About Key Skills
Which Key Skills should I do?
There are really two questions here:
- which key skills should I do?
- what level should I aim at?
The simple answer to these questions is "you should do the key skills that are most relevant to your needs and you should aim for the highest level you can". And that means all six key skills, not just the first three.
Which key skills?
The first problem is to decide which key skills are "relevant to your needs". For example, imagine you are a student taking GCSEs or AS levels in subjects like English, French, Media Studies, and History. You could say that Application of Number is not relevant to you because your subjects don’t involve much number work. On the other hand, you could argue that Number is particularly relevant to your needs because, even though there is not much number in your present course, you will need to be able to use numbers when you get a job, and when you have to manage your own finances, whether at university or when you start to earn and spend money. And you can't be sure what education or training courses you will be doing in future. Even if you want to study history or languages at university, you will almost certainly combine them with other courses which require other skills.
This applies just as much to the ICT key skill. It's a matter of whether you take the short-term view or the longer-term. You may not need ICT now but how will you cope when you get a job where it is assumed that you are IT-competent and able to use databases and spreadsheets, let alone word-processing? Surfing the net is one thing; using it for proper research is another. In a recent survey, up to 30% of employers reported a "skills gap" in ICT. And up to 50% reported a gap for communication, especially oral communication, and for team-working.
If you are studying for a vocational qualification or an apprenticeship, and if you have experience of the world of work, it will be easy for you to see the relevance of all six key skills. It isn't possible to study Business or Health & Social Care or Travel & Tourism without using the key skills. It follows that, the better your key skills, the better results you will get.
What level?
If you are at school or college, you need to decide which key skills to do, and then to think about what level to aim for. If you haven't got GCSE A* - C in English, Maths and/or ICT, then you should aim for at least Level 2 key skill in Communication, Application of Number and/or ICT. If you have got these grades, you should be thinking about aiming for Level 3 in the key skills. You don't have to be able to do A level Maths to do Level 3 Application of Number. What fixes the level of a key skill is only partly what you know – it's much more to do with how you use what you know, and how you apply your knowledge to solve real problems and get things done.
If you are on an apprenticeship training programme, the framework will say which key skills you have to get and at what level. But there is nothing to stop you aiming higher and any employer will be pleased to see that you are ambitious.
What about the wider key skills?
The wider key skills are relevant to everybody, whatever course of study or training they are doing. Improving Own Learning and Performance helps you develop your time management and work planning skills. Working with Others shows you how to make the most of working in a team or group. Problem Solving gives you a range of ideas for tackling the problems you will face, whatever you are doing. If you have the chance to aim for any or all of these key skills, take it.
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What are Key Skills?