How to Show Transferable Skills on Your CV: The Complete UK Guide (2026)

Last updated: May 2026 | Reading time: 18 minutes

A few years ago, I sat across the desk from a woman called Sarah at a recruitment fair in Birmingham. She had spent eleven years teaching secondary English in Wolverhampton, and she wanted out. Not because she hated teaching — she was good at it — but because something had broken. She slid her CV across the table. Two pages of lesson plans, Ofsted ratings, NQT mentoring, pastoral responsibilities. I asked her what she thought she could offer a marketing agency. She looked at me as though I'd asked her to fly. "I don't know," she said. "I've only ever been a teacher."

That was the wrong answer, but it was also an entirely understandable one. Sarah had spent over a decade managing thirty teenagers through a curriculum, hitting government targets under inspection pressure, communicating complex ideas to people who did not want to listen, and leading a department of eight — all on a budget that would make most corporate managers weep. She was, by any reasonable standard, extraordinarily skilled. She just could not see it. And her CV did nothing to help.

This guide exists because Sarah's problem is everywhere. According to the 2024 UK Employer Skills Survey — the government's largest workforce study, covering 22,712 employers — around 210,000 vacancies remain unfilled because of skills shortages. Meanwhile, 1.2 million UK workers switched career paths entirely in 2025, leaving their previous industry behind (Indeed Hiring Lab, 2026). That is a colossal number of people who need to translate what they already know into language a new employer can understand. Transferable skills sit at the centre of that translation.

If you are changing careers, returning to work, graduating into a crowded market, or simply trying to stand out, this guide will show you exactly how to identify, articulate, and present your transferable skills on a UK CV — with real examples, current employer data, and practical frameworks you can use this afternoon.

What Are Transferable Skills, Exactly?

The term gets thrown around in careers advice like confetti, often without much precision. So let us be clear.

Transferable skills are capabilities you develop in one context — a job, a degree, voluntary work, military service, parenthood — that hold value in a different context. They are not tied to a single role, sector, or employer. They move with you.

This is different from technical (or "hard") skills, which are specific to a discipline. Knowing how to use SPSS, operate a CNC lathe, or code in Python are hard skills. They matter, but they do not travel well on their own.

Transferable skills are also distinct from personality traits. Being "friendly" or "enthusiastic" is a trait, not a skill. A skill implies something you can demonstrate with evidence: you managed a project, resolved a conflict, analysed data to inform a decision.

The National Careers Service — the UK government's free careers guidance body — groups these under the umbrella of "soft skills," defining them as "traits and behaviours needed for most jobs" that employers routinely look for when recruiting. Prospects.ac.uk, one of the UK's leading graduate careers platforms, draws the same distinction: soft skills are "personal attributes and abilities that affect how you interact with others and approach your work," and employers often value them as much as, or more than, hard skills.

The practical upshot is this: if you can prove you did it somewhere, you can argue you can do it anywhere. The question is how to make that argument on paper.

Why Transferable Skills Matter More Than Ever in the UK

Three forces are converging to make transferable skills the most important currency on your CV in 2026.

The skills shortage is structural, not temporary. The UK Employer Skills Survey 2024 found that 17% of employers had vacancies at the time of the survey, with 27% of all vacancies classified as skill-shortage vacancies. That is roughly 210,000 roles sitting empty because employers cannot find people with the right capabilities. ManpowerGroup's 2025 Talent Shortage Survey puts it even more starkly: 76% of UK employers report difficulty recruiting skilled talent. When employers cannot find perfect-fit candidates, they look for adaptable ones — people who bring strong foundational skills and can be trained in the specifics.

Skills-based hiring is replacing credential-based hiring. This is not speculation; it is measurable. TestGorilla's State of Skills-Based Hiring 2025 report, which surveyed over 2,000 employers and job seekers across the UK and US, found that 83% of UK companies now use skills-based hiring methods — up from around 75% in 2023. Half of UK employers have removed degree requirements from roles, a 28% increase year-on-year. And 77% of UK employers say skills tests outperform CVs in predicting job success. The Willo Hiring Trends Report 2026, published by the Glasgow-based recruitment technology firm, adds a striking detail: 41% of hiring teams are actively moving away from CV-first screening, with 10% having largely replaced CVs with skills-based and scenario-driven assessments. Even so, 59.6% still lead with CVs — which means your CV remains the front door for most applications, and the skills you list on it still matter enormously.

