Skills Development

Build Your Skills With Social Sciences

Your Social Sciences degree equips you with powerful, transferable skills that employers value – like communication, problem-solving, collaboration, and digital literacy. This page helps you identify, strengthen, and showcase those skills through hands-on learning, workshops, and real-world experience.

Whether you’re preparing for a job, internship, or graduate program, we’ll help you build the confidence and capabilities to succeed.

Understanding Skills, Competencies & More

When we talk about “skills,” we often mean a mix of qualities that go beyond just learned techniques. To help students and educators better plan for career development, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) created a national taxonomy that breaks this idea into four related categories: skills, abilities, competencies, and personal attributes.

This framework helps clarify what you bring to the table – and how to describe it to employers, instructors, or collaborators.

Skills

Skills are the capabilities you’ve developed through learning and practice – like writing, analyzing data, or facilitating a meeting.

“Developed capabilities that an individual must have to be effective in a job, role, function, task, or duty.”

They’re often the most visible part of your toolkit, and they grow with experience.

Abilities

Abilities are the aptitudes – both natural and learned – that help you acquire knowledge and develop new skills.

“Innate and developed aptitudes that facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skills to carry out expected work.”

Think of them as the foundation that supports your learning and performance.

Competencies

Competencies are the full package: they combine your personal attributes, abilities, skills, and knowledge to help you perform effectively in a role or task.

“The combined utilization of personal attributes, abilities, skills, and knowledge to effectively perform a job, role, function, task, or duty.”

Use this category to think about how your strengths work together in real-world settings.

Personal Attributes

These are the qualities that shape how you work and interact with others – like empathy, curiosity, or resilience.

“Personal characteristics that are innate and developed through the social context and personal experiences to which the individual is exposed. These qualities influence the way one is and does things and are considered to be valuable assets for work performance.”

They influence your approach to tasks and relationships, and they’re often what make you stand out.

Visit ESDC’s Skills & Competencies Site

Social Sciences Skills In Demand

Students in Social Sciences often underestimate how valuable their skills are in today’s job market. But research from major employer organizations – including the Royal Bank of Canada and the Conference Board of Canada – shows that many of the most sought-after skills are developed through Social Sciences programs.

The skills listed below are drawn from Canada’s Skills and Competencies Taxonomy (developed by Employment and Social Development Canada) and partially informed by the U.S.-based O*Net resource. They’re ranked based on employer reports that highlight what organizations across sectors are looking for most.

Here are some of the top skills employers want – and that Social Sciences students already bring to the table:

Active Listening

Actively listen, fully comprehend others’ points, ask relevant questions, and avoid interrupting at inappropriate moments.

Critical Thinking

Employ logic and reasoning to question, discern, interpret, and analyze different types of information in order to arrive at a conclusion or judgment based on evidence.

Oral Expression

Communicate information clearly and effectively when speaking with others in professional or everyday settings.

Reading Comprehension

Comprehend written information presented in work-related documents, including words, sentences, paragraphs, symbols, and images.

Monitoring

Evaluate and track your own performance, as well as that of others or the organization, in order to make enhancements or implement corrective measures.

Coordinating

Coordinate individuals or groups by aligning activities with others, ensuring they function efficiently as a cohesive unit.

Social Perceptiveness

Recognize others’ reactions, unspoken communication, body language cues, and emotions, and understand the reasons behind their behaviours.

Decision-Making

Analyze information from various options, assess potential outcomes, and select the most suitable solutions to achieve a specific objective.

Time Management

Effectively manage your own time and coordinate the schedules or responsibilities of others when needed.

Learning & Teaching Strategies

Choose and apply suitable training or instructional methods and procedures in a given situation when learning or teaching new concepts.

Writing

Communicate through written communication, using words, sentences, paragraphs, symbols, and images tailored to the needs of the audience.

Problem-Solving

Spot problems, examine relevant information, and generate solutions or viable options to reach the desired outcome.

Learn For Growth – Not Grades

Curious about a subject outside your program? Want to build new skills without the pressure of grades?

McMaster’s Personal Interest Course (PIC) option lets undergraduate students in Level II or above take a course outside their program without affecting their Cumulative GPA. It’s a great way to explore new topics, develop transferable skills, or try something completely different – just because you’re interested.

You can declare a course as a PIC when you enroll, as long as it meets certain eligibility criteria. Your academic or program advisor can help you understand the process and decide if it’s the right fit for your goals.

Careers & Experiential Education

Faculty of Social Sciences