How to Build Transferable Skills Throughout Your University Experience 

In our latest blog, undergraduate student Laura Carbó Bel explains why transferable skills matter and how you can develop them throughout your time at university.

What will I remember most from university? The exams? The all-nighters in the library? Those moments are part of the story, of course. But looking back, the thing I value most is not something I could put a grade on. It’s the transferable skills I picked up along the way, often without even realising it. 

Transferable skills are the ones that stay with you, no matter where your career takes you. They can be applied across different roles, industries and even countries. Being completely honest, the biggest lessons I learned did not usually come from a lecture hall. They came from saying yes to opportunities that felt unfamiliar, working alongside people who challenged my perspective, and learning to adapt when things didn't go exactly as planned. 

Get comfortable being uncomfortable

University is one of the times in life when you are encouraged to try things before you feel completely ready. It’s tempting to only apply for opportunities that match your existing experience, but that's rarely where the most growth happens. 

For me, that meant embracing opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. I’ve attended society events to meet new people and learn from experienced professionals, competed in the Sustainability Marketing Challenge where my team developed a business plan from scratch, volunteered in a food bank, and made the decision to study abroad in Singapore. Each experience came with its own challenges and not everything went right the first time, but together they helped me become more adaptable, more confident and more comfortable stepping into situations where I didn’t have all the answers. 

The learning you don’t notice 

We tend to associate "skill building" with internships and leadership roles. While those experiences are valuable, some of my biggest lessons came from the everyday moments that often go unnoticed. 

Group projects taught me how to collaborate with people whose ways of thinking were completely different from my own. Presentations pushed me to become a more confident communicator. Trying to balance multiple deadlines at once taught me more about prioritisation and time management than any planner app ever could. Even asking a question in a seminar or introducing myself at a networking event helped me become more comfortable putting myself out there. 

In the moment, they often seem like ordinary parts of your routine. Over time, you begin to realise just how much they have contributed to the person you have become. 

Different perspectives, different lessons 

One of the best parts of university has been meeting people from completely different backgrounds and ways of thinking. Working alongside them taught me to listen harder, communicate more clearly, and stay open to being wrong. There is rarely one "correct" way to solve a problem, and learning to adapt your approach depending on who you are working with is a skill in its own right. In a workplace that's only getting more global, I believe that matters just as much as any technical know-how. 

Actually stop and reflect

If I could change one thing, I would have paused more often to think about what I was actually learning. University moves fast, and it is easy to sprint from deadline to deadline without noticing your own growth. Spending just a few minutes after a project, presentation or new experience asking yourself, "What did I learn from that?" can make a real difference. Reflection not only helps you recognise your own progress, but it also makes interviews and applications much easier because you will already have in your mind meaningful examples of challenges you have overcome and the skills you have developed. 

Let go of the perfect plan 

There is often pressure to leave university with a perfect CV and a clear five-year plan. The reality is that very few people have everything figured out, and that is completely normal. 

Looking back, it was not one module or one internship that shaped me the most. It was the combination of coursework, extracurricular activities, mistakes made along the way and the moments when I stepped outside my comfort zone. 

So, if I could leave you with one piece of advice, it would be this: stay curious and do not be afraid to say yes to opportunities that genuinely excite you, even if they also make you a little nervous. You might not realise it at the time, but those experiences are often the ones that teach you the most.