What is a skills statement?

A skills statement is a written summary of your skills and capabilities, achievements, knowledge, experience or attributes. You can use skills statements to show an employer that you are a good match for a job.

Create different skills statements for different employers by selecting the skills that match what each employer needs.  

Why have a skills statement?  

Your skills statements show an employer what skills, experience and attributes you have. They show how well you fit the job and person specifications for the job vacancy you are considering.

You can use skills statements to warm call or cold call prospective employers. Skills statements help you to market yourself to possible employers on the telephone or when you are writing a job application.  

How to identify skills 

There are different kinds of skills. Your skills, capabilities and attributes can come from work or study, from life experience, sport or community involvement.

My Guide on the myfuture website will help you to identify your skills and attributes, your strengths and talents.

To identify the skills that you have gained through your paid or unpaid work, you can use the occupation search on this site. Find the heading ‘Work and Employment’ in The Facts and select Occupations. Search for your current or previous occupations to identify personal requirements or skills required to perform a job.

You can also find what skills an employer wants by checking selection criteria, job and person specifications or the job ad.

Use your own interests, activities, experiences, education and training to list your skills. Create your own set of skills statements. Here are some examples to get you started:

Examples 

Skills

Skills from interests and activities, work or training might include:

• driving
• painting and drawing
• playing a musical instrument or singing
• web page design
• computer programming
• sports and martial arts
• knitting
• sewing
• crochet
• quilting
• playing computer and console games
• cabinet-making
• welding
• car maintenance
• soldering
• cooking
• cleaning
• speaking a second language
• sailing
• dress making

Employability Skills are eight skills that employers have identified, in the Employability Skills for the Future Report [opens in new window], as being important to all job and person specifications. They are:

• communication
• teamwork
• problem solving
• initiative and enterprise
• planning and organising
• self management
• learning
• technology

Employers have also identified personal qualities or characteristics that they consider important for the workplace. These are the Employability Attributes.

• loyalty
• commitment
• honesty and integrity
• enthusiasm
• reliability and punctuality
• personal presentation
• common sense
• positive self esteem
• a sense of humour
• a balanced attitude to work and home life
• an ability to deal with pressure
• motivation
• adaptability

Skills statements

• I am a keen amateur cabinet-maker. I have developed skills in design, project planning and management as I have worked on projects around the family home.
• I love painting landscapes. Planning painting trips with friends has made me very organised and taught me group leadership skills.
• I have undertaken accredited training in Microsoft computer programs and have trained fellow team members to use the programs.
• I am on time to all of my social engagements. It is in my nature to be punctual.
• I display commitment to my work and home life by keeping my word about what I will do and by when.
• I am highly motivated to achieve high grades in my part-time studies so my family and I can be proud of my achievements.
• I listen carefully to customer inquiries or complaints and I act promptly when assisting them.
• I find that I can help others reach their sales targets because I am approachable, accurate and can work productively within the set timeframe.
• I am a member of a worldwide women’s association. While a member I have learnt a lot about committee work and making things happen as a member of a group.
• I enjoy coming up with creative solutions to routine tasks. Recently, I developed a list of possible telephone response statements for our organisation. I presented them to management at a staff meeting.
• I just found out that I passed my exam for my Advanced Senior First Aid ticket. I went to training every Monday night for four months and studied every night for the fortnight before the exam.
• I have completed additional training in Occupational Health and Safety and Level 3 First Aid, which are part of the person specifications for this position.
• I noticed that MYOB is a requirement of this position. I have used other accounting software and I can transfer my knowledge to suit the organisation’s requirements.
• I set myself a New Year’s resolution to run 5 kilometres non-stop. After training twice or three times every week. I finally managed it, and now I want to train and enter a 10k fun run.
  

Remember

• Your life experiences can help you to build your skills statements
• Prepare your statements so they match the job and person specifications
• Have skills statements ready when you call a prospective employer
• You can boost your self-esteem by creating a list of your skills and attributes.