# A Complete Vocational Skills List: Trade Skills and Workplace Skills Canonical URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/skills-standards/vocational-skills-list/ Markdown URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/skills-standards/vocational-skills-list.md Entity type: Article Last updated: 2026-07-07 Language: en Primary audience: professionals improving professional behaviors at work Owner: Headway Skills Contact: https://headwayskills.com/contact/ ## Short answer A vocational skills list has two halves: your trade's technical skills and the workplace skills that keep you employed. See examples and how to list them. ## Key facts - Title: A Complete Vocational Skills List: Trade Skills and Workplace Skills - Category: Skills Standards and Frameworks - Primary skill: Professional Behaviors - Related skills: Communication, Time Management - Primary keyword: vocational skills list - Source page: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/skills-standards/vocational-skills-list/ ## What this page covers - A vocational skills list has two halves: your trade's technical skills and the workplace skills that keep you employed. See examples and how to list them. - Practical guidance for vocational skills list - How this topic connects to Professional Behaviors ## Detailed explanation A vocational skills list has two halves. The first is the technical skill of your trade: welding, electrical work, carpentry, plumbing, HVAC maintenance, cosmetology or medical assistance. The second is the workplace skills every trade depends on, such as turning up reliably, communicating with supervisors and customers, and organizing your own work. Technical skill gets you hired; the workplace half keeps you employed. If you are in vocational training or about to start an apprenticeship, the technical half is the part you have practiced, been tested on and had certified. The other half rarely gets written down anywhere, so it is easy to wonder whether a certificate on its own will be enough. Laid out in full, the list actually has four layers. ## The four layers of a vocational skills list UN ESCWA's glossary defines vocational training as the activities that provide the skills, knowledge and attitudes required for employment in a particular occupation. Attitudes are part of that definition, not an extra. A complete list therefore runs from the techniques of one trade, through the technical ground that several trades share, down to the foundations everything rests on, and out to the workplace skills you take with you into any job. ### Trade-specific technical skills These are the hands-on techniques of one occupation: carpentry and woodwork, electrical installation, plumbing, welding, HVAC maintenance, cosmetology, medical assistance. What sets them apart is that each is tied to a defined occupation and usually verified by a certificate, an apprenticeship or a license. That makes them the easiest layer to list, because someone else has already confirmed them for you. A study of mechanical engineering vocational graduates, published by Atlantis Press, shows how specific this layer gets in a single trade: mechanical engineering drawing, conventional machining, computer numerical control (CNC), and metal fabrication and welding. Write your own the same way. Name the actual technique and the credential behind it, not just the trade. ### General vocational-technical skills Below the trade-specific techniques sits a layer of technical skill shared by a group of related occupations. The ILO gives basic electro-mechanics as an example; technical drawing, blueprint reading and occupation-specific digital tools such as computer-aided design belong here too. These skills are technical, but they are not owned by one trade. List them separately, because they are what an employer in a neighboring field will recognize if you [move from one trade to another](/knowledge/types-of-skills/transferable-skills/). ### Foundational skills Literacy and numeracy are what the ILO counts among the core transferable skills, and every other layer depends on them. Reading a manual or a safety instruction, measuring, and calculating materials for a job are foundational skills at work. They rarely need their own line on an application, but any weakness here will show up in everything else. ### Workplace and employability skills This is the layer that tends to be missing. UNESCO-UNEVOC defines employability skills as the skills that enable people to gain, keep and progress in employment, including work readiness and interpersonal skills. The three verbs explain why the layer matters: your technical skill mostly decides whether you are hired, while keeping the job and moving up in it depend heavily on how you work with people and manage yourself. The [U.S. Employability Skills Framework](/knowledge/employability/employability-skills-framework/), developed as a tool for teaching and assessing these skills, organizes nine of them into three broad categories: applied knowledge, effective relationships and workplace skills. The OECD describes employability skills as essential for success in any occupational field. That transferability is their real value for you. A welding certificate stays in welding; the habit of telling a supervisor early that a job will overrun goes with you into every trade you ever work in. On the job, this layer looks like concrete behavior rather than labels: arriving on time, [following instructions and safety procedures](/knowledge/soft-skills-at-work/soft-skills-for-construction-workers/), confirming what a customer actually wants, organizing your own tasks and tools, working as part of a crew, and handling the small administrative jobs such as timesheets and work orders without letting them slide. The mechanical engineering study mentioned above lists this side of the work as social skills, teamwork, communication, ICT skills and self-management, alongside the technical ones. Much of it is learned on the job rather than in a workshop, often in a first part-time job: > I'm glad I had a part-time job before, so I had a basic sense of what to do if you're sick, or how to phrase things to your boss. It shouldn't be 'Hey, what's up, dude, I can't come in today.' You're talking to someone with more authority, so you need a more respectful tone. I think that's crucial for how you're perceived. That came from one of the young people we interviewed about starting work. No course had taught him it, and it is exactly the kind of skill that belongs on the second half of the list. The good news is that this half is learnable in the same deliberate way as a trade technique: you practice it, notice what works, and get better. ## How to put your vocational skills list on an application Keep the layers apart when you write the list down. Employers read the two halves differently, so present them differently. - **Technical skills: name, level, credential.