Recognising women's skills

Skills recognition can be particularly valuable for women.

Some women may think they have less skills and experience than they actually do. Skills recognition can be a huge confidence boost and can prompt women to apply for a new job, start further education or ask for a pay rise.

How does skills recognition help?

Skills recognition can allow you to take stock of the skills and experience you have, measure the gaps in your knowledge and identify education and career opportunities that might suit you.

Women who have been out of the work force for a while, for example, as care givers or for other reasons, often work in an unpaid or voluntary basis and these skills can be recognised. If you have spent time volunteering at a school canteen, sporting club or looking after other family members and friends you will probably have skills that can be counted towards a qualification or unit of competency.

Want to find out more? Have a read of the is recognition for you page.

What skills do you have?

Even if you have not worked for a while, you can probably list a number of skills you have acquired informally, or on the job, without having to think too hard. For example, communicating effectively on the phone, running a meeting or small event management. Why not write down some examples now?

Alternatively you can use the self evaluation tool to browse or search a list of occupations and qualifications. The computer will match the skills and experience you nominate with qualifications that include those skills.

Time for a change?

For some women, re-entering the workforce once the kids are at school is a perfect opportunity to reassess their careers and maybe choose a new one. This might be something you are thinking about doing too.

Skills recognition can help you by allowing you to transfer some of your pre-existing work experience to a new field. This will make retraining shorter and possibly cheaper.

Learn more about women and skills recognition

There are many different approaches to collecting and organising evidence for skills recognition. A TAFE NSW project called Women's Skills has put together some case studies about women who are heading back into the workforce after a break.

The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency is a good site to learn more about how women fit into Australian workplaces. It talks about maternity leave, working part time and professional development opportunities.