How to Identify Your Transferable Skills When You Have Been Unemployed

Being unemployed can make it easy to focus on what you have not done recently.

A more useful question is:

What skills have I already developed, and where could I use them next?

Your previous work, education and life experience may have given you skills that are relevant to jobs you have not previously considered. The National Careers Service specifically advises people who are unemployed or returning to work to identify transferable skills and use them when considering different jobs.

Start With Skills, Not the Gap in Your Employment

An employment gap tells you that you were not employed for a particular period. It does not, by itself, tell an employer what you can or cannot do.

The National Careers Service advises people to think about skills gained through their current or most recent job, previous education and work experience, and daily life. It also recommends making a list of strengths and areas for improvement.

This gives you a much more useful starting point than simply looking at the job title you held before.

What Are Transferable Skills?

Transferable skills are skills that can be useful in different jobs.

The National Careers Service gives examples including communication, teamwork, problem-solving, decision-making, organisation and adapting to difficult situations. It also explains that these skills can be developed through school, life and work.

A skill is transferable because of what you can do, not because of the title of the job where you learned it.

For example, communicating with customers is an activity. The transferable skills demonstrated through that activity may include communication, listening and problem-solving.

The important step is to identify the actual skill and the evidence behind it.

Look Back at What You Have Actually Done

Take your previous experience one area at a time.

Previous Employment

For each job you have held, ask:

What did I have to do regularly?

What problems did I have to deal with?

Who did I communicate with?

What information, equipment or systems did I use?

Did I have to organise tasks, meet deadlines or make decisions?

Do not worry about finding impressive terminology.

Start with what actually happened.

Education and Training

Consider qualifications, courses and other learning you have completed.

Think about what you had to demonstrate rather than simply listing the name of the qualification.

Your learning may have involved research, written communication, practical work, using technology, analysing information or working with others.

Volunteering and Other Activities

Transferable skills are not limited to paid employment.

The National Careers Service recommends considering skills gained through daily life as well as education and work.

Relevant experience may therefore come from volunteering, community activities, caring responsibilities, projects, education or other activities you have undertaken.

Do not claim a skill merely because an activity sounds relevant. Identify what you actually did and what that demonstrates.

Build Your Personal Skills Inventory

Create a simple record like this:

What I did	Skill demonstrated	Evidence
Dealt with customer enquiries	Communication / problem-solving	Explained information and resolved routine enquiries
Organised several tasks	Organisation	Planned work and kept track of deadlines
Worked with colleagues	Teamwork	Coordinated tasks with other people
Used computer systems	Digital skills	Used the systems required for the role
Responded to changing circumstances	Adaptability	Adjusted how work was carried out

This is a practical skills-inventory method, not an official National Careers Service form.

The purpose is to move from a vague statement such as “I have good people skills” to evidence that shows what you actually did.

Now Compare Your Skills With Real Jobs

This is where your skills inventory becomes useful.

The National Careers Service advises people to check job descriptions and its career profiles to understand the skills needed for jobs they are interested in. Its career profiles provide information about what different roles involve, including qualifications, daily tasks and progression opportunities.

Choose a job you are considering and compare its requirements with your inventory.

Ask:

Which requirements can I already demonstrate?

Which skills are directly transferable?

Which requirements are different from my previous work?

Which qualifications or technical skills would I still need?

This last question is important.

Transferable skills can help you move towards a different occupation, but they do not automatically replace a qualification, licence, technical skill or other requirement where the vacancy requires one.

Use the National Careers Service Skills Assessment

The National Careers Service has a Discover your skills and careers assessment.

It asks questions about things you like to do or are good at and then provides career suggestions for you to compare. The current assessment contains 40 multiple-choice questions and normally takes around 5 to 10 minutes, although it can take longer with a screen reader.

The assessment does not establish that a particular career is suitable for you.

The National Careers Service describes the results as career suggestions to compare. You should therefore use the results as one piece of information alongside your actual experience, skills, interests and the requirements of real jobs.

You can also speak to a National Careers Service adviser for careers information, advice and guidance.

The Current UK Labour Market: Why Evidence Matters

The latest ONS labour-market release, published on 15 September 2026, estimated 702,000 vacancies in the UK for June to August 2026. This was the lowest estimated vacancy level since February to April 2021. The same release reported 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy for May to July 2026. ONS states that its labour-market estimates contain uncertainty and are subject to revision.

These are national figures. They do not tell you whether a particular occupation, employer or local area has vacancies.

They do, however, provide current context for why identifying the jobs that genuinely match your skills is a useful part of a disciplined job search.

Do Not Undersell Experience Gained During Unemployment

Being unemployed does not mean that nothing useful has happened during that period.

The National Careers Service specifically advises people with employment gaps to focus on transferable skills gained during the gap and what they have learned from the experience. It gives examples such as volunteering and completing courses.

That does not mean presenting every activity as professional experience.

It means identifying genuine skills and being accurate about where and how you developed them.

Your Practical Next Step

Today, create your own Personal Skills Inventory.

Write down:

1. Five things I have done in previous work or education.
2. Five things I have done during any period away from employment that involved useful activity or learning.
3. The skill demonstrated by each activity.
4. The evidence that proves I used that skill.

Then choose one career profile from the National Careers Service and compare your inventory with the skills, tasks and entry requirements shown for that occupation.

You are not trying to prove that you qualify for the job.

You are trying to establish something more useful:

Which of my existing skills genuinely transfer, which requirements do I already meet, and what would I still need to develop?

That is how previous experience can become evidence for your next employment move.

Official Resources

National Careers Service — Understand and develop your skills: guidance on identifying skills gained through work, education and daily life.

National Careers Service — Discover your skills and careers: current skills assessment and career suggestions.

National Careers Service — Explore careers: career profiles covering job duties, qualifications, salary and progression information.

National Careers Service — Redundancy and dealing with losing your job: specific guidance on transferable skills when unemployed.

Scope note: The National Careers Service is the careers service for people living in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own careers services.