Skills development

Develop your employability skills

Gain employability skills that take you beyond a particular job or organisation and can be readily applied in any setting.

Gaining a set of employability skills will always help you stand out from the crowd, by demonstrating your abilities to take initiative and go beyond our employer’s set expectations.

Employability skills

The world of work is changing, and everyone is talking about employability and skills development but what does it actually mean? From day one at Macquarie, you will have opportunities to become a well-rounded graduate. You will explore, develop and apply the knowledge, skills and attributes that employers are looking for. This means you are more likely to be able to gain employment after graduation. You will also be able to adapt and change as your career goals progress and the world of work shifts.

To develop your employability skills, head to Employability Connect and work your way through the MQ skills guide, a list of 15 key employability skills that employers value in graduates.

Your existing skillset

The good news is that you probably have far more employability skills than you realise!

Your degree

• Look at your course handbook and unit guides to see what skills you should develop through your participation.
• Consider what resources you used to complete your assessments. You may have gained employability skills in technology in writing the assessment and employability teamwork skills in completing group projects.

Your work experience

• Includes part-time and vacation jobs, internships and placements, working for a family business, volunteering, work shadowing, insight days and employer visits.
• Not only can you gain employability skills through employment experience, but you may have developed employability skills in time management and prioritisation if you managed a part-time job or internship during your studies.

Your extra-curricular experience

• Engaging in sporting activities, student societies, professional associations and hobbies can provide you with employability skills in organisation, teamwork, networking and communication.
• The more actively involved you are the more opportunities you have to develop employability skills in leadership, coaching and project management.

Develop your employability skills

Develop, enhance and showcase your employability skills by participating actively in your studies, your workplace and extracurricular activities.

Opportunities to develop employability skills could include:

• Seek out the opportunity to lead a group project.
• Develop cultural awareness through interacting with others with culturally and linguistically different backgrounds to yourself.
• Write for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Participate in a debate or public speaking event.
• Undertake an opportunity to mentor.
• Consider all the different technology platforms you use on a daily basis. Are you competent in all of them? Can you enhance your skills by taking a short-course online through learning platforms such as Udemy.
• Ask your trusted family and peer group about your strengths.
• Read the selection criteria in job advertisements to learn about what skills employers in your field are looking for.
• Participate in team activities and events.
• Gain volunteer experience for fundraising events and project management opportunities.
• Attend a networking event.
• Explain how you manage an activity and allocate time to Career and Employment Service individual tasks.

Articulate your employability skills

When highlighting employability skills on resumes, cover letters and online profiles, a great technique is to communicate them through a story or narrative. Actions speak louder than words.

Rather than writing 'I have exceptional time management skills' communication this information by including it within a story that demonstrates this ability.

For example:

“Within my team project for X, I undertook administration responsibilities to co-ordinate a multidisciplinary and international team effort to develop unique customer-service solutions. This involved ensuring time schedules for myself and the other team members were highly coordinated which allowed us to deliver our project to expectations and deadlines.”

Skills support

Careers and Student Employment can help you build and showcase your skillset.

We offer:

• Workshops to help you gain and develop employment skills and confidence.
• Career events throughout the year, such as fairs, industry expert presentations and seminars which help you connect with employers.
• Exclusive access to online tools such as MyMQ Career Zone and CV360.
• Careers and Student Employment Team that can help place you in a job.

These are all free and available to you at any time while studying at Macquarie, and up to 12 months after you graduate.