WHAT ARE WORKPLACE ESSENTIAL SKILLS?

Definitions of Workplace Essential Skills

• the kinds of skills people use to carry out a wide variety of everyday occupational tasks
• the foundation upon which more occupation-specific skills are built (the Velcro to which other training sticks)
• enabling skills that help people perform tasks required by their jobs
• skills which allow workers to learn new skills
• skills which enhance a worker’s ability to adapt to workplace change
• skills necessary to use printed and written information to perform competently in a workplace and to develop one’s knowledge and potential
• basic skills that help workers to fulfill their individual and collective potential at work, at home, in the union, and in the community
• generic skills required by most workplaces in the country
• the skills that help you to keep a job
• the “academic” skills that individuals require on a daily basis
• often called basic, foundation, enabling, essential skills

Some Specific Examples of Workplace Essential Skills

• reading and responding to an email
• writing in a logbook
• reading instructions in a manual
• interpreting a blueprint
• making a call to a supplier
• reading a collective agreement
• converting metric measurements to Imperial
• scheduling daily activities
• measuring angles
• interpreting WHMIS symbols
• completing an expense claim
• calculating square footages
• doing a cost estimate for a job

Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) Essential Skills Classifications

• reading text
• using documents
• writing
• numeracy
• oral communication
• thinking skills
  • problem solving
  • decision making
  • job task planning and organizing
  • significant use of memory
  • finding information
• working with others
• computer use
• continuous learning