Essential Skills
Unit 301: Adults and Young People as Essential Skills Learners
Essential skills play a fundamental part in everyone’s lives no matter who you are.
Essential Skills are the skills that people need for learning, work and life. They are used in the community and the workplace, in different forms and at different levels of complexity. Essential Skills provide the foundation for learning all other skills and enable people to evolve with their jobs and adapt to workplace change.
They are needed for basic tasks such as: answering a telephone, making a shopping list, helping a child with their homework, reading bus timetables, road signs and medication. They help people gain confidence, motivation, self worth and better job prospects.
Essential skills are defined by the Welsh Government as:-
“The ability to read, write and speak in English/Welsh and use mathematics at a level necessary to function and progress in work and in society in general”
The consequences learners can face due to lack of essential skills could be a feeling of worthlessness, depression, an inability to manage your own finances, unable to effectively run a household or even help a child with their homework. These personal consequences would make living in our society very difficult as they would most likely be unemployed, are likely to be in poor health due to lack of nutrition and less likely to be involved in the community due to lack of confidence.
There are many reasons people may have an essential skills need. It can be a result of many different personal, social or economical aspects of an individual’s life. A personal reason could be a factor from home, a parent’s separation or just not having the support from parents which could lead to low self esteem, low confidence and a fear of failing.
Socially, a learner could have financial difficulties or live in rural areas, which would make it difficult to travel to the location of a class; also the cost of travel would be an issue. This
Essential skills play a fundamental part in everyone’s lives no matter who you are.
Essential Skills are the skills that people need for learning, work and life. They are used in the community and the workplace, in different forms and at different levels of complexity. Essential Skills provide the foundation for learning all other skills and enable people to evolve with their jobs and adapt to workplace change.
They are needed for basic tasks such as: answering a telephone, making a shopping list, helping a child with their homework, reading bus timetables, road signs and medication. They help people gain confidence, motivation, self worth and better job prospects.
Essential skills are defined by the Welsh Government as:-
“The ability to read, write and speak in English/Welsh and use mathematics at a level necessary to function and progress in work and in society in general”
The consequences learners can face due to lack of essential skills could be a feeling of worthlessness, depression, an inability to manage your own finances, unable to effectively run a household or even help a child with their homework. These personal consequences would make living in our society very difficult as they would most likely be unemployed, are likely to be in poor health due to lack of nutrition and less likely to be involved in the community due to lack of confidence.
There are many reasons people may have an essential skills need. It can be a result of many different personal, social or economical aspects of an individual’s life. A personal reason could be a factor from home, a parent’s separation or just not having the support from parents which could lead to low self esteem, low confidence and a fear of failing.
Socially, a learner could have financial difficulties or live in rural areas, which would make it difficult to travel to the location of a class; also the cost of travel would be an issue. This