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What are “Essential
Skills"?
How
do I know if I need help with my Essential Skills?
Take the
Self-Assessment Quiz
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for Upgrading Advice
To do well in apprenticeship, you need solid practical skills and a good understanding of your trade. You also need good “Essential Skills” … trade-related reading, calculating and thinking skills. Study and test-taking skills are essential too. They are the “tools” that will help you succeed in technical training and on the job.
Prepare ahead!
If you can prepare yourself ahead of time, you can reduce the stress
and improve your marks. You’ll get more out of technical training
and have new skills to take back onto the job.
"Essential Skills” are skills that help you to perform the tasks required by your trade and other activities of daily life. They provide the foundation for learning other skills, and make it easier for you to adapt to workplace change.
"Essential Skills” include:
When some people first return to school for technical training, they have difficulties because they have been out of the classroom for a long time. Skills like reading textbooks, writing notes and trade math skills are rusty. Study and test-taking skills need to be tuned up. In addition, technical training can be intensive; there is a lot of new material to cover in a limited time. Instructors may not be able to offer individualised tutoring to learners who are having difficulty with some parts of the course.
Learning so much in an intensive program can be stressful if you are not well-prepared. If you think that this could be you, read through the information below to help you to prepare.
1. Do a reality check
Think about your school skills. Be honest with yourself.
How good IS your math? When was the last time you wrote a test?
How ready are you to tackle homework? When did you last read a textbook?
Are you worried about failing?
2. Inform yourself about what’s required
Talk to your Apprenticeship Training Coordinator
(ATC) about your school skills. What areas are you good at? What
could you use some help with? Talk to someone at the college or
school you will be attending. What kinds of documents or textbooks
will you have to read? What kind of math will you be doing? Then
think about how your skills compare to what is needed. Talk to people
who have been through technical training to find out what they found
easy or difficult. Getting good information can help reduce anxiety.
3. Do some upgrading
Doing something is better than doing nothing!
Anything you do to refresh your Essential Skills will benefit
you in technical training. It will also help reduce anxiety. If
you think you will need extra tutoring or if you have special learning
challenges, contact an adult learning centre near you, or call the
student support services at your college to find out how they can
help you. Colleges may be able to offer you support services if
you give them enough advance notice. Your ATC can also give you
some suggestions.
4. Plan your time
Don’t leave it to the last
minute. Start refreshing your skills at least two or three months
before technical training starts. Even doing one or two practise
exercises a week can make a difference. The more you can do, the
better you’ll be.
Check out your comfort level with these important back-to-school skills. Are you ready for technical training?
| True | Somewhat True | False | |
| I can comfortably read books like paperbacks, manuals or code books. | |||
| Reading and understanding longer articles in the newspaper is not a problem for me. | |||
| I can easily read two or three chapters in a textbook and remember the main information. | |||
| I can find information in tables, charts and graphs. | |||
| I can comfortably write a short report, memo or letter. | |||
| I have no problem taking notes when I’m listening to someone teach me something. | |||
| I can perform a variety of calculations with decimals, fractions and percent without too much trouble. | |||
| I have no difficulty calculating area or volume of different shaped objects. | |||
| I have good problem-solving skills. | |||
| I find it easy to organize myself and my work. | |||
| I don’t mind asking questions in class when I don’t understand something. | |||
| I have good study skills (highlighting important information I read, memorizing, planning out what I have to learn). | |||
| I have good test-taking skills. | |||
| I feel confident about going back to school. |
If you answered “false” to a number of these Essential Skills, you should contact your Apprenticeship Branch Training Coordinator or the college where will be taking your technical training. Take in the results of this quiz, and they will give you more detailed information about what you can do to get “tooled up” for technical training.