People are changing careers at record rates. Standout CV's analysis of career change data found that one in three UK workers want to completely change careers, while approximately 1.2 million actually made the leap in 2025. Indeed's Hiring Lab analysis from March 2026 found that nearly two-thirds of all UK job-switchers move into an entirely different occupation. For every one of those people, transferable skills are the bridge between what they have done and what they want to do next.

The Nesta and City of London Corporation survey of 101 UK employers put a number on it: three-quarters said they prioritise transferable skills equal to or above technical skills when recruiting. And Hays' 2024 Salary and Recruiting Trends Guide found that 80% of employers would consider hiring a candidate without all required skills but with strong potential to progress, with the intention of upskilling them — up from 73% the year before.

If you are reading this and wondering whether transferable skills "count," the data is unambiguous. They count. They count more than they ever have.

The 15 Most Valued Transferable Skills for UK Employers

This list draws on the CIPD's workforce research, LinkedIn's 2025 and 2026 Skills on the Rise reports, Prospects.ac.uk's employer surveys, the UK Employer Skills Survey 2024, and Robert Half's 2026 UK hiring market insights. These are not abstract ideals — they are what recruiters are actively searching for.

1. Communication

What it means: The ability to convey information clearly — in writing, speech, and digital formats — and to listen actively.

Why employers want it: Hybrid working has made communication harder, not easier. Employers now expect fluency across video calls, collaborative platforms, email, and face-to-face meetings. Prospects.ac.uk notes that employers are keen to see how candidates "build rapport, persuade and negotiate."

CV bullet example: "Presented quarterly performance reviews to senior leadership team of 12, translating complex operational data into actionable recommendations that reduced departmental costs by 8%."

Sectors where it shines: Marketing, public relations, consulting, healthcare, education, client-facing roles across every industry.

2. Problem-Solving

What it means: Analysing a situation, identifying the root cause, and developing a workable solution — often under pressure.

Why employers want it: As AI handles more routine analytical tasks, employers are looking for what machines cannot replicate: lateral thinking, creative diagnosis, and the judgement to pick the right solution from several options.

CV bullet example: "Identified recurring bottleneck in client onboarding process, redesigned workflow using existing CRM tools, and reduced average onboarding time from 14 days to 6."

Sectors where it shines: Operations, engineering, IT support, management consulting, logistics, customer service.

3. Leadership

What it means: Motivating and guiding others toward a shared objective — whether you hold a formal management title or not.

Why employers want it: Prospects.ac.uk highlights that even candidates not applying for management roles need to demonstrate "the potential to motivate and lead others." Employers want people who take initiative without waiting to be told.

CV bullet example: "Led cross-functional team of 6 through office relocation project, coordinating IT, facilities, and HR to deliver two days ahead of schedule with zero business downtime."

Sectors where it shines: Project management, operations, retail management, charity sector, any role involving team coordination.

4. Adaptability

What it means: Adjusting your approach when circumstances change — new technology, restructured teams, shifting priorities.

Why employers want it: LinkedIn's 2025 Skills on the Rise report for the UK lists adaptability among the fastest-growing skill demands. UCEN Manchester's employer research confirms that organisations "want to stay competitive" and need people who handle new situations and learn new skills quickly.

CV bullet example: "Transitioned entire team of 15 to remote working within 48 hours during March 2020 lockdown, implementing new project management tools and maintaining 97% on-time delivery throughout."

Sectors where it shines: Technology, startups, healthcare, media, any rapidly changing environment.

5. Teamwork and Collaboration

What it means: Working effectively with others — across departments, seniority levels, and sometimes organisations — to achieve a shared goal. The CIPD identifies team working as one of the essential skills "all workers need in modern workplaces."

CV bullet example: "Collaborated with product, design, and engineering teams to launch a customer feedback portal, contributing user research insights that shaped three of the five final features."

6. Organisation and Time Management

What it means: Prioritising tasks, managing deadlines, and structuring your work so that nothing critical falls through the gaps. Prospects.ac.uk emphasises that demonstrating "a situation where you've managed your own time successfully" is critical for any role.

CV bullet example: "Managed concurrent caseload of 45 client accounts across three service tiers, maintaining 99% SLA compliance over 18 months."

7. Critical Thinking and Analysis

What it means: Evaluating information objectively, questioning assumptions, and forming reasoned judgements.

