A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of work, some general skills would include time management, teamwork and leadership, self motivation and others, whereas domain-specific skills would be useful only for a certain job. Skill usually requires certain environmental stimuli and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used.

People need a broad range of skills in order to contribute to a modern economy and take their place in the technological society of the 21st century. A joint ASTD and U.S. Department of Labor study showed that through technology, the workplace is changing, and identified 16 basic skills that employees must have to be able to change with it.

General skills

Learning to learn

Learning is an integral part of everyday life. The skill of knowing how to learn is a must for everybody and is the key to acquiring new skills and sharpening the ability to think through problems. It opens the door to other learning. Study smarter - not harder. A secondary benefit of learning how to learn is that it empowers the learner's ability to develop a measurable task repeatedly.

Foundation skills

From the employer's perspective, the skill of knowing how to learn is cost-effective because it can mitigate the cost of retraining efforts. When workers use efficient learning strategies, they absorb and apply training more quickly, saving their employers money and time. When properly prepared, employees can use learning-to-learn techniques to distinguish between essential and nonessential information, discern patterns in information, and pinpoint the actions necessary to improve job performance. Many employers - particularly those dealing with rapid technological change see the learning-to-learn skill as an urgent necessity. Productivity, innovation, and competitiveness all depend on developing the workers' learning capability. Machinery and processes are transferable between companies and countries, but it is the application of human knowledge to technology and systems that provides the competitive edge.

Basic skills competence

The inability of large numbers of new workers to meet reading, writing, or computational (simple mathematics) standards is an economic and competitive issue. This forces employers to spend more on these critical competence skills. The majority of workers are literate and numerate but frequently, cannot use these skills effectively because they are rusty when called upon to use mathematical principles they have not used for 20 years, because they must use the skills in a context different from the one in which they originally learned them, or because they do not understand how to expand or apply the skill.

Reading

Reading has historically been considered the fundamental vocational skill for a person to get, keep, get ahead, or to change jobs. One educational assessment by Kirsch and Jungeblut in 1986, indicates that there is a large nationwide population of intermediate literates who only have fourth to eighth grade literacy equivalency (but are high school graduates) and who have not obtained a functional or employable literacy level.

Writing

Writing is consistently ranked among the highest priorities for job applicants and employees. One study states that more than 50 percent of the business respondents identified writing skill deficiencies in secretarial, skilled, managerial, supervisory, and bookkeeping personnel.

Computation

Because of technology, simple mathematical computation is important as employers focus on an employee's ability to compute at higher levels of sophistication. The introduction of sophisticated management and quality control approaches demand higher mathematical skills. Ironically, as occupational skill-level requirements climb, higher educational dropout rates and worsening worker deficiencies in computational skills are appearing (Brock, 1987; Kirsch and Jungeblut, 1986; Semerad, 1987). Employers complain particularly about miscalculations of decimals and fractions, resulting in expensive production errors. Employees must calculate correctly to conduct inventories, complete accurate reports of production levels, measure machine parts or specifications so that medium-to-high levels of mathematics skills are required across job categories. The business effect of math skill deficiencies is bottom line losses.

Communication skills

Formal education in communication has been directed at reading and writing skills that are used least in the workplace. Most have only one or two years in speech related courses and no formal training in listening. Workers who can express their ideas orally and who understands verbal instructions make fewer mistakes, adjust more easily to change, and more readily absorb new ideas than those who do not. Thus career development is enhanced by training in oral communication and listening because these skills contribute to an employee's success in all of the following areas: interviewing, making presentations at or conducting meetings; negotiating and resolving conflict; selling; leading; being assertive; teaching or coaching others; working in a team; giving supervisors feedback about conversations with customers; and retraining. Employees spend most of the day communicating, and the time they spend will increase as robots, computers, and other machines take over mundane, repetitive jobs.

Oral

Skill in oral communication is a key element of good customer service. More than 76 million workers (in the USA) are in the service sector and companies that provide excellent service tend to stay far ahead of their competitors. To provide good service, all employees (not just designated sales and marketing employees) must learn how to talk and listen to customers, handle complaints and solve their problems.

Listening

As workers go up the corporate ladder, the listening time increases so that top managers spend as much as 65 percent of their day listening (Keefe, 1971). Because most people have had no training in this critical skill, poor listening habits cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year in productivity lost through misunderstandings and mistakes. At the rate of one $15 mistake per U.S. employee per year, the annual cost of poor listening would be more than a billion dollars.

