7 High-Income Skills Worth Learning in 2025

Every job requires some combination of workplace skills and technical skills, and chances are, you have already built an impressive skill set derived from your education or past work experience.

High-income skills are tools and expertise that employers tend to value highly and may make it easier to change jobs and even industries. These job skills may be rare, and they’re often crucial to running a successful business.

As you aim to advance your career or shift your career focus, you may want to find ways to highlight your high-income skills. Depending on your desired career path, you may be able to leverage these skills to reach your salary goals. Read more to learn about seven high-income skills and how to develop them.

7 high-income skills to learn

Below, you’ll find seven high-income skills that you can feature on your CV to help stand out to potential employers. To build this list, we looked at reports forecasting the most in-demand skills through 2030 from the World Economic Forum [1], Pearson [2], Future Learn [3], and Coursera [4].

The skills listed here are all transferable across a number of career paths. As you read this list, consider your career goals, past experiences, and the job descriptions of your desired roles, and notice whether any of these skills may naturally facilitate your path.

1. Data analysis

Analytical thinking and innovation are top skills forecasted in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report [1]. As businesses across industries increasingly rely on data to make informed decisions, they require more employees with the ability to collect, interpret, and share data that can solve their business problems.

People skilled in data analysis may use various tools, such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, SQL, Tableau, R, or Python.

Some careers that use data analysis, along with average base pay in the UK as of May 2025, according to Glassdoor, include:

2. Software development

Increasingly, industries are turning toward technology to advance their business capabilities, and they need people skilled in developing, maintaining, and improving their technological systems. People who work in DevOps or software engineering build, monitor, and control an organisation’s technology.

People skilled in DevOps or software engineering may use tools like Git, Docker, Jenkins, or Kubernetes, and may know coding languages like Python, Java, or C++.

Some careers that use software development, along with average base pay in the UK as of May 2025, according to Glassdoor, include:

3. User experience

Hand in hand with technological development comes user experience (UX), which has to do with the way a consumer interacts with a product. People working in UX figure out the best way to present a product to consumers. They may conduct research, design, or help market a product.

Although they still involve some data, UX roles are grounded in design and tend to offer room for creativity, and they require a high level of social perceptiveness—three skills that come up in multiple skill reports [1, 2, 3].

Some careers utilising user experience skills, along with average base pay in the UK as of May 2025, according to Glassdoor, include:

4. Web development

Web development combines the fundamentals of software development and user experience, incorporating the former's technical aspects with the latter's design elements. People skilled in web development will also be familiar with technical search engine optimisation (SEO) to design and program websites that meet business needs.

Some careers that require web development skills, along with average base pay in the UK as of May 2025, according to Glassdoor, include:

5. Project management

Many companies use an organisational structure in which different departments, teams, or team members all work on a singular product or project. A person who is skilled in coordinating efforts across each of those touchpoints is skilled in project management. These team members may be responsible for maintaining schedules, organising budgets, and communicating with project stakeholders (or various parties interested or invested in the project outcomes).

You can consider “project management” to be a catch-all term for leadership, communication, planning, resilience, and organisational skills—all of which are frequently cited as valuable to employers [2, 3].

Project management shows up in many careers and becomes especially important as you move into managerial positions. However, you can also pursue a career as a project manager. Some careers along the project manager path and their average base pay in the UK as of May 2025, according to Glassdoor, include:

6. Account management

While project management typically has an internal focus, account management taps into a similar subset of skills to work with people outside of your organisation. Often highly valued in sales positions, account management skills enable you to confidently position your company and its products to customers.

Account management skills incorporate both the organisational aspects necessary to close a business deal as well as the interpersonal skills you need to productively negotiate and maintain relationships. They often work with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool like Salesforce.

Some careers that use account management and sales skills, along with average base pay in the UK as of May 2025, according to Glassdoor, include:

7. Content creation and management

Content creation and management skills involve storytelling and are often crucial for marketing careers. This skill set incorporates creativity, originality, social perceptiveness, and emotional intelligence. Taking these skills a step further can also mean adding data analysis to your toolbox, specifically honing in on marketing analytics so that you can assess how well an audience is connecting with your content.

Some careers that use content creation and management skills, along with average base pay in the UK as of May 2025, according to Glassdoor, include:

Keep learning

Developing high-income skills is an effective way to advance your career and potentially increase your salary. You can build many skills through your regular work activities, however, sometimes, it can help to bolster your skill set with outside classes or certifications. 

If you are trying to figure out the best skills for you to increase your earning potential, visit the Career Academy on Coursera. Here, you’ll get an in-depth look at the key skills across several career paths and can find specific online courses for each path. You may also wish to work towards a Professional Certificate expanding on some of the skills above, such as the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate.