Defining “core skills” therefore proved very challenging for the team. Many questions arose. Are the core skills a particular set of skills unique to each path or are they common to all paths? Are the Essential Skills themselves the core skills? If so, is the language for describing skills consistent for all five paths? Is there a difference between core skills and core transition skills? More discussion is required to address these kinds of questions and the complex issues surrounding them. In the meantime, the team is using the term “core skills” to describe the skills embedded in the transition tasks. As you will see later from the examples provided, LBS and Essential Skills language are both used.

Identifying key tasks associated with successful transition was somewhat more successful since interviewees didn’t require an explanation of “task”. In fact, tasks were readily supplied. In trying to define “tasks” in the context of Essential Skills, a new form of assessment emerged that was unique and consistent with the philosophy of the framework. A draft definition for “key transition tasks” was developed by the team and other consultants working on LSA projects. Key transition tasks have five distinct attributes:

  1. they are significant, authentic learning activities, assignments and assessments
  2. they demonstrate learners’ ability to apply Reading Text, Document Use and Numeracy in planning and preparing for transition to the next step in their goal paths
  3. they help learners demonstrate gains in Essential Skills
  4. they serve as “milestones” of transition
  5. they comprise one component of the overall learner assessment strategy of LBS/AU programs

Decontextualized: What is 9 X17?

Realistic: You charge $9.00 an hour to baby-sit. Last week you baby-sat for 17 hours. How much money did you earn last week?

Real life: How many hours would you have to baby-sit to buy an iPod?

The attributes are in keeping with the overarching nature of the framework and the use of a variety of assessment forms and approaches. They also ensure that the tasks students perform are real-life regardless of which pathway the learner takes. Tasks would incorporate authentic materials and be carried out in an authentic manner. Tasks must also incorporate the three Essential Skills of Reading Text, Document Use and Numeracy. This does not mean that other Essential Skills are excluded, but that the focus would be on the three that would be measured for accountability purposes. At the higher levels, a greater degree of skill integration would be expected, i.e., the skills would be integrated in a single task. The tasks are designed to help learners demonstrate learning gains and therefore need to be assigned a level of complexity.