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Definitions

Literacy traditionally includes the following four skills:

Reading
Writing
Document Use
Numeracy

Essential Skills are the skills needed for the workplace. They include the four skills associated with literacy above, as well as the following five skills:

Computer Use
Thinking
Oral Communication
Working with Others
Continuous Learning

Through extensive research, the Government of Canada and other national and international agencies have identified and validated these key Essential Skills for the workplace. These skills are used in nearly every job and at different levels of complexity. They provide the foundation for learning all other skills and enable people to evolve with their jobs and adapt to workplace change.

For more information on Essential Skills, follow the links below:

Reading

Reading refers to reading material that is in the form of sentences or paragraphs.

It generally involves reading notes, letters, memos, manuals, specifications, regulations, books, reports or journals.

Reading includes:

forms and labels if they contain at least one paragraph
print and non-print media (for example, text on computer screens and microfiche)
paragraph-length text in charts, tables and graphs

Writing

Writing includes:

writing texts and writing in documents (for example, filling in forms)
non-paper-based writing (for example, typing on a computer)

Document Use

Document Use refers to tasks that involve a variety of information displays in which words, numbers, icons and other visual characteristics (eg. line, colour, shape) are given meaning by their spatial arrangement. For example, graphs, lists, tables, blueprints, schematics, drawings, signs and labels are documents used in the world of work.

Document Use includes:

print and non-print media (for example, computer screen or microfiche documents, equipment gauges, clocks and flags)
reading/interpreting and writing/completing/producing of documents-these two uses of documents often occur simultaneously as part of the same task, e.g., completing a form, checking off items on a list of tasks, plotting information on a graph, and entering information on an activity schedule

Numeracy

Numeracy refers to the workers' use of numbers and their being required to think in quantitative terms.

Computer Use

Computer Use indicates the variety and complexity of computer use within the occupational group.

Thinking

Thinking differentiates between six different types of interconnected cognitive functions:

problem solving;
decision making;
critical thinking;
job task planning and organizing;
significant use of memory; and
finding information.

Oral Communication

Oral Communication pertains primarily to the use of speech to give and exchange thoughts and information by workers in an occupational group.

Working with Others

Working with Others examines the extent to which employees work with others to carry out their tasks. Do they have to work co-operatively with others? Do they have to have the self-discipline to meet work targets while working alone?

Description of Work Context

This description, in the form of an untitled paragraph at the beginning of the Working with Others section in each Essential Skills Profile, outlines the ways in which workers interact with one another to carry out their tasks. This section covers four types of work contexts. Knowing whether workers work alone, independently, with partners or as team members will help readers understand the skills workers use in their jobs.

As well, this section provides an idea of the variety of work interactions found within an occupational group. Workers may work independently most of the time, but work with partners in certain circumstances. For example, "Longshoremen work independently when operating forklifts in the yards but work with partners to load cargo into the hold of a ship."

Types of Work Contexts

Work alone

Employees work alone providing products or information on progress to others.

Home-based production workers work alone within their home environments.

Work independently

Workers are not physically alone but work independently, co-ordinating their work with that of others.

Receptionists in a large office and production line workers with responsibility for a very specific part of the process are in physical environments that include other workers. However, they work essentially on their own.

Work jointly with a partner or helper

One worker co-ordinates and co-operates with only one other co-worker at a time.

A tradesperson works with an apprentice.

A dental assistant works with a dentist.

Work as a member of a team

A team is a group of workers who produce a product or accomplish a task through combined effort and organized co-operation.

Members of a film crew work together to create a feature film or documentary.

Continuous Learning

Continuous Learning examines the requirement for workers in an occupational group to participate in an ongoing process of acquiring skills and knowledge.

Continuous Learning tests the hypothesis that more and more jobs require continuous upgrading, and that all workers must continue learning in order to keep or to grow with their jobs. If this is true, then the following will become Essential Skills:

knowing how to learn;
understanding one's own learning style; and
knowing how to gain access to a variety of materials, resources and learning opportunities.

Description of Learning

This description, in the form of an untitled paragraph at the beginning of the Continuous Learning section in each Essential Skills Profile, outlines the ongoing learning or skills upgrading that is required in the occupational group. This description may include the following types of learning: