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 have excellent driving skills and have completed a skilled driver training course to gain experience.
- I have learnt Japanese and speak to my Japanese friends to keep practising.
- My cooking skills have been developed through working at the local cafe as a kitchen hand on the weekends and after school
- I have trained to use a lathe and can make carved wooden posts.
- My friends all tell me I have a good sense of humour, because I can tell a joke or say something funny to keep us in a good mood.
- I am reliable and punctual. I work in the canteen at the local sports club and always arrive on time and do all the tasks required.
- I am a very motivated person and try hard to improve all the time. I won a ‘most improved’ medal last year for swimming
- I am President of my school debating club. This has developed many skills, including leadership, organisation and teamwork.
- I am a student representative on my school’s Student Representative Council. This has helped me a great deal with my communication and presentation skills.
- Last year I got my black belt in Karate after training four nights every week for the last four years.
- I got a distinction for my Grade 5 AMEB Piano exam. I practised every day for the last year, sometimes twice a day, and went to lessons every week.
- In my part time job at the deli supermarket, I worked as part of the deli service team. I needed to listen and accept that other people have different opinions.
- I was given a digital camera for my birthday. I enjoy taking photographs of the city and turning these into greeting cards for my family.
- I work part time on weekends and help my parents by taking my younger brother swimming twice a week. I manage my time during the week effectively so l can fit in study, work and leisure activities.
- When I did work experience at the local newspaper I impressed my supervisor with my telephone technique. I listened carefully to requests and was able to check my own understanding by repeating the request back to the other person.
- I work at my local fast food shop. I am a crew leader, so I often train new staff in how to work behind the counter and in drive-through. My supervisor says I do this well.
- I did work experience at a recording studio. The engineer let me record some of my own music. Working out how to get the best sound was a real challenge so I asked the engineer questions to learn the best techniques.
- When I worked at the snack bar I learnt the importance of getting to work on time, organising to have a clean uniform for each shift and still managing to complete all of my course work.
- I babysit my Aunty and Uncle's three children. I have planned how I can feed my cousins, keep them occupied then get them to bed on time. I do this using a list and time schedule.
- I came up with the idea of having a sausage sizzle at lunch times twice a week, so that we could raise enough money for the class to go on a ski trip. We raised enough money to pay for the bus and some accommodation