By Carla Rivera/reporter
Students learned about marketable skills for employment March 19 at the Water’s Edge Cafe on NW Campus.
“Our 20-minute cafes usually consist of one or more of our specialists explaining the topic to students that have gathered to listen to what we have to say,” he said.
The cafe focused on a variety of skills students can use for future employment.
“Marketable skills, transferable skills and soft skills are skills that you learn either in school or at one job that you bring with you on the next job,” Herrera said.
Skills like communicating effectively to one another, being able to work well with others and being able to prioritize time are transferable skills.
“We want to make students aware that these are the skills that they learn in their classrooms but don’t know that they have these skills,” said Tracy Williams, NW career services coordinator.
By making students aware that they have these skills, it allows students to market themselves into employment.
“What we really stress on marketing skills is that, no matter which company or career field, every manager is going to want their employees to know how to talk professionally, how to be on time [and] how to think for themselves critically. Those are the skills that are going to get you promoted,” Herrera said.
Herrera recommended that students who lack in soft skills to join a school club and expose themselves to different situations that might be out of their comfort zones.
“Lots of companies like their employees to volunteer,” Herrera said.
When companies see volunteer work on a resumes, it shows that students can do more than one thing at a time.
“Even if volunteering does not pay, you get the experience,” Williams said.
With the event being only 20 minutes, Herrera encouraged students to come by career services anytime to get one-on-one help. NW student Robert Meyers said that was a resource he would possibly utilize.
“There are things that I need to work on,” Meyers said. “You get the technical skills from class, but you need to know acceptable behavior in the workplace.”
