The book explains that the skills necessary to be a good mediator are not skills that are innate, rather, these are skills that must be learned. This means that a Communications Major has an advantage because they will be studying the exact rules that regulate what it means to be an effective mediator. They will know how to react to each conflict that arises because they have studied this. This is also the same reason why lawyers and psychotherapists don't make good mediators. Psychotherapists don't study the skills necessary to be a good mediator. Often the conflict they deal with is between one person. They are not qualified to be able to effectively mediate a conflict between two parties.
The book explains that lawyers often turn what should be mediation into more of an adjudication where mediation doesn't really take place. Lawyers are also not trained to be mediators. Their job often consists of defending a defendant with unbiased notions.
Yes in order to be a mediator you must learn the correct skills in order to produce a successful mediation. I like your choice of words when you said that the skills are not innate. Because the skills are not innate, that means that we do have to learn them. This gives us, as Communications majors, an advantage in being really good mediators. We get the opportunity to explore these concepts in a way no other non-Comm major does. We are qualified because we have the exact skills a mediator is looking for. This does not mean that we are ALL going to be good at it. That depends on who is willing to participate in such an event with the will to succeed.
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