essential skills presentation
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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)