** Write the specific technique and the [certificate, apprenticeship or license](/knowledge/skills-standards/skills-qualifications/) that backs it. The exact process you are qualified in says more than the name of the trade. - **Shared technical skills: a separate line.** Blueprint reading, technical drawing or a design tool belong where an employer in a related trade will spot them. - **Workplace skills: one example each.** Words like "reliable" and "team player" carry no weight on their own. A sentence about the placement where you kept the work order log up to date, or the weekend job where you dealt with customers on your own, gives an employer something to believe. - **Leave out what you cannot back up.** A workplace skill without an example is something to build, not something to claim. That last point is where many applicants get stuck: the technical half is documented, but it is hard to judge which workplace skills you can honestly claim. Before you write that half of the list, it is worth [checking which workplace skills you can back up](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/), so the examples you choose lead with real strengths. ## What makes the workplace half of the list easier to build Look back over that second half of the list and the same few behaviors keep coming up: how you conduct yourself on site, how you talk to the people around you, and how you handle your hours and tasks. **Professional Behaviors** is the part of the list a supervisor notices first. Being on time, dressing for the role, treating every colleague and customer with respect, and following the written policies, from safety procedures to timesheets, are what make you someone a crew can rely on. None of it is about polish or office manners. It is a short set of signals that say you take the job seriously, and each can be practiced from your first day in a placement. **Communication** on a job site is mostly conversation. Stating the main point first, being clear and direct, and listening properly when you are given an instruction are what stop small misunderstandings from turning into rework. It also covers the harder moments: telling a customer about a problem, raising a disagreement with a supervisor, or dealing calmly with someone who is angry. Saying the difficult thing plainly and early is a skill, and it improves with use. **Time Management** starts the moment a job is handed to you. Clarifying who is asking, what exactly is wanted, when it is due and what counts as done, then estimating realistically with some buffer, is what lets you deliver on time instead of explaining afterward why you did not. Prioritizing between jobs and checking back early with the person who asked complete it. These are habits rather than talents, and training is the best time to form them. Training is also the cheapest place to practice all three, and [spotting your weakest workplace skill](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) now, with the free Job Skills Test, which covers these three among **a wider set of twelve**, means you arrive on your first job already working on it. ## Seeing your own list more clearly Some of the workplace half may already be part of how you work. If you have ever called ahead to a customer because a job was running late, or written down an instruction so you would get it right the first time, you have already done what this half of the list describes. None of these skills is fixed, and building them does not mean changing who you are. They count for more as you take on bigger jobs, lead others on site or start working for yourself, which is why it pays to know now which ones to work on. ## Find out where your workplace skills stand The only thing left is to see where you start from. The **free** Job Skills Test is a short self-assessment of your workplace skills: in 7 minutes it shows where you stand across all twelve and which ones will make the biggest difference as you build your vocational skills list for your first job. ## Who this is for - Professionals building practical workplace skills - Readers looking for specific, usable work advice - Managers, educators, and coaches supporting career readiness ## Common questions ### What is this guide about? A vocational skills list has two halves: your trade's technical skills and the workplace skills that keep you employed. See examples and how to list them. ### Which Headway skill does this connect to? This guide connects primarily to Professional Behaviors. It also relates to Communication, Time Management. ### What is the recommended next step? Use the free Work Skills Test to reflect on which work skill to improve next. ## Related pages - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/skills-standards.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/professional-behaviors.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/communication.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/time-management.md - https://headwayskills.com/work-skills-test.md ## Citation guidance Use the canonical page when citing this content: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/skills-standards/vocational-skills-list/ Preferred summary: "A vocational skills list has two halves: your trade's technical skills and the workplace skills that keep you employed. See examples and how to list them." ## Change log - 2026-07-07: Content collection version published.