The Skills No One Names

The skills you've learned through experience.

Can you name them? Do you see them listed in job descriptions?

I read job descriptions not because I'm necessarily looking for a job, but to see how companies and organizations describe the kinds of things I do. What titles do they assign? What responsibilities?

I think only twice did a job description make me say aloud, "Hey, that's me!"

I have come to recognize that reading job descriptions isn't something I do out of curiosity. It's an exercise in external validation. Does anyone out there recognize the type of work I do?

I know I'm capable. The problem is I can't always articulate what I do. I am often caught in quiet reflection and an awkward moment of reckoning. It’s with this private moment that this publication begins.

Environmental education professionals develop expertise at the intersection of curriculum development, natural history, facilitation, and leadership. Much of that knowledge does not come from formal degrees but from experience. Engaging with the public, working with children and teens, and thinking on one's feet when things don't go as planned develops skills you'll never learn in school.

People skills are sometimes called "soft skills."

They are also invisible skills and difficult to articulate and advocate for effectively.

Let's consider a few situations. What skills are invisible and remain unnamed when:

• You design learning experiences?
• You facilitate groups of people with conflicting perspectives?
• You interpret a place, its history, and its ecological history?
• You engage with the public as a science communicator?

Because of your experience, you know how to do these things and a whole lot more. Can you name the skills involved - both the obvious ones and those that remain unnamed?

This publication exists to help environmental education professionals name the real skills they've earned, make sense of their experience, and apply that experience in new ways.

If you've ever struggled to explain your work and your value to people outside of environmental education, or felt that your experience could be worth more in other settings, or felt guilty about leaving the field to work elsewhere, you're in the right place.

In the last issue of the newsletter, I mentioned my intention to raise awareness in other sectors about what environmental education professionals can do. Today I begin this effort in earnest.

I look forward to exploring this topic with you.