Do you know what we mean when we talk about professional skills? These are capabilities and skills necessary to carry out a job effectively. These can be grouped into three categories or groups: basic, technical and transversal skills.
Within each group, although it is true that each work area gives more importance to some skills or others, we do find skills that are more sought after than others in the business sector.
In this article we will learn what each of these three groups of competencies encompasses, and what the 8 most important professional competencies are in general.
Professional skills are those skills, abilities and aptitudes that people have and that allow them to carry out a certain type of work successfully.
Professional skills, in addition, allow the individual to put their knowledge and skills into practice in the context of a work environment and make employees more valued in their sector.
However, we must know that professional skills are classified into three groups: basic skills, technical skills and transversal skills. We are going to know, through this classification, the 8 most important professional competencies within each group. We will also see examples of each of them:
1. Core competencies
The basic competencies are all the basic knowledge that allows a person to access a certain type of training or employment This is the “minimum” that the person must have, in relation to certain knowledge, to be able to apply for training or work.
Examples of basic skills are: knowledge in the use of ICT, knowledge of a certain foreign language, etc.
Although there are many basic competencies, we are going to look at the most important ones (or those most valued by companies, in general):
1.1. Knowledge of foreign languages
This would be an example of a basic competence, currently being one of the 8 most important professional competences, since today Work environments are increasingly international and people of multiple nationalities can work in the same job, and they speak multiple languages.
So, nowadays, knowing more than one foreign language offers many points as a candidate for a certain job position (especially in qualified sectors).
1.2. Knowledge of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies)
In an increasingly technological and digitalized work environment, mastery of computing (at least a minimum mastery) is increasingly essential. This is logically extrapolated to the selection processes in which we find ourselves immersed when we look for work.
Thus, this basic competition would imply knowing how to use a computer, Internet, email, being able to create an online CV sign up for job portals, etc.
2. Technical skills
Another of the 8 most important professional skills are technical skills (or hard skills), which are all those skills that are acquired as we train in a specific area
These are specific skills for a job (or sector), that is, they are very different from one area to another. To understand it better, let’s think about a person who has trained in cooking; A technical skill that you must have, upon completion of cooking studies, is mastery of knives, or certain food cooking techniques, for example.
Technical skills are very specific to each field , so it is difficult to say which are the most important. Therefore, we have selected three from three different career fields.
One of the most important professional skills, at a technical level, in the marketing sector is web positioning This implies mastery of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques, and also having the knowledge to design and implement SEM (Search Engine Marketing) campaigns.
2.2. Psychology: administration of psychological tests
A highly sought-after technical skill in the psychology sector is one that involves knowing certain psychological tests (for example, a test to diagnose autism, such as the ADOS-2 or ADI-R), as well as knowing how to apply them.
In order to administer certain psychological tests, there is specific training (and official certificates) in this regard.
23. Computer engineering: knowledge of programming languages
In the field of computer engineering (or programming), one of the 8 most important (and most sought after) professional skills, at a technical level, is one that involves know different types of programming languages, such as: C++, PHP or Python It is understood that we are referring to: knowing, mastering and knowing how to use them.
3. Transversal skills
For their part, transversal competencies are those personal characteristics that make a person adapt to a job and also perform it effectively. This type of skills used in the workplace (although also in others) allow you to transform knowledge into action and are highly valued by companies, since they differentiate the professional within their sector.
Examples of transversal skills are: teamwork, initiative, ease of interpersonal relationships, effort, willingness to learn, versatility, etc.
The most important professional skills at a transversal level that appear in this article are the following (although it should be noted that for each sector or job, there will be skills that are more important or necessary than others).
It consists of the ability (and disposition) that people have to collaborate with a team in a coordinated manner in carrying out a specific task or in the pursuit of achieving an objective.
This ability can be really useful in both the work and academic or even personal environments.
3.2. Initiative capacity
Initiative is another of the most important professional skills at a transversal level, and it is a capacity that is increasingly valued by companies, since they generally look for entrepreneurial people willing to contribute their ideas.
The initiative consists of the ability, or ability, to make contributions, propose ideas, and try new things If these ideas also have the mission of improving the product or service, then we are already talking about innovation capacity (another transversal competence).
3.3. Conflict resolution capacity
The ability to resolve conflicts (or problems) implies being able to face situations and provide responses to them, through the application of a certain strategy or resolution method.
It generally involves identify the problem, make a diagnosis, formulate solutions, put them into practice and evaluate the results In this sense, companies look for professionals who know how to react and act effectively in the face of unforeseen events; In colloquial words, they are capable of “pulling their chests out of the fire” at all times and in the face of possible obstacles.
