill you use outside of work, maybe from a hobby, a sport, or running a home. Now ask yourself: have you ever used that same skill inside a job? Or the other way round?
For example, someone who organises a big family celebration every year is already using planning, budgeting and people skills, the exact same skills a project manager uses at work. That is what “transferable” means.
Before you read
Think about: What matters more to an employer, your job title or what you can actually do? Why?
transferable — able to be used in many different jobs
keyword — a word an employer searches for
to translate (your experience) — to describe your experience using different words
results — real things you did that show your value
Now read the article
Read the article below. The first time, read quickly and find the four steps the writer gives. Do not worry about words you do not know yet. You will read it again more slowly afterwards.
How to Show Your Transferable Skills When You Change Jobs
Every year, millions of people around the world change jobs. Some move to a different company. Others move to a completely different industry. If you want to make a big career change, you need to show employers that your skills can work in their world too. These are called transferable skills.
But how do you do this? Here are four steps that career experts recommend.
Step 1: Find out what employers want
Before you write anything about yourself, look at real job adverts in the industry you want to join. Read five or six adverts for similar roles. What words and phrases do you see again and again? Make a list of about ten keywords. These are the skills that employers in this field care about most.
Step 2: Match your skills to their words
Now look at your list. How many of these skills do you already have? You might be surprised. You probably have more than you think. The trick is to describe your skills using the same words the new industry uses. Every field has its own language. Your job is to translate your experience into words your new audience understands.
Career coach Amanda Augustine explains it simply: if you work in customer service but you want to move into marketing, do not say “I solved customer problems.” Say “I identified client needs and created solutions.” It is the same skill, just described differently.
Step 3: Prove it with real examples
Employers do not just want to read a list of skills. They want proof. When you describe your experience, add real details. Do not just say “I am good at communication.” Say what you actually did. For example: “I trained fifteen new staff members in our booking system, and all of them passed their first assessment.”
Numbers and specific results make your skills more believable.
Step 4: Be consistent
Use the same skill words everywhere: on your CV, on your LinkedIn profile, and when you introduce yourself in person. Career experts say that consistency is more important than originality. If an employer sees the same strengths again and again, they remember you.
Your job title tells people what you did. Your transferable skills, and the examples that prove them, tell people what you can do next.
Ideas adapted from University of Denver Career & Professional Development, “Highlighting Transferable Skills When Changing Industries” (career.du.edu). For further reading, see the original article.
Read 1 — the big picture
Write the four steps in your own words:
Step 1: ______________________________
Step 2: ______________________________
Step 3: ______________________________
Step 4: ______________________________
Tip: skimming means reading fast to get the general idea, not every detail.
Read 2 — the details
Now read the article again, more slowly. This time, notice the small details: the numbers, the names, and the examples. The Reading Quiz will ask you about them.
After reading — think about it
- Which of the four steps do you think is the hardest? Why?
- Think of your own job or studies. Can you name one transferable skill you have? What is your evidence for it?
Find “Lesson 1.1 — Reading Quiz” in your course menu and complete it now. It checks your understanding of the article and the key vocabulary. When you finish, come back for Part 2: Useful Language.