Transferrable Skills

It’s been a busy few months for us and there’s been lots to think about, on both the macro and micro levels.

Back in May here in the UK we had the Coronation of our new King and as we dipped in and out of watching the broadcast we noticed that the commentators kept  likening it all to a “Military Operation”.

 Watching the ceremonial artistry so soon after the Queen’s funeral last year reminded us of Liza’s father. He was a career Army Officer and years of experience in both war and peace gave him a skill-set that he brought to bear in everything he tackled, including the planning of his own funeral where military precision did indeed prevail and clearly show-cased his transferrable skills.

Transferrable skills are not always recognised as being of much value which is a shame as our observation would be that encouraging people to consider and apply their own skills and those of others beyond the obvious settings can open up all sorts of possibilities.

Sometimes when people discover that Liza has a degree in Classics they give her the benefit of their opinion about it being a useless subject to have studied.

And yet……if you look at what the discipline of studying ancient languages, literature and history produces it’s another story.

Skills like rigorous observation, problem-solving and recognising patterns not to mention a wider understanding and use of written European languages all come to mind. It certainly made studying Kiswahili much easier as the structure of the grammar was not intimidating.

We know someone here in Chichester who was an Oxbridge graduate in Classics and whose transferrable skills resulted in  a career which culminated in one of the most responsible roles in the Civil Service.

So we’re big fans of transferrable skills and we’d love to know what you think.

In other news, we’re very excited to report that after a gap of almost five years (Thanks COVID-19!) The Wheels for the World project is returning to the Diocesan centre in Eldoret this November.

Be prepared because if all goes to plan there will be a flurry of blog posts as Liza, hopefully, travels out to join them all in this incredible, life-transforming work.