What are Essential Skills?

Essential Skills are those basic skills that we all need in order to be successful and efficient in our life. These are the skills that provide us with the foundation for learning the skills we need to do our jobs and to adapt to our workplace and to the changes in our lives and work.

The Government of Canada, along with other national and international agencies have identified nine Essential Skills.

They are:

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

In order to help us learn more about the skills needed in various occupations, the Government has development Essential Skills Profiles. These profiles help users to measure their essential skills in terms of real job experience.