Want your job application to stand out? Employers say they look for these skills

The ability to communicate, collaborate and solve problems are among skills that employers say they are looking for in potential job hires.

In a major five-year study, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) identified six key transferable skills that will count as much as qualifications in getting and keeping a job in the coming decade.

It comes as NFER research, published last year , external , suggests it may become even harder to find a job as AI and automation could see up to three million low- to mid-level jobs disappearing by 2035.

As more than one million young people are not in education, employment or training - the highest level in over a decade - we have been speaking to businesses about how people can demonstrate the key skills employers are looking for.

One of the big shocks for many leaving education and trying to get into work is the sudden lack of structure, so being able to prioritise your own work is seen by many employers as essential.

In Leeds, Christian Townsley, the co-founder of the North Bar group, says working in a busy bar is all about staying calm and keeping a "cool head".

"It's important that you can organise, you can multitask, you can identify who's next at the bar and remember that," he says.

Townsley offers trial shifts as part of the recruitment process, to give job seekers an opportunity to showcase these skills in action.