Why employers want it: LinkedIn's research places critical thinking among the top skills for 2025 and 2026. Employers need people who can assess data, spot flaws in arguments, and make sound decisions — not just follow instructions.

CV bullet example: "Analysed three years of customer churn data to identify that 62% of cancellations occurred within the first 90 days, leading to a redesigned onboarding programme that reduced early churn by 23%."

Sectors where it shines: Finance, data analysis, policy, journalism, research, compliance.

8. Resilience

What it means: Maintaining performance and composure when facing setbacks, pressure, or uncertainty. Prospects.ac.uk notes that graduate employers "have increasingly started to consider" resilience as a key hiring factor.

CV bullet example: "Managed department through 30% budget reduction, restructuring workload allocation and renegotiating two supplier contracts to maintain full service delivery without redundancies."

9. Digital Literacy

What it means: Comfortable and competent use of digital tools, platforms, and data — beyond basic word processing. The UK government's Assessment of Priority Skills to 2030 identifies digital skills as a national priority, and Robert Half's 2026 insights confirm employers now expect at least basic AI literacy, even in non-technical roles.

CV bullet example: "Introduced automated reporting using Power BI dashboards, replacing manual Excel-based process and saving the finance team approximately 12 hours per month."

10. Relationship Building

What it means: Developing and maintaining productive professional relationships with clients, colleagues, and stakeholders. LinkedIn's 2025 UK report places relationship building at the very top of its Skills on the Rise list.

CV bullet example: "Built and maintained relationships with 28 key accounts, achieving 94% client retention rate and generating £320,000 in upsell revenue over two years."

11. Project Management

What it means: Planning, executing, and delivering a defined piece of work on time and on budget. You do not need a PRINCE2 certificate — anyone who has coordinated a school event or delivered a research dissertation has managed a project.

CV bullet example: "Managed £85,000 office renovation project from scoping to completion, coordinating five contractors and delivering 10% under budget."

12. Attention to Detail

What it means: Thoroughness and accuracy in your work — catching errors and maintaining standards. In regulated industries, small mistakes have outsized consequences.

CV bullet example: "Proofread and quality-checked all client-facing reports for a team of 8 consultants, reducing error rate from 7% to under 1% over six months."

13. Negotiation and Persuasion

What it means: Influencing others to reach an agreement or take action. The Nesta/City of London research found that employers particularly value the ability to influence outcomes — it drives revenue, resolves conflict, and moves organisations forward.

CV bullet example: "Negotiated new supplier contract terms that reduced annual procurement costs by 15% (£42,000) while maintaining delivery quality and timelines."

14. Creativity and Innovation

What it means: Generating new ideas and approaches in any context where improvement is possible. UCEN Manchester's research highlights that as AI handles repetitive tasks, "employers are hungry for skills machines can't match: curiosity, imagination, and creative problem-solving."

CV bullet example: "Proposed and piloted a peer mentoring scheme for new starters, reducing 90-day attrition by 18% and subsequently adopted as standard across all four regional offices."

15. Emotional Intelligence

What it means: Recognising and managing your own emotions, and reading those of others effectively. LinkedIn's 2026 research places emotional intelligence among the top skills for the year ahead — it underpins management, conflict resolution, and customer relations.

CV bullet example: "Mediated resolution between two senior team members whose conflict had stalled a product launch, facilitating structured conversations that restored collaboration and delivered the project on revised timeline."

How to Identify Your Own Transferable Skills

Most people underestimate what they bring. Here is a three-step framework that works whether you are a recent graduate, a career changer, or someone returning to work after a break.

Step 1: Audit

Write down every role you have held — paid or unpaid. Include jobs, volunteer positions, university societies, caring responsibilities, sports teams, and side projects. For each one, list the tasks you performed regularly. Do not edit yourself. Just get it all on paper.

A secondary school teacher's audit might include: planned and delivered 20 lessons per week; assessed and graded 150 students' work termly; managed behaviour in a classroom of 30; mentored three newly qualified teachers; chaired weekly department meetings; organised a school trip for 60 students; wrote reports for parents; liaised with external agencies on safeguarding cases.

Step 2: Map

Now translate each task into the underlying skill. "Planned and delivered 20 lessons per week" becomes curriculum design, time management, public speaking, and audience adaptation. "Managed behaviour in a classroom of 30" becomes conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, and authority under pressure. "Organised a school trip for 60 students" becomes project management, risk assessment, budget management, and stakeholder communication.

