Develop Your Employability Skills

We recommend that you consider your current set of employability skills, and look for opportunities to improve them while at Oxford. It is possible to ‘develop the mindset’ by reading, through online research and networking, and you will be building some of these skills through your academic course or your research work. You can also enhance your knowledge, understanding and qualifications through Online and Self-Directed Skills Development, however, employers like to see how you have developed your skills in an applied, real-world setting. To this end it is important to seek hands-on experience that can be used to provide clear examples of how you have used these skills and strengthen your case with evidence of the quality and impact of your contributions.

The Careers Service offers lots of ideas for developing your employability skills within and outside the University setting. These include our own employability programmes as well becoming involved with student societies, volunteering and other extra-curricular activities. The skill-specific sections below offer a variety of ideas to stimulate your thinking and to help you identify ways you might continue to broaden your skills and experience.