How to write about transferable skills for your NHSScotland job application

What are transferable skills?

You have lots of useful skills that you’ll have learnt through:

• work
• study
• hobbies or other leisure activities
• volunteering

Some of these skills will be transferable. That means that the skill can be used in any of your future roles.

Examples of transferable skills that NHSScotland is looking for include:

• communicating
• using technology
• collaboration
• focusing
• problem-solving
• relationship building
• attention to detail
• time management
• teamwork

Your skills

You might have worked in a customer-facing job before. That means you’ll have lots of useful skills for an NHSScotland role. You'll have experience doing tasks like:

• communicating with a range of different people
• solving problems for customers
• building professional relationships with colleagues
• using the computer and telephone to contact staff and customers
• keeping the shop organised
• working to meet sales targets

If you're still at school, you have skills like:

• time management, to manage homework for various subjects with different deadlines
• teamwork, when working with other students on collaborative projects
• using technology to aid your studies
• communicating with both teachers and other students

Transferable skills from leisure activities, such as playing sports or computer games, could include:

• teamwork
• communication
• problem-solving
• using technology

Tell us what you can do

It’s important for your application that you write about your experience using these kinds of transferable skills.

Tell us how you've used each skill and describe how your skills, knowledge and experience are a good match for the role. This is especially useful for us if you haven’t worked in a similar position before.

Help us to learn more about you and your skills

No matter where you are in your career journey, you’ll already have lots of skills.

When applying for a job at NHSScotland, make sure to write about all your skills and how you've used them in the past. This will help us learn more about you and the skills you offer.

NHSScotland is recruiting now, and you have the skills we need. You'll find all our vacancies listed on our recruitment website.