The 9 Essential Skills
Transcript
00:00There are nine essential skills.
00:02After all of the research, we identified nine.
00:05They are reading, writing, document use, numeracy,
00:11computer use, which they now call digital technology
00:14because it's not just about computers anymore,
00:17working with others, oral communication,
00:19thinking, and continuous learning.
00:22And I never remembered them all at one time.
00:27So when we're talking about the essential skill of reading,
00:30we're talking about running text.
00:32So the kind of reading you do in a newspaper,
00:34here's a series of paragraphs,
00:36we get through it and away you go.
00:39For writing, that is any kind of writing.
00:41Writing into a document, writing into an email.
00:44So it includes that ability to type into some sort of digital format,
00:49handwriting, all of those things are included in writing,
00:52and it's writing any kind of thing.
00:54When we're talking about numeracy,
00:56it's a wide range of skills all the way from basic,
00:59"Can I add, subtract?"
01:01all the way to more complicated things like,
01:03"Can I actually do my own budget?" and things like that.
01:07So that's all included in numeracy.
01:09Document use is interesting.
01:11It's a combination, really, of reading and writing.
01:14You need to be able to read the words in the document,
01:17but then you need to be able to write or type
01:20to fill in the different kinds of questions that it asks you.
01:23And document use is usually also about
01:26how is that document formatted?
01:28How do you understand the isolated bits of information
01:32that you need to fill out in a document?
01:35So it's reading and writing,
01:36but also how is it laid out on the page,
01:38and can I navigate that and figure that out?
01:41Computer use, old term, digital technology, new term,
01:46are all of those things we need to be able to do
01:48really to interact with the different kinds of machines and computers
01:53that we see in our environment.
01:56An example might be if you're paying for parking
02:00and you have to punch in a code on a parking meter.
02:04That's an example of digital technology.
02:08It's not just about computers anymore,
02:11and especially with handheld.
02:13Working with others is that ability
02:15to collaborate and coordinate
02:18different kinds of tasks with other people.
02:21It can sometimes include working on your own
02:24and communicating with others,
02:26to figure out how to get a task done.
02:29And thinking, there's actually six subsets of it,
02:33but that doesn't really matter.
02:34Thinking is all of those processes we do to make decisions,
02:38to be critical about the things that we are doing to solve problems.
02:43All of those things are included in thinking,
02:45and I defy you to do any of the essential skills without thinking.
02:50It's not going to work.
02:52And the final one that I usually forget
02:54when I'm talking about essential skills is continuous learning,
02:58which is ironic because continuous learning
03:01is the strongest essential skill that we use all the time.
03:05If we don't learn continuously in our jobs
03:08and learn continuously about what learners need,
03:11we're not doing our jobs well.
03:14And the nice thing about Community Adult Learning Programs
03:16are they are continuously learning about
03:19how they can serve learners in their communities.
03:23So the best use and the best way
03:25to think about essential skills
03:27is to think about tasks that you do every day.
03:30We can look at any one individual task,
03:33let's say writing an email,
03:35and think about all the skills we need
03:37to be able to complete that task.
03:40When we are doing tasks every day,
03:42we never just do one skill.
03:43We never just use one.
03:45We're using a variety, usually, at one time.
03:48So, when we're writing an email,
03:50our number one skill we need is the digital technology.
03:54How do I actually access this email so that I can read it,
03:59my next essential skill,
04:01to figure out how am I supposed to respond?
04:04Now my response, really, I need keen thinking skills
04:09to be able to respond appropriately to that email,
04:12especially if it's to your boss.
04:15So then you thought through what you want to say,
04:18now you need to type it in.
04:20But typing is no longer just typing,
04:21typing now is writing.
04:23We're using our thinking process to organize
04:26what we want to say,
04:27and then we're typing in our email.
04:30Then we finished by using our digital technology skill to find send,
04:34and make sure we sent it to the right person
04:37and didn't include everybody on the email.
04:41So we're never just using one essential skill for any daily task.
04:44It's pretty hard to separate them even though they sound separated
04:48when we talk about the nine.
04:49We're usually doing more than one almost constantly.