Corona College offers Essential Skills training to help employers improve productivity, reduce health and safety issues and develop skills.
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.
Essential Skills are not the technical skills required by particular occupations but rather the skills applied in all occupations. For example, writing skills are required in a broad range of occupations. The complexity and frequency of writing varies, of course. Some workers fill out simple forms every day, while others write daily or monthly reports.
What are Essential Skills?
Essential Skills are the foundation skills that technical and workplace-specific skills are built on. They include the four skills associated with literacy (reading, writing, document use and numeracy) as well as skills needed to be successful in today’s workplace; computer use, thinking, oral communication, working with others and continuous learning. The level of a worker’s Essential Skills can affect their health and safety record, productivity and professional development.
Learn more about Essential Skills
How are Essential Skills Measured?
Corona College assesses Essential Skills levels in individuals and compares them to the standard required for the chosen trade/profession. Individual plans can be developed to enhance essential skills development. Essential Skills assessments and tools can also help in the development of job descriptions, recruitment of candidates, completion of performance appraisals, training plan development and promotion of existing employees.
Essential Skills Reader’s Guide
Through extensive research, the Government of Canada and other national and international agencies have identified and validated nine Essential Skills. They include: Reading Text, Document Use, Numeracy, Writing, Oral Communication, Working with Others, Thinking, Computer Use, and Continuous Learning.
Students and Job Seekers may use the Essential Skills framework for Career Exploration, Career Research, Job Preparation and Skill Enhancement.
Employers may use Essential Skills Tools and Assessment for Recruitment & Selection, Retention & Succession Planning, Job Description Development, Training & Professional Development and Performance Review.
