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Whether you're a student group president, a committee member, an elected representative, academic rep or ordinary student group member, you're gaining and building a diverse skillset from York SU's student opportunities.
You may have:
Developed your leadership skills through running your group and leading a committee
Built your conflict management and negotiation skills when dealing with a dispute between members of your student group
Showed effective time management whilst navigating your academic representative responsibilities alongside your studies
Whatever unique experience you have had, it's important to understand what skills you have gained and developed within your role, and how to articulate those skills you have gained.
You can navigate to relevant sections using the contents below:
What skills are graduate employers looking for?
What skills are graduate employers looking for?
While every career pathway requires unique expertise, graduate research consistently shows that employers across all industries look for a core set of transferable skills. Understanding exactly what these target behaviours and competencies are gives you a distinct competitive advantage, and can help you seek out the right curricular project or activity.
In the UK, Skills England developed a framework that defines the skills, knowledge and tasks required for different occupations called The UK Standard Skills Classification (SSC). Whilst the skills are organised within a four-level hierarchy, the report identifies 13 core, transferable skills as:
Adapting, Creating, Digital Literacy, Leadership, Learning and Investigating, Listening, Planning and Organising, Problem Solving and Decision Making, Numeracy, Reading, Speaking, Writing, Working with others
The Institute for Student Employers (ISE) reported in their 2026 ISE Student Development Survey that the top 5 skills student employers were looking for were: Problem Solving and Decision Making, Working with Others, Motivation and Self-Awareness, Adaptability, Planning and Organising.
When reporting on which skills graduates were least competent in, they recognised adaptability, motivation and self-awareness and awareness of wider context as the biggest readiness gap.
The same report also highlighted due to generative AI, some skills will become more important for graduate employers: Critical thinking and judgement, AI Literacy and the ability to work with AI tools, Communication and Interpersonal Skills, Adaptability, Curiosity and Continuous learning, Ethical Awareness and Governance.
What have you done during your time at York so far?
What have you done during your time at York so far?
To help understand what skills you have gained from extra-curricular activities, there are a number of different options you can explore.
Problem: We recognise that students are often so busy moving from one assignment, social, student group event to the next and juggling this with part-time work and other responsibilities. It's really common and can be easy to forget to stop and take a look back at what has been achieved.
Solution: To help you identify all of the things you've done this year as a student leader, we've developed a simple mind-mapping exercise to help you look back at your society events, college sport matches or volunteering placements, and list every single task you actually did, and the skills you developed.
Follow the link below for a walk through on completing the mind-mapping exercise.
Assess your Career Readiness
Assess your Career Readiness
Once you've mapped out the experiences you've had, and the skills you've gained
Want to explore these professional skills further and reflect on how you use them in practice and complete a personalised skills and strengths assessment? Our York Strengths Professional Skills Discovery provides a great opportunity to recognise and develop your professional skills
A skills audit helps you establish the skills you have, and your level of 'expertise' for each of those skills.
Articulating Skill Gain from Student Opportunities (Identifying your transferable skills)
Articulating Skill Gain from Student Opportunities (Identifying your transferable skills)
Employers want you to tell them why you are the right candidate for a role, and whilst you might have identified them through the mind-map or skills audit, you now want to start thinking about how to articulate those skills onto your CV, application forms and in interviews.
Opportunities to Articulate your Skills
Opportunities to Articulate your Skills
Social Media, primarily your LinkedIn Profile
Networking Opportunities such as Careers Fairs or Networking Events
Cover Letters and CV's
Application Forms
Interviews
Presentations
Assessment Centre's
One effective way of answering a hiring manager's questions in an interview or reflecting on experiences in an application form is to use the CAR method. CAR stands for Context, Action, Result) and is a good way to structure the answers you give, and reflect on specific experiences.
Think about it this way, if you were a hiring manager, and you asked a candidate, 'Can you tell me about a time when you had to solve a problem?' would you hire candidate A or candidate B?
Candidate A: 'I used my problem solving skills when I was part of a group doing a project and they disagreed on the presentation topic. I resolved this so we could all work together'
Candidate B: 'I was tasked as part of my course to complete a group project, where we picked a presentation topic from a select list provided by the lecturer, and then worked together to create the content and present. I used my problem solving skills when in the early meetings the members of the group began to disagree on which topic we should present. I took the lead and gave each group member the opportunity to share their opinions on each topic, and I then suggested we vote to decide on the topic. This allowed for everyone to have their voices heard, and everyone was happy it was decided fairly. This meant the problem was then resolved and we were able to work productively, put the content together and present a strong presentation.'
Apart from how brief Candidate A's answer was, you can see from Candidate B the walk through of the situation, what happened, and what B's role was in resolving the issue, and what the outcome was. This answer was structured using the CAR method, and you can see another example below.
Context: briefly set the scene for your example. ‘In my part-time work in a busy coffee shop…’
Action: explain what you did. ‘...I demonstrated leadership skills by mentoring new employees and assisting the supervisor during busy periods...;’
Result: explain the outcome. ‘Leading to me being promoted to supervisor where I managed four colleagues and dealt with any problems that occurred during my shift.'
Be recognised for your Skills Development
Be recognised for your Skills Development
The York Award is a formal award of the University that demonstrates to employers that you have taken a proactive approach to life at university, and recognises personal and professional development within and outside your programme of study.
The Award typically takes place in the final stage of your Journey towards the end of your university programme. It provides the opportunity to reflect on the experience and skills you have gained during your time at York, helping you communicate what you have to offer to employers/further study providers.
Need to boost your CV, sell yourself in an interview or present yourself in an application? Then apply for the York Award and gain a formal certificate that makes you stand out from the crowd while building your confidence as you enter the world of work or further study.
York Strengths
York Strengths
As a student at the University, through York Strengths you will have the opportunity to take part in a range of activities to give you an introduction to some of the professional skills employers are looking for, and reflect on how you can use them to develop your professional skills during your time at University and beyond.
Find out more about York Strengths on the University's webpages.
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