Workplace Essential Skills: An Introduction

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Workplace Essential Skills An Introduction

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Workshop Objectives

• Define Essential Skills
• Examine an Essential Skills Profile
• Look at uses for Essential Skills Profiles
• Explore Essential Skills Resources

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Defining Essential Skills

• Essential skills are
• everyday skills
• different from technical skills because they are
  transferable
• common to virtually all occupations and
  workplaces
• basic building blocks we use to learn other, more
  complicated skills
• the Velcro to which other learning sticks

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Why are Workplace Essential Skills important?

• Essential skills
• help people perform the tasks required by their
  occupation
• provide people with a foundation for learning
  other skills
• enhance peoples ability to innovate and adapt to
  workplace change

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Impacts of Limited Essential Skills on Workers

• Unemployed with essential skills limitations have
  greater difficulty finding a new job
• Employees with essential skills limitations less
  likely to receive employer-funded training
• 40-50 of workers with essential skills
  limitations have low income, particularly women

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Essential Skills Key to Success

• Productivity/competitiveness
• Labour market
• Health
• Social capital
• Safe communities
• Inclusive society
• Lifelong learning

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What are the 9 Essential Skills?

• Reading text
• Document Use
• Numeracy
• Computer Use
• Working with others
• Writing

• Oral Communication
• Continuous Learning
• Thinking Skills
• -problem solving
• -decision making
• -critical thinking
• -job task planning
• -use of memory
• -finding information

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Workplace Essential Skills (WES) Research

• Essential skills profiles
• Collection of Authentic WES materials
• Comparison of WES and CLB
• Development of TOWES
• Development of related materials

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Where do you find this information?
Web Address www15.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca
(www.red-seal.ca)
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Complexity Rating

• Based on
• Complexity of material
• Complexity of skill or knowledge needed to use
  the material
• Context for use of material
• Degree of risk involved

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Complexity LevelsOral Communication

• the range and complexity of communication
  functions, i.e., why and how one communicates
• the range and complexity of the information about
  which one communicates
• the range and complexity of the communication
  context, i.e., to whom and in what circumstances
  one communicates
• the risk level in failing communication intent,
  i.e., how serious are the consequences if
  communication fails

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Complexity LevelsReading Text

• Short Text. Locate one piece of
  information. Find it, use it
• More complex text or several pieces of info from
  a single text. Make low level inferences.
• Find, integrate and use it.
• Read various sources of text OR several parts of
  a single text. Make inferences.
• Find, sort, evaluate, integrate, and use it.
• Integrate and synthesize information from several
  sources OR from complex, lengthy texts. Use
  background knowledge. Evaluate quality of
  text.
• Find, sort, interpret, integrate, create and
  use it

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Complexity Levels Document Use

• Organizing Categories
• Symbols/Conventions
• Information Types/Design
• Entry Modes
• Information Source
• Level of Use
• Recycling Steps Needed
• Access Aids Used
• Inference/Translation Needed

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How an ES Profile can help Employers

• Develop job descriptions
• Decide what skills to look for when hiring
• Develop staff training plans

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How an ES Profile can help Career Counselors

• Research specific occupations
• Find out about occupations in areas that interest
  them
• Identify occupations that might suit their areas
  of strength
• Find out how skills they are learning are used in
  the world of work
• Get help in thinking about their own skills

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How an ES Profile can help Instructors and
Trainers

• Ways to tailor curricula to your learners varied
  occupations or occupational interests
• Real work examples to integrate into your
  programs
• Help for your learners in setting their skill
  development targets

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Why the Workplace Invests in Essential Skills

• Reduced Error Rates
• Superior quality of goods and services
• Reduced waste of materials
• More productive employees
• Improved health and safety

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Why the Workplace Invests in Essential Skills

• Employee Retention
• Larger pool for promoting employees
• Greater job mobility
• Improved employee morale and corporate image
• Employees who are able to learn new skills

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Why the Workplace Invests in Essential Skills

• The Canadian Economy is Changing
• Global competition for skills
• Shift to knowledge based economy
• Higher skill levels are required for occupations
• Increased requirements for regulatory compliance
  and certification

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Returns on Essential Skills Investments

• Individuals
• Believe they are more capable
• Take more pride in their work
• Accept and act on suggestions for personal
• improvement more readily
• Have improved self-confidence
• Develop a lifelong learning attitude

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Returns on Essential Skills Investments

• Teams
• Improve communication and cooperation
• Respect diversity
• Better identify and leverage contributions of
  individual team members

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Returns on Essential Skills Investments

• Organizations
• Employees
• show more initiative and become more innovative
• work and make decisions more independently
• become better at recognizing and solving
  problems
• take on new roles as mentors and peer learning
  coaches

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Returns on Essential Skills Investments

• Family and Community
• Are better able to help children with homework
• Participate more in volunteer activities
• Enjoy improved health

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Resources

• http//srv600.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/esrp
• www.towes.com
• http//measureup.towes.com/
• www.awal.ca
• www.skillplan.ca

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Resources

• www.conferenceboard.ca
• www.language.ca
• www.itsessential.ca
• http//www.esportfolio.com/ESPORT/english/