Skills for Success, Essential Skills and OALCF- A Comparison

from Perfectio - Pathways (Special Edition, Spring 2022)

The Literacy Group: Facilitate Contacts Between LBS Programs and Businesses

By Robyn Cook-Ritchie // Executive Director, Laubach Literacy Ontario

The Office of Literacy and Essential Skills recently updated the Essential Skills (ES) framework. The framework is now called Skills for Success and the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills is now known as the Office of Skills for Success. This article will provide a brief overview of the original Essential Skills framework, and the connection of the Essential Skills framework to the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework. The new Skills for Success framework will also be highlighted.

THE ORIGINAL ESSENTIAL SKILLS FRAMEWORK

In 1993-1994, the Government of Canada launched the Essential Skills Research Project (ESRP). The goal of this project was to identify the skills needed for work, learning and life. It was meant to provide a baseline for an individual to know if they had the skills they needed for a particular job. A framework that would help identify skill gaps, would encourage training and in turn improved labour market outcomes. Each of the Essential Skills that were identified during the project had a description of proficiency on a four or five point scale. Complexity levels could then be assigned to example tasks performed by a worker on the job. This set the stage for the development of the Essential Skills Profiles. Between 1995 and 1997, data collection and pilots for the Essential Skills Profiles took place between 1995 and 1997 with the writing of the profiles starting in 1998.

The original Essential Skills framework was comprised of nine skills. The nine skills were identified as the foundation skills required to successfully participate in the Canadian Labour Market. They were “enabling” skills to help people perform tasks required in occupations and everyday life. They provided a foundation to learn other skills and adapt to change. The Essential Skills were often likened to the “Velcro” to which all other learning sticks.

The skills in the Essential Skills framework were as follows:

Reading Text Reading text involved reading materials written in sentences or paragraphs. It involved reading a variety of materials including notes, letter, books, reports, and journals.

Document Use Document Use included tasks that involved different types of information displays where words, numbers, icons, and other visual characteristics are given meaning by how they are arranged. It included print and non-print media. Examples included lists, tables, drawing, and signs.

Writing Writing encompassed communication through words, numbers and symbols on paper or computers. Writing texts, writing within documents, and typing on a computer were included.

Numeracy Numeracy involved using numbers across the four settings of money math, scheduling or budgeting and accounting, measurement and calculation, and data analysis. Tasks included handling cash, managing time, measuring in the physical word, and determining trends or statistically significant events.

Working With Others Working With Others involved interaction between people to complete tasks. This could be direct interaction like a phone call or indirect interaction like a phone message.

Oral Communication Oral Communication involved using speech to exchange ideas and information. The levels of complexity used in the oral communication scale were compatible with the levels in Canadian Language Benchmarks, English as a Second Language for Adults, 1996.

Thinking Skills Thinking skills covered finding and evaluating information to make decisions and to organize work tasks. It covered problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, job task planning and organization, and use of memory.

Computer Use Originally called computer use, and later relabelled digital technology, this Essential Skill involved using computer and other forms of technology such as software.

Continuous Learning Continuous Learning focused on the ongoing process of improving skills and knowledge. Learning was categorized by type (e.g., in-job, updating credentials) and how learning occurred (e.g., as part of regular work activity, self-study).

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ESSENTIAL SKILLS AND THE ONTARIO ADULT LITERACY CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK (OALCF)

The Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework (OALCF) was part of the 2007 Ontario Plan which stated that under a Smarter Ontario, Ontario would work together with the college sector and non-profit groups to design and deliver an adult literacy curriculum. The first phase took place in 20082009 with the final development taking place in 2010-2011. The Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) field was involved in the development work of the initiative through a series of funded projects to the support and service organizations.

The Curriculum Framework was designed to help practitioners make clear connections between literacy development and the real-life tasks learners perform in work, learning and community contexts. The OALCF competencies were established by synthesizing responses from the literacy service providers in Ontario to the question, “What should learners learn in literacy programs?”

Development team members representing the interests of learners in Francophone, Deaf, Indigenous, and Anglophone programs, in addition to representatives from communitybased, school board and college service providers each independently identified potential competencies. Through discussion, the team reached consensus on the set of competencies that would comprise the Framework.

The OALCF uses three levels to describe a learner’s proficiency. These levels are informed by the same factors that drive complexity at Essential Skills levels 1, 2, and 3. The OALCF developers relied heavily on the ES research and scales in the development of the OALCF. Other frameworks were also consulted during the research process including:

6 OALCF COMPETENCIES/9 ESSENTIAL SKILLS – A COMPARISON

See Table 1 on page 11.

THE NEW SKILLS FOR SUCCESS FRAMEWORK

Skills for Success mean to “provide Canadians with everyday skills needed for work, learning and life”. The premise behind the skills identified in this new framework is that improvement of these skills will help Canadian’s success in the workplaces of today and tomorrow1 .

Although the new framework still identifies nine skills, there are significant differences. Skills for Success includes more focus on soft skills and socio-emotional skills as well as technology use. The article on page 6, "The Core Competencies That Canadians Need to Adapt and Succeed", lists these differences.

SKILLS FOR SUCCESS AND THE OALCF

The focus of the OALCF is how adult learners use the skills they have acquired outside of the program setting. The competencies in the OALCF are broad and connections can be made with the new Skills for Success.

See Table 2 on page 11. ■

› The Manitoba Stages of Literacy › The Australia Core Skills Framework › The Canadian Language Benchmarks › England’s Adult Literacy and Numeracy Core Curricula › US – Equipped for the Future While the OALCF scale is consistent with the interpretation of the ES complexity scales for several ES, it departs from the ES framework because it has a different purpose: to support adult learning. It does not draw exclusively on the ES for the conceptualization of levels. The OALCF only draws on the first three levels of the ES framework because the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) indicated that adults with Level 3 skills can meet most of the ES demands of daily life and transfer skills from one context to another. Reading text and Document Use scales are compatible with IALS. One additional difference between the OALCF and the ES framework is the fact that the OALCF is organized by competencies instead of skills.

OALCF COMPETENCY

Find and Use Information

Communicate Ideas and Information

Understand and Use Numbers

Use Digital Technology

Manage Learning

Engage with Others