My top ten transferable skills for teachers in 2024

Last updated on March 5th, 2024 at 09:02 pm

There are so many skills great teachers possess that are valued in the workplace and marketplace. Teachers leave the field to pursue other avenues all the time, we just don’t hear of every case. Maybe you’ve finally decided to leave but aren’t sure where that lands you.

So I’m hereby giving you permission, teacher. Just because you went to college and studied and interned and earned you diploma in Elementary Education or Secondary Education doesn’t mean you are limited to only those jobs.

That is extremely narrow thinking, given your far-reaching skillset.

A business or communications major, for instance, has typically been given education in these skills and takes his or her pick at pursuing dozens of careers utlizing these skills.

The same can go for teachers looking for something more.

Looking at the most in-demand career skills of 2024

LinkedIn published their 2024 list of most in-demand career skills, and each skill can apply to teachers. (Granted, not every skill on this list may be your strength!) Here’s a short version of that list:

1. Communication
2. Customer service
3. Leadership
4. Project management
5. Management
6. Analytics
7. Teamwork
8. Sales
9. Problem-solving
10. Research

(Written and compiled by Dan Brodnitz for LinkedIn.)

How these in-demand skills transfer well to teachers

I’m hoping that as you glanced over the list of highly in-demand skills, your brain was firing off example after example of how you as a teacher possess these skills.

It’s my opinion that if you’ve been teaching long enough to last more than a few semesters in a modern classroom, you pretty much have to have these skills. Modern classroom teaching is too much of a balancing act not to possess these qualities!

In case you need help brainstorming ways you’ve already demonstrated these competencies, I’ll list out some examples for you. Here’s how these might apply to you as a teacher:

1. Communication– Teaching is a very communication-heavy job. You wouldn’t be teaching without communicating in some form.
2. Customer service– Hello, parents.
3. Leadership– This is evident in your classroom, every day and all the time.
4. Project management– Fitting in the entire scope of the year’s instruction into each period, each day, week, and month is project management.
5. Management– You manage students all day long, sometimes multiple groups.
6. Analytical skills– Here’s where you’re looking at all that data collected.
7. Teamwork– Working with your students and co-teachers should be considered teamwork. Working with families is teamwork. The entire job is pretty much teamwork.
8. Sales– Have you ever “sold” an idea to the kids? How about This standardized test is very important and you need to try your best for starters.
9. Problem-solving– Haha. Okay, we’re all grinning in unison on this, right? BECAUSE THE ENTIRETY OF CLASSROOM TEACHING IS PROBLEM SOLVING. They are synonymous, basically.
10. Research– Maybe you’ve researched part of your instructional content for a new lesson or unit. Or you’ve researched best or new practices to reach a particular student or fill a specific gap.

Do you see how easily you can apply your teaching skills to skills necessary for other professions? Don’t discount yourself. I’d also add the following skills from my own observations of what the workplace values:

1. Emotional intelligence– Teachers often have a keen ability to read and respond to others’ emotions– cultivated from hours upon hours spent in close quarters with young humans.
2. “Withitness”– Teachers are spinning dozens of plates all at once every second and it’s pretty darn amazing.
3. Tech skills– Any teachers that were forced to pivot very suddenly from traditional instruction to online also probably learned so many technology skills to reach their students.

Teachers need to capitalize on transferable strengths to explore new fields

I hope you find this list encouraging and inspiring to look around at what your next steps could be. CEO Jodi Glickman points out that “Today, more than ever, we live in a skills economy.” It’s never been a better time to leverage those skills you have as a teacher in your search for a new role.

“Today, more than ever, we live in a skills economy.”

Jodi Glickman, CEO, author, entrepreneur

And guess what? I believe most teachers are uniquely suited to secure and thrive in other career positions. Right now, in the maelstrom of advancing and abundant technology, what workplaces are really looking for is people skills. LinkedIn VP Aneesh Raman even predicted: “People skills are going to come more to the center of individual career growth.”

The LinkedIn article also identifies a “top skill of the moment:” adaptability.

Teachers are the poster children of people skills and adaptability. I mean… where are my pandemic-era teachers? Remember when we had to pivot to a computer screen with .2 seconds of notice? Or even post-pandemic, teachers surviving the classroom in any capacity are sinking or swimming based on their management and people skills.

It’s my opinion that teachers are well-positioned to vy for the jobs demanding these skills. It just takes the confidence to identify and emphasize these competencies.

You may have to sharpen and refine these skills or upskill. It may take a season of life to enhance your abilities and upskill to open up other opportunities. (I offer my best tip on how to make some side income during that in-between time in my article on private tutoring!)

But your years in the classroom likely served as an important and informative training ground, refining you with every passing period and each new roster.

Chances are, you are more than “just a teacher.”

Let me know in the comments if you have found any other resources to be helpful in the job search– I’m rooting for you!