Essential Skills

The need for a focus on Essential Skills in Scotland was first highlighted and prioritised by the Scottish Government in Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy (published in September 2007) and reinforced in its refreshed Skills Strategy (published in October 2010). In that strategy document, a wide definition was given of what should constitute Essential Skills, including:

personal and learning skills that enable individuals to become effective lifelong learners;
literacy and numeracy;
the five core skills of communication, numeracy, problem solving, information technology and working with others;
employability skills that prepare individuals for employment rather than for a specific occupation;
essential skills that include all of those above; and
vocational skills that are specific to a particular occupation or sector.

The strategy also indicated that employers place equal importance on a range of ‘softer’ less definable skills, such as time management, planning and organising, working to deadlines, etc.

New Essential Skills Units

Three new Units have been published that allow candidates to gain recognition for the Essential Skills they are developing during their learning.

These are the first Units we have designed to specifically address the Essential Skills agenda.

To download the Unit Specifications, please click on the links below. There are also Assessment Support Packs for each of these Units available on the SQA Secure Website, in the ‘Other Qualifications’ section.