Employers are interested in what you have to offer them, and so they are looking for a justifiable reason to invest in you by providing you with employment. Their investment for a 40 hour work week is to obtain productivity out of you and, in turn, make more money and grow their business.
So the question you may ask yourself is:
How best can I market myself to an employer and show them that I have the skills and abilities needed to accomplish the required duties?
Begin with working out exactly what requirements need to be fulfilled for a particular role you want to apply for. Most job advertisements will list these requirements. You should at least try and qualify for 90% of those requirements, but of course, circumstances will vary.
Next step is to work out precisely what it is you have to offer to meet those requirements. The best way to approach this is to think about all the transferrable skills and relevant experience you have developed throughout your working life together with the skills/aptitudes gained from your studies. This is why work experience/voluntary work and undertaking courses and education are great ways to develop some valuable skills and experience you can put on your resume.
The final step is to match the skills and experience that you have come up with to the position's requirements and make sure most of these are explained in your cover letter and are at least highlighted in your CV.