Problem-solving

Problem-solving skills include the ability to recognize and define problems, invent and implement solutions, and track and evaluate results. Creative thinking not only requires the ability to understand problem-solving techniques, but also to transcend logical and sequential thinking, making the leap to innovation. Unresolved problems create dysfunctional relationships in the workplace. Ultimately, they become impediments to flexibility and in dealing with strategic change in an open-ended and creative way.

Creative thinking

New approaches to problem-solving, organizational design, and product development all spring from the individual capacity for creative thinking. At work, creative thinking is generally expressed through the process of creative problem solving. Increasingly, companies are identifying creative problem solving as critical to their success and are instituting structured approaches to problem identification, analysis, and resolution. Creative solutions help the organization to move forward toward strategic goals. Organizational strategy is an example of creative thinking.

Self-esteem

Another key to effectiveness is good personal management. Self-esteem, motivation/goal setting, and employability/career development skills are critical because they impact individual morale which in turn plays a significant role in an institutions ability to achieve bottom line results. Employers have felt the pressure to make provisions to address perceived deficiencies in these skill areas because they realize that a work force without such skills is less productive. Conversely, solid personal management skills are often manifested by efficient integration of new technology or processes, creative thinking, high productivity, and a pursuit of skill enhancement. Unfortunately, problems related to these skill areas have increased primarily because entry-level applicants are arriving with deficiencies in personal management skills. On the job, the lack of personal management skills affects hiring and training costs, productivity, quality control, creativity, and ability to develop skills to meet changing needs. This presents a series of roadblocks that slow or halt an organizations progress. An organization with such difficulties cannot plan accurately for its future to integrate new technology, establish new work structures, or implement new work processes.

Motivation/goal setting

Motivation is the combination of desire, values, and beliefs that drives you to take action. These three motivating factors, and/or lack of them, are at the root of why people behave the way they do. Because you ultimately control your values, beliefs, and desires, you can influence your motivations. This means, if you consider something important and assign value to it, you are more likely to do the work it takes to attain the goal. When motivation originates from an internal source and is combined with a realistic goal and circumstance, the odds of a good outcome are greatly increased.

Employability/career development

One of the keys to success in today’s world of work is career self-reliance — the ability to actively manage worklife in a rapidly changing environment and the attitude of being self-employed whether inside or outside an organization. Acquiring the skills and knowledge to become career self-reliant will enable employees to survive and even thrive in times of great change.

Group effectiveness

The move toward participative decision making and problem solving inevitably increases the potential for disagreement, particularly when the primary work unit is a peer team with no supervisor. This puts a premium on developing employees group effectiveness skills.

Interpersonal

Interpersonal skills training can help employees recognize and improve their ability to determine appropriate self-behaviour, cope with undesirable behaviour in others, absorb stress, deal with ambiguity, structure social interaction, share responsibility, and interact more easily with others. Teamwork skills are critical for improving individual task accomplishment because practical innovations and solutions are reached sooner through cooperative behaviour.

Negotiation and teamwork

Negotiation skills are critical for the effective functioning of teams as well as for individual acceptance in an organization. Change strategies are usually dependent upon the ability of employees to pull together and refocus on the new common goal. Carnevale wrote in a previous book that there are two ways to increase productivity. "The first is by increasing the intensity with which we utilize (human) resources (working harder), and the second is by increasing the efficiency with which we mix and use available resources (working smarter)."

Influence

The new competitive standards affect organizational structures, requiring a move away from top- down systems and toward more flexible networks and work teams. Technical changes result in new work processes and procedures. These require constant updating of employer-specific technical knowledge. In a world of rapid change, obsolescence is an interminable danger. As technology replaces more of the hands-on work, more employees will be dedicated to service functions where they will spend more time face-to-face with co-workers and clients. Organizational formats in the New Economy require more general skills. Interpersonal skills, communications skills and effective leadership skills are required by more and more non-supervisory employees. Managers in the New Economy relinquish control of work processes to work teams and will need to provide integration through leadership and monitoring.

