1 / 42

Essential Skills

Essential Skills. Skills to succeed…. Background. Results from International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) Introduced a new concept of literacy – continuum of skills from quite limited to very high Literacy firmly linked to economic success and productivity

lavonn
Download Presentation

Essential Skills

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Essential Skills Skills to succeed…

  2. Background • Results from International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) • Introduced a new concept of literacy – continuum of skills from quite limited to very high • Literacy firmly linked to economic success and productivity • People scoring less than 3 out of 5 lacked the skills needed to transfer existing knowledge to new environments

  3. What are Essential Skills? • 9 Essential Skills • Reading Text • Document Use • Numeracy • Writing • Oral Communication • Working with Others • Computer Use • Continuous Learning • Thinking Skills • Enabling skills used in: • Life • Learning • Workplace

  4. Why Essential Skills? The Prime Minister’s Expert Panel on Skills described three sets of skills as necessary for an effective labour market: • Essential Skills- based on HRDC’s Essential Skills Research Project • Technical Skills- occupation specific skill sets • Management Skills- e.g. cost control, budgeting

  5. Prime Minister’s Expert Panelon Skills “In sharp contrast with the technical skills picture, but equally critical to the competitive success of Canadian industry, is a persistent shortage of people who combine strong technical abilities with essential skills (e.g. communications and teamwork) and management skills (e.g. cost control and budgeting).” Source: Stepping Up: Skills and Opportunities in the Knowledge Economy, 2000

  6. Essential Skills

  7. Essential Skills

  8. Essential Skills Essential Skills Essential Skills Essential Skills Essential Skills Essential Skills $100 $100 $100 $100 $100 $100 $200 $200 $200 $200 $200 $200 $300 $300 $300 $300 $300 $300 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500

  9. This panel described the necessary sets of skills for an effective labour market.

  10. Who is the Prime Minister's Expert Panel on Skills?

  11. Firms invest the least in basic skills Course Types as a % of Training Expenditures • Survey respondents spent the least on basic skills (1.1% of overall training expenditures). The same amount was spent in 1998. Source: Conference Board of Canada, Training & Development Outlook, 2001.

  12. Why Essential Skills? • Addressing Essential Skills requirements speaks to key goals set in Knowledge Matters: • to increase literacy rates, • increase PSE participation, • double the number of apprentices, • number of adult learners increases by one million • businesses increase by one-third their annual investment in training per employee

  13. This paper was prepared by HRDC in 2002 as part of the Innovation Strategy.

  14. What is Knowledge Matters?

  15. Grounds for concern A significant portion of Canadians are at the bottom two Essential Skill levels in three skill areas. Source: Matching Canadians’ Literacy Attainment to Actual Occupational Requirements, May 2001

  16. The workplace is demanding higher Essential Skills levels... Essential Skills requirements for occupations for which no post secondary education is necessary (e.g. cashier, security guard or labourer) increasingly require a minimum of level three Essential Skills. lowest highest Source: Matching Canadians’ Literacy Attainment to Actual Occupational Requirements, May 2001

  17. Demographics means fewer workers • More than half of the workforce of 2015 is already in the labour market • By 2011 immigration will account for all net labour force growth Potential Labour Force Growth (%) Source: Historical data from Statistics Canada; projection fromAppliedResearch Branch, HRDC.

  18. This will be the source of all net labour growth by year 2011.

  19. What is Immigration?

  20. Here’s what we are up to…

  21. Outreach Applications Synergy Research The Essential Skills Initiative operates with four streams of activity Building a national understanding of the importance of and ways to acquire Essential Skills while maintaining and building new partnerships Providing funding support to the development of projects designed to enhance Essential Skills. Expanding synergies and partnerships to integrate ES tools into other HRDC / G of C programs Undertaking research that expands the knowledge base while increasing ES profiles for higher level occupations

  22. Tools and Applications

  23. Essential Skills Profiles • Describe the use of Essential Skills in different occupational groups. • Explain how each Essential Skill is actually • used by workers in an occupational group. • We currently have 191 profiles; by 2005 we will have over 300 profiles. • www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/essentialskills

  24. Examples of Profiles • Occupation Reading Document Numeracy • Text Use • (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) • Admin. Clerks 3 3 3Bricklayer 2 1 2 • Dental Assistants 2 3 2 • Machining Operator 2 3 4Tour Operators 4 4 3Trappers & Hunters 3 3 3

  25. TOWES Test of Workplace Essential Skills • Assesses the reading, document use and numeracy skills of workers or job applicants. • Uses authentic workplace documents and actual re-created tasks as source items for test item development. www.towes.com

  26. Measure Up • A self-assessment component of the TOWES web site. • Adult learners use this tool to: • explore job options • practice typical tasks • make realistic career choices • identify upgrading needs

  27. Applications of Working and Learning (AWAL) • Links what teachers teach to what learners will need in the world of work using the lens of Essential Skills • Teachers develop hands-on learning activities that they can use in the classroom.

  28. This ES application is also a term used in the army for someone who left without permission.

  29. What is AWAL?

  30. Ontario Skills Passport • Provides youth with documentation of their skills • Records which Essential Skills have been demonstrated

  31. Common Myths of Essential Skills • You either have an Essential Skill or you don’t. • Employers don’t have to be concerned about Essential Skills if their employees are already functioning well in their jobs.

  32. Custom Test Result Report Forms

  33. Common Myths of Essential Skills • If you can hide it, a lack of Essential Skills will not impact your life. • There are only and will only ever be 9 Essential Skills.

  34. Essential Skills are the same as Employability Skills. Common Myths of Essential Skills Attitudes and Behaviours Complexity Scales Occupational Profiles S K I L L S

  35. Final Jeopardy Employees need these skills for an effective labour market.

  36. What are Essential Skills?

  37. Thank you!

More Related