Texas A&M Career Center – Majors

What is a Marketable Skill?

Marketable skills include interpersonal, cognitive, and applied skill areas, are valued by employers, and are primary or complementary to a major. Marketable skills are acquired by students through education, including curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities.

Marketable skills are often called employability skills in other countries, or transferable skills here in the United States. They include both technical and soft skills. Defining marketable skills by major should help students market themselves to employers.

The marketable skills goal emphasizes the value of higher education in the workforce. Texas public two and four-year institutions must ensure that students are aware of, and graduate with marketable skills. The marketable skills goal enhances higher education’s mission to produce well-rounded and well informed individuals familiar with all fields of human activity and with a strong understanding of civic responsibilities.