Job skills

What is a job skill?

Job skills are being able to do tasks like record keeping, cooking, cleaning, welding, computer programming, or teaching. You may have learned some through school, jobs, life experience and work you did while in prison. Examples are:

• Someone with construction skills can build things
• A skilled reader can understand an article, book, or instructions
• Someone with programming skills can write computer code
• Salespeople often have skills in customer service, record keeping, and processing orders

Prison work assignments and training

If you've been in prison, you may have completed a work-training program or work assignment. If you did, you learned job skills that you could use in another job. Check this list for any work or training experiences you may have had while in prison, and note skills you learned from them:

• assembly
• food service
• furniture re-finishing
• kitchen management
• machining
• metal fabrication
• painting
• shipping/receiving
• welding

• carpentry
• forklift operation
• hand/machine sewing
• laundry service
• mechanical design
• packaging machine operation
• print press operation
• warehouse operation
• wood working

Employers want to know what you can do. Think about the skills you have that can be used on a job. Make sure to include them in your job application and your resume, or talk about them at job interviews.