Skill

The term ‘skill’ refers to the special ability that a person has in carrying

out a particular task. All professional workers obtain specific skills

relevant to their professional work. There are different ways to identify

skills. For example, some scholars identify specific activities such as

communicating, attending to feelings, conflict solving, planning,

recording and so on, whereas others may concentrate on what we shall

refer to as core skills such as communication, listening, analytical —

thinking, self control and so on These core skills enable a person to

carry out many of the tasks listed above with ease.

A professional approagh is characjpriged: by the techniques and

skills used to accomplish a fagk. In idengifying the professional skills a

reference to tasks is made tq highlight the skills by giving details of the

actual practice situation. Thjs at times results in confusion between

tasks and skills: For example, Corey (2000) identified the following