Skill

A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. Some examples of general skills are time management, teamwork and leadership, and self-motivation. In contrast, domain-specific skills would be used only for a certain job, e.g. operating a sand blaster. Skill usually requires certain environmental stimuli and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used.[1]

A skill may be called an art when it represents a body of knowledge or branch of learning, as in the art of medicine or the art of war.[2] Although the arts are also skills, there are many skills that form an art but have no connection to the fine arts.[3]

People need a broad range of skills to contribute to the modern economy. A joint ASTD and U.S. Department of Labor study showed that through technology, the workplace is changing, and identified 16 basic skills that employees must have to be able to change with it.[4] Three broad categories of skills are suggested and these are technical, human, and conceptual.[5] The first two can be substituted with hard and soft skills, respectively.[6]

  1. ^ White, Melissa (June 2007). "Book Reviews: Chris Warhurst, Irena Grugulis and Ewar t Keep (eds) The Skills That Matter Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004, 272 pp. ISBN: 1—4039—0639—4". Work, Employment and Society. 21 (2): 381–382. doi:10.1177/09500170070210021205. ISSN 0950-0170.
  2. ^ "art". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
  3. ^ King, Catherine R. P.; McCall, Madelon (2 April 2024). "How the fine arts create the finest students: A design thinking study". Higher Education Quarterly. 78 (3): 1162–1174. doi:10.1111/hequ.12521. ISSN 0951-5224.
  4. ^ "Publications and Research Search Results, Employment & Training Administration (ETA)". wdr.doleta.gov. U.S. Department of Labor. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  5. ^ Sommerville, Kerry (2007). Hospitality Employee Management and Supervision: Concepts and Practical Applications. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 328. ISBN 9780471745228.
  6. ^ Rao, M.S. (2010). Soft Skills - Enhancing Employability: Connecting Campus with Corporate. New Delhi: I. K. International Publishing House Pvt Ltd. p. 225. ISBN 9789380578385.