Integrating Essential Skills into Training - National Adult Literacy ...

What are Essential Skills?
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES?
• Skills people need for work, learning and life.
• Skills that provide the foundation for learning all
European Union:
The great majority of adults will at some point in time
be workers, learners, parents, careerists and
other skills. participants in any number of political, cultural or
• Skills that enhance the ability to anticipate change
and adapt to it.
leisure activities. The challenge is to make all citizens
functional members of these different communities.
• Skills that enable people to innovate, think critically,
Canadian International Development Agency:
solve problems effectively, and make well
considered and responsible decisions.
• Skills required by human beings to be able to cope,
to develop their full capacities, to live and work in
dignity, to participate fully and responsibly in
sustainable development, to improve the quality of
their lives, and to continue learning, all in the
context of a global community.
To enable individuals to deal effectively with the
demands and challenges of everyday life and enable
people to continue learning and adapting throughout
their lives, to act as responsible citizens, to understand
their rights, to maximize livelihood opportunities, to
work collaboratively, and to maintain their health and
the health of their families.
• reading text
• using documents
• writing
• numeracy
• oral communication
• computer use
• working with others
Essential Skills
HRSDC Classifications
Is it an Essential Skills issue?
• thinking skills
Might not be:
• problem solving • Sometimes it just means looking at the bigger
• decision making picture.
• critical thinking
• job task planning and organizing
• significant use of memory
• finding information
• It might be a hidden issue such as a health or
physical disability issue (e.g. colour
blindness, dyslexia).
• continuous learning
www15.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca
Employability Skills & Essential Skills
Employability Skills:
term coined by the Conference Board of Canada in 1992.
compiled from the responses of employers to a Canada
wide survey asking what employers think are the most
important skills workers need.
include the attitudes and behaviours employers look for.
skills considered “essential” from the employer
perspective.
www.conference board.ca/education/learning-tools
• It could be a cultural issue.
• It could be a gender issue.
• It could be an attitude problem or personal
issue.
Essential Skills:
now considered part of the list of employability skills.
compiled by the Government of Canada.
based on structured interviews with fully competent
workers.
rated according to difficulty level.
skills considered “essential” from the worker
perspective.
also called foundation, basic, cross-cutting, generic,
transversal, enabling, core, critical, key, portable,
skills