Core Abilities

Moraine Park staff, along with business and industry representatives have identified seven skills that are essential to your success in obtaining and keeping a job. As you take courses at Moraine Park you will work towards obtaining, improving and enhancing these skills in all your courses. By helping you develop the core abilities and holding you responsible for their application, your instructors will help you achieve a successful career.

Core abilities give you an added value in the labor market, because employers prefer to hire and promote individuals who:

Communicate Clearly

• You plan and organize communications according to the purpose and audience
• You summarize in a brief and concise manner
• You provide support materials (i.e., facts, reasons, examples, details, statistics, anecdotes and quotes) to aid in understanding your ideas and information
• You participate in discussions and group work modeling active listening and feedback skills
• You demonstrate mastery of grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, word usage and sentence structure
• You model professionalism and etiquette in all communications (letters, e-mail, voice mail, texting, etc.)

Act Responsibly

• You follow directions
• You follow safety procedures
• You meet standards for participation
• You meet deadlines
• You present a professional image in your work and your appearance
• You are accountable for your actions

Work Productively

• You stay on task
• You work independently, as needed, to complete work
• You ask for assistance when needed
• You set and attain goals
• You manage time effectively
• You prioritize work to meet deadlines
• You strive for continuous improvement in your work
• You use resources efficiently

Think Critically and Creatively

• You use active problem-solving techniques (Plan, Do, Check, Act)
• You are creative in exploring possible solutions
• You consider the human, interpersonal and factual dimensions of a problem
• You distinguish between fact and opinion
• You apply global perspective to decisions and actions

Adapt to Change

• You modify thoughts and actions as situations change
• You anticipate changes coming to, or affecting, the situation
• You approach change calmly and rationally
• You use positive behaviors to foster continual growth

Demonstrate Integrity

• You demonstrate pride in your work by striving for the highest possible quality
• You accept and provide feedback to further individual and group growth
• You credit others for their contributions and share credit for tasks requiring a team effort
• demonstrate trustworthiness by being honest, dependable, confidential and reliable

Work Cooperatively

• You complete assigned tasks for team work
• You demonstrate collaborative strategies
• You exchange information, ideas, opinions and solutions in a team/group setting
• You respect others
• You encourage and offer assistance to team members