A great source of transferable skills: esports

From my weekly dose of pain (a Google Alert for the term "transferable skills"), this gem from a local British newspaper:

Rachel Gowers, Associate Dean of Staffordshire University Business School, looks at the growing popularity of esports and explains why the university has decided to offer an esports degree... 

One thing all of these esports educators have in common is an agreement that esports provides a vast amount of transferrable skills to the participants. 

Top skills for esports include teamworking, resilience, stamina, problem-solving, communication, endurance, decision-making, leadership, critical thinking and analytical abilities.

Just like chemistry! I don't think there is a single major in the university (including the fabled underwater basketweaving) that doesn't teach teamwork and problem-solving.

"Athletic transferable skills"

From my weekly dose of pain (a Google Alert for the term "transferable skills"), this gem from an article about former high school athletes:

Identify and parlay athletic transferable skills!  Athletic transferable skills are skills learned in sports that can be transferred to other areas of human development and life experiences.  For example, kids who learn through sports how to set goals, manage their schedule, work successfully with teammates, and develop leadership skills need to be specifically encouraged and shown how to use those skills in the classroom, their future careers, and practically every imaginable aspect of life.

Don't get me wrong, it's fairly clear to me that high school athletics provides fantastic training for basic life and job skills. It's just funny to me how this term ('transferable skills') gets used to justify not only graduate school, but also high school basketball. 

"Transferable skills" watch: Whole Foods edition

It's funny to see what pops up on a Google Alert for a specific phrase in the news media. Here's the Chicago Tribune, talking about a major employer: 

"One of our bakery team leaders is from the (Northwest Indiana) area," Amick said. "She started last year and trained in our Orland (Park, Ill.,) location. She became the associate team leader there and will be the bakery team leader in Schererville." 

Not all jobs at the new Schererville store will require retail grocery experience. Amick said the chain seeks out people with "transferable skills." 

"If someone worked in customer service before — that is a transferable skill. If you have worked in a kitchen before, that's a transferable skill. We can teach them about the food, but the energy and excitement, that's transferable," Amick said. 

Some of jobs require a certain level of skill and previous related experience, such as a cake decorator, meat cutter, cook, Amick said. 

"In grocery, there are buyer/specialists positions and those are full-time and have to have a lot more product knowledge out-of-the-gate," Amick said and added these types of employees need to be able to anticipate sales and be able to coach, mentor and train new team members.

But has the meat cutter been to graduate meat cutting school? Perhaps the meat cutter is lacking in the soft skills meat cutters need in today's market.