Resources > Essential Skills > Overview

SkillPlan is the lead for this project and have invited partners from across Canada to join them in building capacity in the understanding and use of Essential Skills.

Project Partners

• Yellowknife Catholic Schools - Alan Cook and Allyson Stroeder
• Emerald Educational Services - Angela Tessier
• Bow Valley College - Dean Caplan, Laurel Madro
• Canadian Language Research & Consulting - Deidre Lake
• Project READ Literacy Network - Jane Tuer
• Workplace Education PEI - Karen Chandler, Ruth Rogerson
• LOCS Regional Literacy Network - Lesley Hamilton
• Douglas College - Rod Embree, Linda Lanza, Pam Tetarenko
• Northern Lights College - Marissa Thola
• Red River College - Michelle Amaya-Torres
• Boeing Canada Technology - Shannon MacFarlane

Project Objectives

To establish a network of partners and from each, identify project participants. Our objective is to orient and support network participants including adult educators, literacy instructors, college instructors, and career education and employment counsellors, from across Canada, over a two-year period. Participants will build both personal and professional competence and confidence in:

1. explaining the background, development history and uses of the Essential Skills profiles and competency levels
2. exploring ways to integrate Essential Skills profiles and products in their existing programs and curricula.

To facilitate the development of relevant resource materials, using authentic workplace documents and a problem set format, for identified occupations. Each problem set consists of a set of questions, a work related source document, an answer key and an explanation of the "thinking" steps required to arrive at the answer. This objective will be achieved in three ways:

1. by partner participants identifying target occupation groups, (of local and provincial or territorial interest) and developing problem sets that mimic workplace tasks in those occupations.
2. by SkillPlan's "in-house" development of problem sets, for selected Red Seal trades applications, and
3. by adding to and enhancing the How do your skills Measure Up? site, in response to user feedback and the need to appropriately manage the additional problem sets and increased user access. In addition, selected activities from these problem sets will be articulated with the Canadian Language Benchmarks.

All the problem sets will be added to the How do your skills Measure Up? website thus making them available nationally at no cost the user. The "How do your skills Measure Up?" website currently holds problem sets related to 28 occupations, which reflect associated Essentail Skills profiles posted on the HRDC website.

The culmination of the project will be a Best Practices conference which will provide the network partners with an opportunity to demonstrate capacity and experience.

To see what is currently on the web site click here. How do your skills Measure Up?

For more information contact:

Lynda Fownes - info@skillplan.ca
BC Construction Industry Skills Improvement Council (SkillPlan)
Financial assistance is provided by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada - HRSDC (formerly HRDC)