Essential Skills/Employability Skills

Essential, employability, or generic skills – these terms are all attempts to examine the commonality of skills rather than the uniqueness of occupations. They are attempts to determine which skills are frequently used in job performance, and which skills, commonly taught, are rarely used in job performance.

Essential skills are not technical or employment-specific skills. They are generic and transferable skills found in all occupations and used in daily life. They may also be described as the Velcro® skills – the skills that enable technical and employment-specific skills to “stick”.

HRSDC’s nine Essential Skills include:

Understanding the connections between HRSDC’s Essential Skills and the Conference Board’s Employability Skills can help educators to use the many resources available to support assessment and development activities.

THE ESSENTIAL SKILLS-EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS CONNECTION

• They are the same skills.
• These skills are used beyond the workplace in a broad range of daily activities.
• The ESRP looks in greater detail at these skills. It provides information on the different ways these skills are used in the workplace. It also provides a way to talk about differences in the way skills are used and differences in the skills people have demonstrated.
• The Employability Skills profile also includes attitudes and behaviours that employers are looking for.