The National Careers Service offers a free online skills assessment tool at nationalcareers.service.gov.uk that can help you match your abilities to potential roles. It is worth doing — it takes about ten minutes.

Step 3: Evidence

Every skill needs a story. Use the STAR method — Situation, Task, Action, Result — to attach a concrete, measurable example to each skill. Vague claims ("I am a good communicator") carry no weight. Specific evidence does: "Delivered a 30-minute presentation to 200 parents explaining curriculum changes, resulting in a 40% increase in parental engagement survey responses."

Go through your mapped skills and write one STAR example for each. You will not use all of them, but you will have a library to draw from every time you tailor a CV or covering letter for a new application.

How to Show Transferable Skills on Your CV — Section by Section

Knowing your skills is only half the battle. The other half is placing them where recruiters and applicant tracking systems (ATS) will actually find them.

Personal Statement (Top of CV)

Your personal statement — the two-to-four-sentence paragraph at the top of your CV — is prime real estate. It should name your strongest transferable skills explicitly and connect them to the role you are applying for.

Weak: "Hardworking and enthusiastic professional looking for a new challenge in marketing."

Strong: "Operations manager with eight years' experience leading cross-functional teams, managing six-figure budgets, and delivering process improvements that reduced costs by 22%. Seeking to apply project management, data analysis, and stakeholder communication skills in a marketing operations role."

The strong version names three transferable skills, quantifies an achievement, and links the old career to the new one. A recruiter reading this knows immediately what you bring — and why it is relevant.

Experience Section (Bullet Points)

This is where most CVs fail. People describe what they were responsible for instead of what they achieved. Every bullet point in your experience section should follow this formula: Action verb + task + transferable skill (implied or named) + measurable result.

Weak: "Responsible for managing the team and handling customer complaints."

Strong: "Led a team of 12 customer service advisers, implementing a structured triage system that reduced average complaint resolution time from 5 days to 2 and improved customer satisfaction scores by 14 percentage points."

The strong version demonstrates leadership, process improvement, problem-solving, and customer focus — without ever using those words as hollow labels.

Skills Section

A dedicated skills section works well as a quick-reference summary, particularly for ATS scanning. Place it after your personal statement or after your experience section. Group skills logically:

Transferable Skills: Stakeholder management | Budget oversight (up to £250K) | Cross-functional team leadership | Data-driven decision-making | Change management

Technical Skills: Advanced Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP, macros) | Power BI | Salesforce CRM | Google Analytics 4

Do not simply list "communication" or "teamwork" in isolation. Add a qualifier or context that makes it concrete: "Client communication (B2B and B2C)" is stronger than "communication."

Covering Letter

Your covering letter is where transferable skills truly come alive. While your CV lists and evidences them, the covering letter provides the narrative — the "why" behind your career move and the "how" of your skill translation.

Use a structure like this: open with why you are interested in the role and the organisation; then dedicate the middle paragraph to two or three transferable skills with brief evidence; close with what you will bring and a call to action. Keep it under one page.

Before/After CV Examples: Three Complete Transformations

Example 1: Recent Graduate Entering Marketing

Before (generic): "English Literature graduate from University of Leeds. Looking for an entry-level marketing position. I am passionate about social media and enjoy creative writing. I worked part-time at a café during university."

After (skills-focused): "English Literature graduate with strong analytical and communication skills developed through three years of academic research and writing. Grew a university society Instagram account from 340 to 2,800 followers in 12 months by developing a content calendar, writing weekly posts, and analysing engagement data to refine strategy. Part-time hospitality experience strengthened customer service, time management, and the ability to perform under pressure in a fast-paced environment."

What changed: The after version names specific transferable skills (analysis, communication, content strategy, data interpretation, time management), provides measurable evidence (340 to 2,800 followers), and reframes "worked at a café" as a source of genuine professional capability.

Example 2: Teacher Moving into Project Management

Before (education-focused): "Secondary school History teacher with 9 years' experience. Head of Department since 2021. Responsible for teaching KS3 and KS4 History, managing department budget, and preparing students for GCSE examinations."

After (skills-translated): "Experienced people manager with nine years leading teams of up to eight professionals, managing annual budgets of £45,000, and delivering measurable performance outcomes under regulatory pressure. As Head of Department, introduced a new assessment framework that improved GCSE pass rates from 64% to 78% within two academic years. Skilled in stakeholder communication (parents, governors, external agencies), data analysis (student progress tracking), change management, and mentoring. Seeking to apply these capabilities in a project management role within the public or third sector."