Organizational

To be effective, employees need a sense of how the organization works and how the actions of each individual affect organizational and strategic objectives. Skill in determining the forces and factors that interfere with the organizations ability to accomplish its tasks can help the worker become a master problem solver, an innovator, and a team builder. Organizational effectiveness skills are the building blocks for leadership. A proactive approach toward increasing organizational effectiveness skills through training reflects the commitment to shared leadership concepts operating in the organization. Implementing shared leadership values has a positive impact on productivity. When leadership functions are dispersed, those who perform in leadership roles willingly take on the responsibility for creating and communicating the vision of the organization and what its work groups should accomplish. By their proximity, they are also better able to create and communicate the quality of the work environment necessary to realize that vision. One approach is the superteam which is defined as a high performing team which produces outstanding achievements. Leaders of superteams spend as much time anticipating the future as they do managing the present by thinking forward to, and talking to others about their goal, for it is this that provides the team with its purpose and direction (Hastings, Bixby, and Chaudhry-Lawton, 1986). Deploying visionary leaders improves institutional response time to changing and increasingly complex external environment factors that affect the organization's ability to operate effectively.

Leadership

At its most elementary level, leadership means that one person influences another. An organization that supports the concepts of shared leadership encourages employees at all levels to assume this role where it is appropriate. The function of leadership include stating basic values, announcing goals, organizing resources, reducing tensions between individuals, creating coalitions, coalescing workers, and encouraging better performance. There is a direct correlation between the implementation of shared leadership practice and product improvement, higher morale, and innovative problem solving, which leads to a more hospitable environment for instituting change. Top management cannot make the system work without employees taking on shared leadership roles. A great many people must be in a state of psychological readiness to take leaderlike action to improve the functioning at their levels. Historically, the roots of business failure can often be traced to inadequate training in and attention to the importance of leadership as a basic workplace skill. Too frequently, companies designate leaders without providing proper evaluation and training to ensure that they are qualified to assume leadership roles.

Examples

Academic skills

* Reading

* Logic

* Critical thinking

* Math

Interpersonal communication

*Speech: listening, talking

* Nonverbal communication

* Literacy: writing, reading

Motor skills

* Walking, craft, sport

Creativity, Innovation

* Music, arts, and crafts

* Skilled labor

* Innovation skill

Miscellaneous

Charisma

Perception

Persuasion

Empathy

Procedural memory, knowledge, expertise, fluency

Profession

Theory of multiple intelligences

Thinking and intelligence, IQ

See also

Competence (disambiguation)

Deskilling

Dreyfus model of skill acquisition

Dunning–Kruger effect, the tendency for incompetent people to grossly overestimate their skills

Four stages of competence

Game of skill

Habit (psychology)

Human development theory

Incompetence

Individual capital

Learning

Online skill-based game

Soft skills

Transferable skills analysis

References

1.http://wdr.doleta.gov/research/rlib_doc.cfm?docn=941 joint ASTD and U.S. Department of Labor study -Retraining 50 Million Americans: The Electronically Mediated Solution". Retrieved 2011-02-08.

External links

Transferable skills

American Society for Training & Development

Online Courses with Skill Orientation

Australian National Training Authority

NCVER's Review of generic skills for the new economy

SKILLS EU Research Integrated Project

City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development

Category:Learning

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playername	Juan Mata
fullname	Juan Manuel Mata García
dateofbirth	April 28, 1988
cityofbirth	Ocón de Villafranca
countryofbirth	Spain
height
position	Winger
currentclub	Chelsea
clubnumber	10
youthyears1	1998–2003 | youthclubs1 Oviedo
youthyears2	2003–2006 | youthclubs2 Real Madrid
years1	2006–2007 | clubs1 Real Madrid B | caps1 39 | goals1 10
years2	2007–2011 | clubs2 Valencia | caps2 129 | goals2 33
years3	2011– | clubs3 Chelsea | caps3 1 | goals3 1
nationalyears1	2004
nationalteam1	Spain U16
nationalcaps1	3
nationalgoals1	2
nationalyears2	2004
nationalteam2	Spain U17
nationalcaps2	2
nationalgoals2	1
nationalyears3	2006–2007
nationalteam3	Spain U19
nationalcaps3	13
nationalgoals3	12
nationalyears4	2007
nationalteam4	Spain U20
nationalcaps4	5
nationalgoals4	3
nationalyears5	2007–2011
nationalteam5	Spain U21
nationalcaps5	20
nationalgoals5	5
nationalyears6	2009–
nationalteam6	Spain
nationalcaps6	11
nationalgoals6	4
pcupdate	28 August 2011
ntupdate	25 June 2011 }}

Juan Manuel Mata García (; born 28 April 1988) is a Spanish footballer who plays for Chelsea. He is mainly a left winger, but can also play as an attacking midfielder.

