What Are Transferable Skills?
The St. Olaf College Workplace Skills Development Program provides a framework for helping students recognize, develop, and articulate the transferable skills they gain through their campus employment, such as communication, customer service, and leadership.
Every student job description at St. Olaf College has a list of transferable skills. Ask your manager to see a copy of your job description, and ask how your workplace responsibilities are related to the transferable skills listed in it.
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The Eight Career Readiness Competencies
The St. Olaf College Workplace Skills Development Program uses eight career readiness competencies adapted from the National Associate of Colleges and Employers (NACE). These competencies provide a common language for talking about the skills students develop through their employment.
Career and Self-Development
Proactively develops oneself through continuous learning, self-reflection, and goal-setting; seeks and applies feedback to improve.
Learn More About Career and Self-Development
Communication
Clearly and effectively exchanges information, ideas, and perspectives with others across formats and audiences.
Learn More About Communication
Critical Thinking
Identifies and analyzes problems, evaluates information, and makes informed decisions and solutions.
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Community and Belonging
Demonstrates respect for diverse perspectives; contributes to inclusive and equitable environments.
Learn More About Community and belonging
Leadership
Motivates, guides, and supports others toward a common goal, while demonstrating integrity and accountability.
Learn More About Leadership
Professionalism
Demonstrates responsibility, integrity, effective work habits, and appropriate behavior in a professional setting.
Learn More About Professionalism
Teamwork
Collaborates effectively with others, contributing to shared goals while valuing different viewpoints.
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Technology
Uses and adapts to digital tools and technologies to accomplish tasks efficiently and ethically.
Learn More About Technology
St. Olaf College Workplace Skills Development Program
Student Employment at the College is more than just completing job responsibilities. It is an opportunity for students to develop skills that support their academic success, personal growth, and future careers. The Workplace Skills Development Program gives supervisors and student employees a shared language for identifying, discussing, and reflecting on that development. The program helps students make connections between what they do at work, what they learn in the classroom, and what they may do after graduation.
You can utilize this program to support your own skills development using the resources below. Printable Version of Workplace Skills Development Guide.
Student Work and Your Vocation
On-campus employment is far more than just a way to earn money for school. It is an opportunity to explore your vocation and live out the College’s mission:
- Reflect on how student employment allows you to cultivate workplace skills, knowledge, and capacities that will help you flourish in your future vocation.
- Consider how your on-campus job helps you to practice ethical decision-making, service, stewardship, self-reflection, and growth.
- Think about the ways that your on-campus employment allows you to integrate faith and values into your everyday work.
- Reflect on how you can use your student employment as a form of community engagement and community belonging.
- Consider how your on-campus job helps you develop skills like cross-cultural awareness, communication, problem-solving, and adaptability.
- Reflect on how your campus employment allows you to use your reason, creativity, and empathy to meet others in a spirit of generosity and service.
Skills Development at Every Stage of Student Employment
Prepping Your Materials
- Make a list of the skills you have gained from previous academic, co-curricular, and employment experiences.
- Review the career readiness competencies and think about which ones you want to focus on. Use them to reflect on which kinds of skills you want to develop in your on-campus work.
- Prepare a resume and cover letters for your job applications. Reach out to the Piper Center for Vocation and Career if you need help.
Looking for Work
- Attend the Student Employment Fair during fall and spring to explore student work opportunities at St. Olaf.
- Talk with friends and classmates about which skills they have built in their on-campus employment.
- Check the Student Job Board consistently for jobs that build the transferable skills you want.
- Apply to as many jobs as you can that will help you develop the skills that interest you.
During Your First Weeks of Work
- Set goals for yourself using the career readiness competencies as a guide. Ask yourself:
- What do I want to learn in my job?
- What skills and competencies do I want to develop in my job?
- From whom can I learn in my job and what can I learn from them?
- Ask your supervisor about which transferable skills you can build in your job and how.
- Learn everything you can about the people you work with and the department where you are working:
- What does your department do?
- What are the different jobs in the department?
- How does your work contribute to the team?
Developing Skills in Your Current Job
- Ask for feedback about how you are doing and how you can improve your work.
- Learn from others who have the skills you want to build.
- Create a list of transferable skills that you are developing in class and the transferable skills you are building in your on-campus work.
- Think about how you can apply what you are learning in the classroom or that you have learned in previous jobs to the work you are doing. Consider how the skills you are building in your current job can help you in the classroom as well.
- Ask your supervisor to discuss how your on-campus job aligns with your academic work.
Changing or Adding a Job
- Make a list of the skills you have gained from your current job(s).
- Review the career readiness competencies and think about which ones you have been developing in your current job and which ones you would still like to build.
- Reflect on whether a different on-campus job can help you build additional skills and experience.
- Check the Student Job Board consistently for jobs that list the transferable skills you want.
- Apply to as many job as you can that can help you develop the skills you are interested in.
Working Toward a Promotion
- Create a list of skills you have developed and accomplishments you have made in your current position.
- Review the leadership career readiness competency and the recommended skills and behaviors associated with it. Think about which skills you still need to build.
- Talk with other students who have held leadership roles in on-campus employment about the skills they developed to be promoted.
- Ask your supervisor to meet and discuss your performance and how you can continue to improve.