Essential Skills

Essential Skills are the skills needed for work, learning and life. They provide the foundation for learning all other skills and enable people to evolve with their jobs and adapt to workplace change.

Through extensive research, the Government of Canada and other national and international agencies have identified and validated nine Essential Skills. These skills are used in nearly every occupation and throughout daily life in different ways and at different levels of complexity.

There are nine Essential Skills:

  • Reading Test
  • Document Use
  • Numeracy
  • Writing
  • Oral Communication
  • Working with Others
  • Continuous Learning
  • Thinking Skills
  • Computer Use

Investing in essential skills training can result in:

  • Higher productivity
  • Reduced error rates
  • Improved safety
  • Reduce absenteeism
  • Greater employee retnation
  • Enhanced communication and teamwork
  • Improved employee morale
  • Enhanced business/organization image

The Essential Skills Toolkit consists of a series of generic, easy to use tools that can help you integrate Essential Skills into the workplace through human resources practices such as training, hiring, and assessment.

Learn more about Essential Skills at HRDC …

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Kootenay Career Development Society
Phone: 250.352.6200
Toll Free: 1.877.952.6200
Hours of Operation: 8:30 - 4:30
Monday to Friday