Since successfully graduating from Real Madrid's youth academy, he has spent the majority of his senior career with Valencia CF. Before signing for Chelsea for an undisclosed fee.

Club career

Early career

Juan Mata was born on 28 April 1988 in the town of Ocón de Villafranca, Burgos - his father, Juan Manuel Mata Sr., played for near-by Burgos CF at that time - but was raised from a young age in his father's hometown of Oviedo, Asturias. Mata started his football career at Real Oviedo, where his father spent most of his career. He stayed there for three years before joining Real Madrid at age 15. After appearing for their ''Cadete A'' team, he swiftly progressed through the junior teams, ''Juvenil C'' and finally the ''Juvenil A''. In his last campaign (2005–06) he scored 18 goals in the league and three more in the ''Copa de Campeones'', including the winner in the final against Real Valladolid, adding another three in the Spanish ''Juvenil'' Cup.

Switching to Real Madrid Castilla in 2006–07, Mata was given the number 34 shirt in the first team, while wearing #28 in Castilla. In spite of Castilla's final Segunda División relegation, he finished the season as the side's second best scorer at nine, behind striker Álvaro Negredo (18).

Valencia

Mata had a contractual clause at Real Madrid during his last season at the club, and eventually agreed to sign for fellow La Liga side Valencia CF in March 2007, starting in 2007–08.

Benefitting from constant injuries to Vicente and the ostracism to which then-manager Ronald Koeman condemned Miguel Ángel Angulo, Mata gradually carved a niche on Valencia's first eleven. On 20 March 2008, he scored twice in the Copa del Rey semifinal match against FC Barcelona to help Valencia reach the final against Getafe CF where, on 16 April, he netted the opener in a 3–1 win. During that first season, he was voted the team's ''Best young player'' by fans and players alike.

In the 2008 Spanish Supercup, Mata scored against his former club Real Madrid in a 3–2 first leg victory, but Valencia lost 5–6 on aggregate after a 2–4 away loss in the second game. He started 2008–09 well, scoring in the opener against RCD Mallorca (3–0 win). He also netted the only goal of the game against CA Osasuna, latching on to a long ball from David Villa.

On 25 September 2008, Mata's understanding with Villa proved to be growing in efficiency, as he set up both of his teammate's goals in a 2–0 away win over Málaga CF. Three days later, he put in a superb performance against Deportivo de La Coruña, scoring one and creating the other three, in a 4–2 home victory.

Towards the end of the campaign, Mata managed to score two very important late goals for Valencia: the first, the 3–2 winner at Sporting de Gijón, and the second a penalty against Sevilla FC at home, to put Valencia 2–1 up (specialist Villa had already been replaced due to injury) in an eventual 3–1 success. He achieved impressive stats during the season, finishing with 11 successful strikes and 13 assists (in the latter category, league's second-best, behind FC Barcelona's Xavi).

In the following two seasons, Mata was an everpresent offensive figure for Valencia, scoring 17 goals in 68 games combined, with the club achieving back-to-back third-league places. On 10 April 2011, he netted two in a 5–0 home win against Valencian neighbours Villarreal CF. On 9 May, England-based Spanish journalist Guillem Balagué reported interest from several Premier League clubs.

On 21 August 2011, Valencia agreed a £23.5 million fee for the transfer of Mata to Premier League club Chelsea, subject to a medical.

Chelsea

On 24 August 2011, Mata signed a five-year deal with Chelsea. He revealed that Fernando Torres helped persuade him to move to Stamford Bridge, saying "Fernando got me excited about the thought of coming here. He said it would be good for me here, and that me and him together could be good. I also talked to my family and friends about it as well."

On 26 August 2011, Yossi Benayoun offered Juan Mata his number 10 shirt. The Isreali captain said: "I decided to give Mata the number 10 - his favourite. For me it's just a number, not my lucky 15." (Florent Malouda wears number 15 for Chelsea.) Mata wore the shirt for Valencia while skippering Spain's Under 21s in the summer and expressed his gratitude to Benayoun. "It is a very important number to me so I'm pleased to be wearing it. I want to thank Yossi," he said.

As well as Benayoun, Mata follows on from Joe Cole, and Chelsea legends Mark Hughes, Ian Hutchinson and Terry Venables in adopting the number 10 jersey.

On his debut for Chelsea on 27 August 2011, Mata came on as a substitute and scored in stoppage time. Chelsea won the match against Norwich City 3–1.

International career

Mata helped Spain win the 2006 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship, where he was a key player. 'Juanín' finished the championship second to his teammate Alberto Bueno (five goals) as top goal scorer of the competition, with four in five matches.

