Skills for the Future


	Going to Work High Tech Certification Short-term Training for Employment Starting a Business Secondary School Apprenticeship Volunteering Travel and Work Work Experience Work Search The World of Work Skills for the Future Frequently Asked Questions

Employability Skills

This section will provide you with an idea of the skills you need to be successful in today's work place. We have compiled lists from three of Canada's most prestigious research institutions. The Conference Board of Canada produced the best known of these. You can go to the Conference Board of Canada's web site for the list and supporting information.

Business Skills

For a list of skills most sought after by small and medium sized businesses, jump to the BCLFDB/HRDC list.

Essential Skills

The development of essential skills is a project of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC).

Essential skills are enabling skills that:

help people perform the tasks required by their occupation.
provide workers with a foundation to learn skills that are occupation-specific.
enhance people's ability to adapt to work place change.

The HRDC Essential Skill Profiles has profiles of a wide variety of occupations in a wide variety of industries (E.g., quality control technician in the apparel industry, campground operator and hunting guide in the tourism industry, or signmaker in the signs industry).

The essential skills profiles include the following skills:

Reading Text
Use of Documents
Writing
Numeracy
Oral Communication
Thinking Skills
Problem Solving
Decision Making
Job Task Planning and Organizing
Significant Use of Memory
Finding Information
Working with Others
Computer Use
Continuous Learning

Life and Work Skills

The Blueprint for Life/Work document notes that life and work are inextricably intertwined. Hence, this document refers to "life/work designs" rather than to "career development." The concept of "life and work designs" is intended to directly capture the idea that:

life and work, though sometimes distinct, are not separate;
life and work are best "designed" in harmony; and
life/work can be "designed" (fully recognizing that not all designs come to full fruition!) and continuously re-designed.

The intent of the blueprint is two-fold. First, the blueprint sets out career development competencies that children, youth and adults will do well to master.

Secondly, these competencies are supplemented by performance indicators that elaborate upon the competencies. At each level, the competencies are grouped into three broad areas:

personal management;
learning and work exploration;
career building.

For the complete list of competencies please refer to the Life/Work website.