What changed: Teaching jargon is gone. "Head of Department" becomes people management. "Department budget" gets a figure. "Preparing students for GCSEs" becomes delivering measurable outcomes. Every line speaks in the language of project management — which is exactly what it was all along.

Example 3: Military Veteran Moving into Operations

Before (military jargon): "Former Corporal, Royal Logistics Corps. Served 8 years including Op TORAL deployment. Responsible for stores management, vehicle fleet inspections, and command of a section of 8 soldiers."

After (civilian-translated): "Operations professional with eight years' experience in high-pressure logistics environments, managing inventory worth £2.3M, overseeing a vehicle fleet of 40+ assets, and leading a team of eight in time-critical delivery operations. Completed a six-month overseas deployment coordinating supply chain operations across three locations with zero stock discrepancy. Trained and mentored 14 junior team members, with 10 achieving promotion within 18 months. PRINCE2 Foundation certified (2025). Seeking an operations or logistics management role in the private sector."

What changed: Military terminology is replaced with corporate equivalents. "Stores management" becomes inventory management with a value. "Command of a section" becomes leading a team. The Veterans' Gateway guidance on transferable skills recommends exactly this approach: "Use plain English instead of acronyms, unit shorthand, or role names that mean little outside the military."

Transferable Skills and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

Nearly all major UK organisations — including NHS Trusts, Civil Service departments, and FTSE 100 companies — use applicant tracking systems to filter CVs before a human sees them. Understanding how ATS works gives you a significant advantage.

How ATS scans your CV: When you submit a CV online, the ATS extracts your work history, skills, and qualifications into structured data. It then compares your CV against the job description and assigns a relevance score based on keyword matches, formatting compatibility, and section recognition.

What this means for transferable skills: If the job description says "stakeholder management" and your CV says "worked with people," the ATS may not make the connection. You need to mirror the language of the job advert — not by copying it word for word, but by ensuring the same skill keywords appear in your CV where you can truthfully claim them.

Keyword strategy for transferable skills:

Aim for 15 to 25 relevant keywords per CV. Include both the formal skill name and common synonyms:

Communication → written communication, verbal communication, presentation skills, report writing, stakeholder engagement
Leadership → team leadership, people management, line management, mentoring, coaching
Problem-solving → root cause analysis, troubleshooting, continuous improvement, process optimisation
Project management → programme delivery, project coordination, milestone tracking, Gantt charts, Agile, Scrum
Adaptability → change management, flexibility, continuous learning, resilience
Analysis → data analysis, trend analysis, insight generation, reporting, forecasting

Formatting for ATS compatibility:

Use standard section headings: "Skills," "Experience," "Education." Avoid tables, text boxes, headers and footers, and complex graphics — these can confuse ATS parsers. Submit in .docx format unless the employer specifies otherwise, as .docx files are generally safer than PDFs for ATS compatibility. Use a clean, single-column layout. If you are unsure whether your CV will parse correctly, tools like SpeedCV generate ATS-optimised formats by default, which removes the guesswork.

Seven Common Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

Mistake 1: Listing skills without evidence. Writing "excellent communication skills" with no supporting example is the CV equivalent of saying "trust me." Every skill needs at least one concrete instance. Fix: attach a STAR-format achievement to each skill claim.

Mistake 2: Using vague, generic language. "Good team player" and "strong work ethic" are so overused they have become invisible. Fix: replace with specific, quantified statements. "Collaborated with a cross-functional team of 9 to deliver a product launch two weeks ahead of schedule" says "team player" far more convincingly.

Mistake 3: Failing to tailor for each application. A single, static CV sent to every job will underperform a tailored one every time. Fix: review the job description before each application. Identify the three to five transferable skills most emphasised and ensure they appear prominently on your CV — in your personal statement, experience bullets, and skills section.

Mistake 4: Hiding transferable skills in job descriptions. If your strongest transferable skill is buried in bullet point seven of a role you held four years ago, the recruiter will not find it. Fix: place your most relevant transferable skills in the personal statement and in the first two bullet points of your most recent roles.

Mistake 5: Confusing duties with achievements. "Responsible for managing the social media accounts" is a duty. "Grew LinkedIn following from 1,200 to 8,500 in 12 months through a content strategy focused on industry insights, achieving a 340% increase in engagement" is an achievement. Fix: rewrite every duty-based bullet using the formula: action verb + what you did + what happened as a result.