On 1 February 2007, under-21 coach Iñaki Sáez included him on his squad for the friendly against England, alongside Roberto Soldado, José Manuel Jurado, Sergio Sánchez, Miguel Torres, Esteban Granero and Antonio Adán, at just 18 years and 10 months.

On 14 November 2008, Vicente del Bosque called Mata for the senior team to play in a friendly against Chile. He did not leave the bench in a 3–0 home win. On 28 March 2009, he finally made his debut, in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Turkey, a 1–0 win in Madrid. He came on as a substitute for teammate Villa, in the 63rd minute.

In June 2009, del Bosque included Mata for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, the youngster's first senior tournament. He started in the second group match against Iraq, and came on as a substitute for Albert Riera in the semi-final loss to the United States.

On 9 September 2009, Mata scored his first goal for the senior team, as the 3–0 win against Estonia secured a place in the World Cup in South Africa. He followed this up with the winner against Armenia on 10 October, scoring a penalty to steal a 2–1 win. Picked for the final stages, he appeared once for the eventual champions, replacing Fernando Torres for the final 20 minutes of the 2–0 group stage win against Honduras.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first.'' Estadio Romano, Mérida, Spain 10 October 2009 14 October 2009 29 March 2011

+	# !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Score !! Result !! Competition
1.	9 September 2009	Mérida, Spain ||		3–0	3–0	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)>2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
2.	|	Hanrapetakan Stadium, Yerevan, Armenia		2–1	2–1	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
3.	|	Bilino Polje, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina		5–0	5–2	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
4.	|	S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium>Darius Girenas Stadium, Kaunas, Lithuania		3–1	1–3	UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying

Career statistics

Club

:''Accurate as of 30 July 2011'' 10 5 11 9 8 0

Club	Season	League	Cup1	Europe	Total
	!Apps	!Goals	!Assists	!Apps	!Goals	!Assists	!Apps	!Goals	!Assists	!Apps	!Goals	!Assists
rowspan="1"	Real Madrid B		39
colspan="2">Total			39!!10!!-
rowspan="4"	Valencia		24	|	1	8	4	1	1	0	0	33	9	2
2008–09 La Liga	2008–09	37	|	13	4	2	2	6	1	1	47	14	16
2009–10 La Liga	2009–10	35	|	4	2	0	0	14	5	6	51	14	10
2010–11 La Liga	2010–11	33	|	12	3	0	2	7	1	3	43	9	17
colspan="2">Total	!129!!33!!30!!17!!6!!5!!28!!7!!10!!174!!46!!45
rowspan="1" valign="centre"	Chelsea		1	1	|	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Total	!1!!1!!0!!0!!0!!0!!0!!0!!0!!1!!1!!0
Career total		! 169 !! 44 !! 30 !! 17 !! 6 !! 5 !! 28 !! 7 !! 10 !! 214 !! 57 !! 45

:¹Includes other competitive competitions, including the Supercopa de España.

Honours

Club

;Valencia CF

Copa del Rey: 2007–08

Supercopa de España: Runner-up 2008

Country

;Spain

FIFA World Cup: 2010

FIFA Confederations Cup: Third-place 2009

;Spain U19

UEFA U-19 Championship: 2006

;Spain U21

UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship: 2011

Individual

2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship: Bronze Boot (2 goals)

2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship: Top Assisting Player

2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship: Team of the Tournament

Personal life

Mata attended the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, studying journalism. In his spare time, he enjoys playing table-tennis.

His father, also called Juan, was also a footballer. He was a forward who played in the 1980s/early 1990s, and later acted as his son's agent, becoming FIFA-registered in the process.

References

External links

Valencia CF profile

BDFutbol profile

National team data Biography at CiberChe

Transfermarkt profile

Official website

Category:1988 births Category:Living people Category:People from Burgos Category:Spanish footballers Category:Association football wingers Category:Association football forwards Category:La Liga footballers Category:Premier League players Category:Real Madrid Juvenil footballers Category:Real Madrid Castilla footballers Category:Valencia CF footballers Category:Chelsea F.C. players Category:Expatriate footballers in England Category:Spanish expatriate footballers Category:Spain youth international footballers Category:Spain under-21 international footballers Category:Spain international footballers Category:2009 FIFA Confederations Cup players Category:2010 FIFA World Cup players Category:FIFA World Cup-winning players

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