The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 6 letter word CRAFTS (ARTS)
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
C
R
A
F
T
S
(
A
R
T
S
)
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "manual skills" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case manual skills = crafts (arts).The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.