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Skills snap!

Learn to recognise transferable skills with this fun, team-based activity and spot your strengths.

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You’ll need

  • Pens/pencils
  • Slips of paper or sticky notes
  • Transferable skills sheets (optional)

Before you begin 

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Take a look at our guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.  
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers. 

Planning and setting up the activity

  • Make sure you have enough paper strips or sticky notes for everyone to have several.
  • You could have lists of transferable skills to help young people identify them.
  • Find out more about CVs, cover letters and skills gained in Scouts on our Employability webpage.

Running the activity

  1. Gather everyone together and discuss transferable skills, such as what they are, why they are important and how we get them.
  2. Give everyone access to slips of paper or sticky notes.
  3. Explain they should try to write down as many skills that employers might look for.
  4. Once finished, ask everyone to get into small group.
  5. One person in the group should read out their list, one by one.
  6. Everyone else in the group should see if they had the same skill. If they do, they should shout ‘Snap!’
  7. Keep going until everyone’s read out their list.
  8. Gather everyone back together.
  9. Now, ask everyone what skills they all had in common and why they think those skills stood out.
  10. Next, discuss those skills that only one person thought about. How could you use these skills in a job? Maybe they're less noticeable, harder to acquire or are only needed in certain careers.
  11. Finally, ask everyone to write down a list of skills they think they have. You could also try to find an example of when you’ve used each one.

Reflection

This activity helped us think about the skills employers look for and how we already use them in everyday life. It was interesting to see which skills were most common. Most of us said things like teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. Can you think of a time you used these skills? These skills are easy to notice because they show up a lot when people work together. They’re super important in group settings, and we’ve been taught to recognise them since school or even earlier. They’re kind of the 'go-to' skills everyone expects to see. It might also mean that these skills are seen as valuable because they help the group succeed, so people have learned to spot them quickly. 

But maybe we miss other important skills that aren’t as obvious or ones for specific careers. What skills did we have that not many people noticed? For example, you may have said staying calm under pressure or thinking creatively. Why do you think fewer people noticed these skills? What do you think about your skillset now? How could you show these skills to an employer? Transferable skills are all around us and just because a skill is easy to recognise doesn’t mean it’s the only one that matters.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

  • If someone struggles with writing, they can work with a partner or small group where someone can help with writing. You could help people who may need some support with this, have pencil grips for people to use, or see if the activity could be done in another way, such as by drawing or using stickers. Make sure everyone has enough time to write or draw, and, and it’s OK if people don’t spell words correctly. You might also provide word charts or dictionaries for assistance.
  • If it’s is sensitive to loud noises, try to remind everyone to be quieter or have a noise level warning system. People could wear ear defenders, you can shut doors and windows to reduce external noise, or you can have a quiet zone for people to go to if needed. You could also run the activity outside or over a larger space to reduce the noise. People could silently ‘snap’ too. In noisy activities, someone with a hearing aid might feel more comfortable turning it off, but be sure it’s turned back on afterward.
  • Make sure any movements and actions are things everyone can do. For example, instead of snapping, people could stick their tongue out instead.
  • If someone has difficulties communicating verbally, try doing this activity without speaking. You could turn the sticky notes or pieces of paper over instead of reading each skill aloud.
  • Make sure that everyone can see any lists. You may need to make the words larger, use an easy to read and large print font, or enlarge any images. You could provide digital version, so people can use of magnification software. People could also use magnifying glasses, braille versions or large print versions. Make sure to use colours that can easily be identified for anyone who’s colourblind.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Explorers Employability Skills Activity Badge