What Are Employability Skills and Why Do They Matter?

Key takeaways

Employability skills blend cognitive, social, and emotional abilities, strengthening your impact at work and complementing your technical expertise.

• The World Economic Forum aims to help one billion people build skills by 2030, underscoring the global demand for higher-order employability abilities [1].

• Employability skills reinforce one another; for example, strong collaboration typically relies on communication, time management, and problem-solving working in tandem.

• You can build employability skills by practicing flexible behavior, taking responsibility for outcomes, and showing self‑awareness in daily work situations.

Discover nine skills employers seek in candidates they’re interviewing and how you can integrate your employability skills into your resume and cover letter. Afterward, if you’re ready to start building expertise in leadership and decision-making, consider enrolling in Dartmouth University’s Strategic Leadership: Impact, Change, and Decision-Making Specialization. You’ll have the opportunity to develop employability skills like communication, problem-solving, and strategic thinking in as little as two months. Upon completion, you can integrate employability strengths you’ve learned into your resume and cover letter, as well as leadership projects to showcase in your portfolio.

What are employability skills?

Employability skills are workplace skills or transferable skills that help make you an impactful employee. But you can also think of them as skills that employers tend to value. In fact, many employability skills are “higher cognitive skills” that you can’t carry out in automated tasks because they require creativity, critical thinking, and other important social and emotional abilities. Skills are in high demand, according to the World Economic Forum. The organization works with hundreds of other global organizations to provide opportunities for approximately one billion people to improve their skills and knowledge by 2030 as part of the “Reskilling Revolution” [1]. 

9 valuable employability skills examples 

Beyond looking for specific technical skills when hiring for a role, employers typically seek qualities such as how candidates manage their time, collaborate with others, and think critically about problems. These types of abilities are known as employability skills, and they’re highly valued because they can bolster your technical know-how and overall impact. In building this list, information about the importance of non-technical skills was taken from sources such as Pearson [2] and the World Economic Forum [3].

It’s worth noting that many employability skills draw on one another. For example, being a strong collaborator often means being a proactive communicator with good time management. Learn more about how to strengthen these important skills.

What skills are employers looking for?

To get more insight into the practical application of these skills and how they make you more employable, take a look at the following examples of employability in action:

1. Being flexible in social situations

2. Taking responsibility for results

3. Being accountable for your actions

4. Presenting a positive attitude

5. Displaying self-awareness about your strengths and weaknesses

6. Having a strong work ethic

1. Communication

Communication is a key part of any role. You communicate in various ways at work, including offering solutions to an ongoing problem, updating the status of a project, sharing the latest data in a visual report, and emailing coworkers. Being an effective communicator is a prized skill because of how wide-ranging it tends to be. Learn different ways to improve your communication skills in the workplace.

2. Critical thinking 

You can usually find ways to make things function better in the workplace, whether that’s processes, strategies, or even teamwork. Thinking critically and creatively—being an observant individual who asks questions and draws insights you can use to identify solutions—is a worthwhile skill to hone.

3. Problem-solving 

Being able to solve problems depends on your ability to think critically and communicate solutions, thus drawing on two other employability skills on this list. And problem-solving isn’t just a managerial task. It’s a skill you can strengthen at any level. Many workplaces appreciate it when you work to uncover a solution rather than simply flag a problem.

4. Time management

Whether you work in an office or remotely, managing your time effectively is important. When you do so, you can set and achieve more goals, reduce stress, and stay on track. Learn more about time management tips to boost your productivity.

5. Ability to work independently 

Speaking of managing time, you will often need to work on your own to complete a task or project. In that case, fostering an ability to work without supervision, or independently, can go far, creating greater trust between you, your team, and your managers. This is especially important for remote work. 

6. Dedication

Dedication may seem like loyalty to a company, and it certainly can be that in many respects, but it also signals to your employer that you value high-quality work and put in the effort to meet objectives and deliver key results every time. Being a dedicated employee means caring about your work and the standard of that work.

7. Collaboration

Collaborating with others on your immediate team or cross-departmentally is a critical interpersonal skill. Because many teams must work together to complete projects or achieve results, it’s important to know how to work well with others by engaging many other skills on this list, such as communication, time management, and problem-solving.

8. Flexibility 

The nature of work can change over time, making flexibility an important skill. In fact, at many start-ups, change is a given. Remaining flexible in the face of change is a valuable skill to develop and continue working on throughout your career. Flexibility often means staying calm in the face of change, remaining positive, and trying to plan ahead where possible. 

Read more: 7 Problem-Solving Skills for Workplace Success

9. Leadership 

You don’t have to be a manager to be a leader at work. Leadership skills show that you’re proactive, take charge, and think critically about the larger impact of your role. At the managerial level, it shows that you know how to manage a team of employees, ensuring that everyone is working together to complete the tasks at hand.

Give your team access to a catalog of 10,000+ engaging courses and hands-on Guided Projects to help them develop impactful skills. Learn more about Coursera for Business.

Build your employability skills with our free resources 

To learn more about how to build career-focused skills, you can subscribe to Coursera’s YouTube channel for practical insights from industry leaders. To continue building your employability skills, check out the following free resources to learn more:

• Explore career options: 4 In-Demand Career Paths (and Skills) to Know

• Take a quiz: Career Test: What Career Is Right for Me Quiz?

• Learn from a pro: Reimagining Work and Learning with AI: Expert Insights from Dr. Jules White

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