Last updated 16th September 2005
by Helen Nichols
Version 2 website
Launch 22nd October 2001

What are key skills?

Key Skills are the generic transferable skills needed to succeed in work, education and employment. They are new qualifcations and have been available in this form since September 2000.

'Students should be taking key skills components which are relevant to their future study and employment needs and which enable them to develop higher skills than they already possess' Estelle Morris (taken from the TES 13 July)

'We believe that the new qualifications give young people the opportunity to take on programmes that are both more flexible - and thus better suited to their individual needs - and more demanding overall. We do not apologise for having high aspirations for our young people'Estelle Morris (taken from the TES 13 July)

There are six key skills units. The main three "hard"or "main"skills are:

• Communication - is about speaking and listening, reading and writing
• Application of number- is about interpreting information to do with numbers,doing calculations and presenting
  your findings
• Information technology- is about using a computer to find, explore, develop and present information including text, numbers and images.
  
  The three "wider" key skills are:
• Working with others- is about how you work with others when planning and carrying out activities to get things done and achieve shared objectives
• Improving own learning and performance-is about how you manage your learning, career and personal development
• Problem solving - is about recognising problems and doing something about them.

The specifications and guidance and documents relating to the key skills are available from QCA at www.qca.org.uk or from their publications department.

For more information about these skills click on the icons at the top of the page.

How are key skills assessed?
Candidates must pass internal and external assessment a candidate must produce a portfolio of evidence which is assessed by their teacher or tutor and subject to internal verification. Portfolios identified as passing by the school or college are then sampled which corroborates the portfolio evidence. A separate assessment is taken in each unit through a process of standards moderation External assessment is through a multiple choice test.The test is:

• Externally set and marked
• Taken in supervised timed sessions
• Multiple choice at levels 1 and 2 lasting 60 minutes
• A mixture of short and extended answer questions at level 3 and above, lasting 90 minutes.

Sample external assessment papers are available from QCA or the awarding bodies.

How much curriculum time is needed for key skills?
For IT - some schools have a specific 50 minute slot per week.
For Communication and Application of Number there are various methods:
-Ideally one hour a week per key skill would be the best option, but many schools timetables are already over stretched.
-For some pupils disapplication might be the answer.
-Perhaps a mixture of GCSEs and key skills qualification might be a useful approach for schools.
-If a school is running GNVQs the ideal place for key skills is within these programme- 20% of curriculum time (some schools have found this too generous and therefore key skills could be built in -perhaps 1-2 hours of the 5 hours per week. The key skills specialist would need to work closely with the vocational specialist to ensure relevance to the programme).

Proxies
QCA has announced English and Mathematics qualifications that will stand as exemption for the external tests. Similarly QCA have announced that some computing/ICT qualifications will act as proxy for the test for IT and in some cases for the internal components as well see the QCA website for full details.

Awarding Body
The three unitary awarding bodies are AQA, Edexcel and OCR for further key skills information and support contact:

• AQA Tel 0161 953 1180 www.aqa.org.uk
• Edexcel Tel 020 7393 4444 www.edexcel.org.uk
• OCR Tel 024 7647 0033 www.ocr.org.uk
  Many vocational awarding bodies also offer the new key skills Qualification including
• ASDAN and City & Guilds. The full list is available from QCA.
• ASDAN Tel 0117 923 9843 www.asdan.co.uk
• City & Guilds Tel 020 7294 2468
• LCCIEB www.lccieb.com