Mistake 6: Ignoring transferable skills from non-work experience. Voluntary work, caring responsibilities, sports captaincy, community organising, and university society leadership all generate legitimate, evidenceable transferable skills. Fix: include a "Voluntary Experience" or "Additional Experience" section and apply the same achievement-focused format.

Mistake 7: Overloading the skills section with buzzwords. A wall of 30 skills keywords with no context reads as desperate padding. Fix: limit your skills section to 10–15 well-chosen terms, grouped by category, and ensure each one is substantiated elsewhere on the CV.

Your Transferable Skills CV Checklist

Before you submit your next application, run through this list:

Personal statement names two to three transferable skills relevant to the target role
Personal statement includes at least one quantified achievement
Experience bullet points follow the action-verb + task + result formula
Each role includes at least one bullet demonstrating a transferable skill with measurable evidence
Skills section groups transferable and technical skills separately
Skills section uses keywords that match the language of the job description
Covering letter expands on two to three transferable skills with STAR-format evidence
Non-work experience (voluntary, academic, personal projects) is included where relevant
CV uses standard section headings for ATS compatibility
CV is saved in .docx format (unless otherwise specified)
No skill is claimed without at least one supporting example elsewhere on the CV
CV has been proofread by someone other than you

Making It Happen

Transferable skills are not a consolation prize for people who lack "real" experience. They are, increasingly, what UK employers are actively hiring for. When 83% of UK companies use skills-based hiring methods, when 80% will consider candidates who lack some technical requirements but show strong potential, and when three-quarters of employers rank transferable skills equal to or above technical skills — the message is clear. What you can do matters more than where you learned to do it.

The gap between having transferable skills and getting hired for them is almost always a communication problem. You already have the skills. The work now is making them visible — to yourself first, and then to the person reading your CV.

If you want a faster way to build a skills-focused CV that speaks the language recruiters are listening for, tools like SpeedCV can help you structure your experience around transferable skills and tailor your CV for specific roles in minutes rather than hours. It is particularly useful if you are making a career change and need help translating what you have done into what an employer needs to hear.

If you want concrete proof of which UK roles your background could lead to, upload your CV to SpeedCV's Match tool — it scans 600+ live UK jobs and ranks them by how well your transferable skills fit each one, in about 30 seconds.

But whether you use a tool or do it by hand, the principle is the same: audit what you know, map it to what they need, and evidence every claim. Do that, and you will not be the person sitting at a recruitment fair saying, "I've only ever been a teacher." You will be the person who walks in knowing exactly what you are worth.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are transferable skills?

Transferable skills are capabilities developed in one context — a job, degree, voluntary role, or life experience — that hold value in a different context. They include communication, problem-solving, leadership, project management, and teamwork. Unlike technical skills tied to a specific discipline, transferable skills move with you across industries and roles.

What are good examples of transferable skills for a UK CV?

The most valued transferable skills for UK employers in 2026 include: communication, problem-solving, leadership, adaptability, teamwork, organisation, critical thinking, resilience, digital literacy, relationship building, project management, attention to detail, negotiation, creativity, and emotional intelligence. Always evidence each skill with a specific, measurable achievement rather than listing it as a bare keyword.

How do I identify my transferable skills if I am changing careers?

Use the Audit-Map-Evidence framework. First, list every task you performed in previous roles (paid or unpaid). Second, translate each task into an underlying skill — for example, "organised a school trip for 60 students" maps to project management, risk assessment, and budget management. Third, attach a STAR-format example (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to each skill. The National Careers Service at nationalcareers.service.gov.uk offers a free skills assessment tool that can help.

Where should I put transferable skills on my CV?

Place them in three locations: your personal statement (name two to three skills with a quantified achievement), your experience bullet points (use the action verb + task + result formula), and a dedicated skills section grouped by category. This ensures both human recruiters and applicant tracking systems find your skills quickly.

Do UK employers really value transferable skills over qualifications?

Yes. TestGorilla's 2025 research found 83% of UK companies use skills-based hiring, and half have removed degree requirements from roles. Hays reports that 80% of UK employers would hire someone without all required technical skills if they show strong potential. The Nesta/City of London survey found three-quarters of employers prioritise transferable skills equal to or above technical skills when recruiting.