WELCOME TOCalgary’s Essential Skills Problem:

Are you making a difference?

By Carole Jensen and Renate Donnovan

Introductions Please take out your cell phone

Use the cell number we just gave you on the piece of paper

Text the following to the number on the piece of paper: Hi! My name is (and your name).

Then find the person you just texted, say hello, and return their phone number.

What Are Essential Skills?

The Conference Board of Canada asked employers :

“If you remove technical or specialized skills, what skills does every person in your company need to be employed regardless of his/her position?”

They called these “essential skills” – skills necessary for successful employment in Canada.

How Many Essential Skills Did You Use to Text Your Message?

Handout and discussion

HINT: The Gen Y’s don’t phone or email—they text!! Texting is becoming an essential skill; in some jobs, it already is!

9 Essential Skills Reading

Document Use

Numeracy

Writing

Oral Communication

Working with Others

Thinking

Computer Use

Continuous Learning

BVC College Wide Outcomes

Communication

Document Use

Numeracy

Technology Skills

Working with Others

Thinking

Positive Attitudes & Behaviours

Continuous Learning

Health & Wellness Awareness

Citizenship and Intercultural Competence

Environment Sustainability

Essential Skills In the Past

Video

How many essential skills were used in that/to watch the video?

Why Are Essential Skills Important?

Economic efficiency: the impact of literacy upon long rates of GDP growth

Equity: the impact of literacy upon individual health, labour market, social and educational outcomes

Tax efficiency: the return on tax investments in education and health

Scott Murray, Skill Plan Conference Presentation, Oct 2009, Understanding the Market for Essential Skills Upgrading through Market Segmentation Analysis: New Results

The transition from learning to read to reading to learn:

225 275 325 375 500

Learning to read

0

Reading to learnProficiency dominated by mechanics of reading

Proficiency dominated by cognitive strategies

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Scott Murray, Skill Plan Conference Presentation, Oct 2009, Understanding the Market for Essential Skills Upgrading through Market Segmentation Analysis: New Results

The efficiency of the market for literacy:Literacy skill surpluses and shortages by level of the

job (in workers)

There are NO

level 1 jobs

in Canada

80% of Jobs

in Canada

require level

3

Scott Murray, Skill Plan Conference Presentation, Oct 2009, Understanding the Market for Essential Skills Upgrading through Market Segmentation Analysis: New Results

Absolute and relative risks of being in literacy shortage by occupation, Canada 2006:

Scott Murray, Skill Plan Conference Presentation, Oct 2009, Understanding the Market for Essential Skills Upgrading through Market Segmentation Analysis: New Results

Essential Skills – in the Future

Video

Which essential skills were used in the video/to watch the video?

How has “what is essential” changed?

How is it likely to change in the next 10 years?

Teaching With Essential Skills

“While instructors may teach Essential Skills, most often these skills are subtly integrated within the curriculum rather than explicitly taught as essential workplace skills.

One issue that arises from teaching essential skills implicitly within the curriculum is that it becomes the responsibility of the learner to figure out how a classroom skill, like solving a problem or working in a group,  translates to action in the workplace.”

http://www.dojolearning.com/course-contents-action/id.230/chapter.1

Teaching With Essential Skills

Work on increasing your own

Know subtle and obvious ways we use essential skills in all aspects of life

Become an advocate for essential skills

Move from embedded to explicit

Use real life assignments and activities where ever possible

Make tangible links between the classroom activity and the real world. (ie. Reading a novel teaches you to extract information from a large text—similar to the fine print in your mortgage documents.

Skill Plan tools (www.skillplan.ca) and TOWES (www.towes.ca)