Creativity

While there are many lists of these ’employability’ skills, at Oxford we focus on the key eight skills – based on the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)’s report, Future Fit.

This page focuses on Creativity. To read more about the other seven employability skills, click on the links below.

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Developing the Mindset

These ideas are ways to start becoming more creative. You’re unlikely to use these as evidence of creativity in a written application, but they might be things you reference in conversation at interview.

Get into a creative mindset by trying to find a new route to lectures each day.
Brainstorm ideas with friends.
Talk to people who do things you don’t do.
Attend a lecture on a subject different to your own.
Explore a possible new hobby by reading or using social media to find introductory videos and ideas, or find a society or group that you can join. This might be the start of a new hobby…

Short-Term Activities

Medium-Term Commitments

Develop your own website, or offer to build one for a student society. (There’s no need to code it – but you could do this too if you like).
Approach a charity with a suggestion of how you might volunteer a specific skill.
Think of a unique fundraising event for a charity.
Work, travel or volunteer abroad. Our Summer Internship Programme offers lots of opportunities to do this.
Whether you are a student or research staff member, create your own internship or work-shadowing experience. Our Internship Office provides tips on how to do this.
Make something new happen in your college, department, or in a society.
‘Up-skill’ yourself. Take a course at the Oxford Language Centre, a free computing course at Oxford IT's Digital Skills courses, or if you are a research staff member, at the Oxford Learning Institute.