The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 3 letter word SKILL SET
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
S
K
I
L
L
S
E
T
More clues leading to the result SKILL SET
- Tragic girl brought up to keep still shows a range of aptitudes
- Pan son’s hidden abilities
- Head of school to take out group showing range of talent?
- Gang murder’s within one’s capabilities
- Butchers in group combined talents
- What you need for job putting first drop of sauce in pan
- Shoot perhaps in small film location revealing particular expertise
- Unfairness kills ethnic minority’s pool of talent
- Small pan manages small range of doable tasks
- Working range, where pan’s filled with stew, originally
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "abilities" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case abilities = skill set.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.