ESSENTIAL SKILLS

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Essential Skills is the fourth step of a five part career planning process.

Employers from across Canada and in all types of industries have developed a "wish list" of skills they feel should be added to a person's formal training if they hope to have a long and successful career.

Essential Skills are the skills needed for work, learning and life. They provide the foundation for learning all other skills and enable people to evolve with their jobs and adapt to workplace change.

Through extensive research, the Government of Canada and other national and international agencies have identified and validated nine Essential Skills. These skills are used in nearly every occupation and throughout daily life in different ways and at different levels of complexity. The nine Essential Skills are:

Reading Text

Reading Text

Reading Text refers to reading material that is in the form of sentences or paragraphs. It generally involves reading notes, letters, memos, manuals, specifications, regulations, books, reports or journals.

Document Use

Numeracy

Writing Skills

Oral Communication

Continuous Learning

Computer Use

Thinking Skills

Working with Others

Essential Skills Definitions

Document Use

Document use refers to;

•   reading/interpreting documents
  

•   the writing/completing/producing of documents.
  

These two uses of documents often occur simultaneously as part of the same task, e.g., completing a form, checking off items on a list of tasks) It also refers to print and non-print media (computer screen, equipment gauges)

Numeracy Skills

Numeracy skills refer to the workers' use of numbers and their being required to think in quantitative terms.

Writing Skills

Writing skills refers to writing texts and writing in documents (filling in forms) as well as non-paper-based writing (typing on a computer).

Oral Communication

Oral Communication pertains primarily to the use of speech to give and exchange thoughts and information by workers in an occupational group.

Working with Others

Working with others examines the extent to which employees work with others to carry out their tasks. Do they have to work co-operatively with others' Do they have to have the self-discipline to meet work targets while working alone.

Continuous Learning

More and more jobs require continuous upgrading, and all workers must continue learning in order to keep or to grow with their jobs.

The following are important components of learning:

• knowing how to learn
  

• understanding one's own learning style
  

• knowing how to gain access to a variety of materials, resources and learning opportunities
  

Thinking and Problem Solving

Thinking Skills differentiates between six different types of cognitive functions. However, these functions are interconnected.

• problem solving;
  

• decision making;
  

• critical thinking;
  

• job task planning and organizing;
  

• significant use of memory; and
  

• finding information.
  

Computer Use

Computer Use indicates the variety and complexity of computer use within the occupational group.

A good strategy is to develop a skills inventory based on the essential skills.

A skills inventory helps you to discover your strengths and weaknesses.  This could help you to discover career options based on your talents.

Developing a skills inventory is invaluable in preparing you for job interviews, as you can easily discuss you skills with an employer and provide examples.

A skills inventory is a three part process:

1. Assess your current skill sets

2. Keep a record of new and/or improved skills as you develop them

3. Re-assess and document your success in your skills

A well developed skills inventory will come in handy as you progress to Step 5- Job Search

WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS INFORMATION?