“If job seekers want to move beyond the ‘usual suspects’ in their next job transition, they will need to highlight their capabilities and not just their educational and/or experiential qualifications.

Highlighting highly transferable social and emotional skills, such as active listening, critical thinking, and social perceptiveness can make job candidates more attractive. 

Taking a skills approach can lead to a broader array of options for job seekers.” – The Conference Board of Canada, 2021, para. 6

This unit consists of the following modules: 

  • The Skills Employers Want
  • Career Search

Career self-management involves developing, maintaining, and using your knowledge, skills, psychological strengths, and professional resources to actively manage your career. These skills can be continuously improved throughout your professional life by viewing career self-management as an iterative process of experiencing, practicing, reflecting, and implementing.

If you haven't already completed the Foundation: Professionalism and Communication module, we encourage you to revisit and complete it, as Demonstrating Skills provides essential context for this unit.

Economic think tanks all over the world produce labour market reports that provide evidence-based insights that support workforce development and inform issues arising in labour markets.  Time and time again, transferable skills and technological skills emerge as the highest in-demand skills.  

Strong communication, collaboration, and/or creativity skills will continue to rise in demand, as will skills in technology, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI). Labour market reports consistently emphasize the importance of emerging transferable skills, which this module concentrates on; however, distinct occupational skills will always be required. 

In the Career Search module, we touch on:

  • The hidden job market
  • Career search
  • Tailored job search tools 
  • Virtual interviews
  • Recruitment process
  • Negotiating job offers

Mastering transferable skills is important, expressing your competence with these skills to potential employers is paramount for your career trajectory - now and for the future. 

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." – Eric Hoffer

Take the next step by proceeding to the next module: Skills Employers Want

Last modified: Tuesday, 10 June 2025, 3:36 PM