Human Resources and Skills Development Canada  / Ressources humaines et Développement des compétences Canada Gouvernment of Canada
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Essential Skills

Understanding Essential Skills   Understanding Essential Skills
Essential Skills and Workplace Literacy Initiative   Essential Skills and Workplace Literacy Initiative
Essential Skills Profiles   Essential Skills Profiles
Authentic Workplace Materials   Authentic Workplace Materials
How Can I Use This Site?   How Can I Use This Site?
Tools and Applications   Tools and Applications
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Essential Skills

Essential Skills Profiles

Essential Skills profiles describe how each of the nine Essential Skills are used by workers in a particular occupation. Over the past several years, the Government of Canada has conducted research examining the skills people use at work. From this research and through interviews with workers, managers, practitioners and leading researchers, close to 200 Essential Skills profiles have been developed for various occupations of the National Occupational Classification. To date, profiles have been completed for all occupations requiring a high school education or less. Research is ongoing to complete occupations requiring university, college or apprenticeship training.

What the profiles include:

  • A brief description of the occupation.
  • A list of the most important Essential Skills.
  • Examples of tasks that illustrate how each Essential Skill is applied.
  • Complexity ratings that indicate the level of difficulty.
  • The physical aspects of performing the job and the attitudes that workers feel are needed to do the job well.
  • Future trends affecting Essential Skills.

The profiles can be used to help you:

  • learn more about the skills you need in various occupations;
  • develop workplace training programs, learning plans, or job descriptions;
  • investigate career options, and;
  • create educational tools to enhance skills development.

For more information, follow the links below:


Last Updated: 2006-09-12 10:25:26 Top of Page Important Notices