Sandy Riddell (Project Manager) Essential Skills Workshop

Essential Skills  What are Essential Skills?  Identified in the Skills Strategy (Sept 07): –Personal and Learning Skills –Literacy and Numeracy –the five Core Skills –Employability Skills (incl ‘soft’ skills) –Vocational Skills

Essential Skills  Scot Gov still to finalise definition of Essential Skills, other things could be added, e.g. –Citizenship; sustainability; attitudes/behaviours  Still to decide how achievement will be recognised – Profiling?  We do know that Essential Skills will be an important part of Gov thinking and strategy  Likely that SQA/centres will be expected to highlight Essential Skills in qualifications and in delivery

Essential Skills  Current approaches to Essential and Core Skills: –Core Skills Profile in SQC (embedding) –Core Skills signposting in Units and GAs –Employability and Learning Skills integral to Skills for Work Courses –New Courses and Units in Personal Development (replacing PSE) –Project Units (some contributing to Core Skills achievement)

Essential Skills  In this workshop we want to explore how Essential Skills might be covered in Group Awards, we will consider: –An example of how the Core Skills can be delivered across the curriculum in a school –The use of new technology to help gather and store evidence and to help deliver these skills –New ideas and suggestions through group discussion

Essential Skills  Some issues to consider as you listen to the presentations: –Potential overload (trying to cover to much) –How might e-enabled approaches help –How do we record progress in Essential Skills –Which Essential Skills to focus on –How to involve candidates in Essential Skills (taking ownership)

Mhairi McAlpine (Project Manager) E-Enabling Skills for Work Introducing Deskspace for Skills for Work

Skills for Work Qualifications Suite  Pre-vocational qualification  Aimed at year olds  Primarily delivered through school/college partnerships  Available at SCQF levels 3-6 (Access 3 to Higher)  Includes element of “employability skills”.

Introducing Deskspace  In 2007/08, a small pilot project was undertaken under the larger Skills for Work Development programme exploring the possibilities of e-enabling Skills for Work courses, including the provision of an e-portfolio - Deskspace.  Feedback from this pilot was very positive and following a successful bid for ESF funding we are expanding the project to offer all centres the opportunity to manage their Skills for Work provision through an e-portfolio for the academic year 08/09

Deskspace and employability  The Deskspace e-portfolio system compliments the Skills for Work qualification by allowing candidates to record their learning in a pre- formatted manner  Candidates can record notes of meetings; conduct SWOT analyses; record their aims and objectives and steps needed to allow them to achieve their goals. There are also checklist available for self, peer and tutor recording of candidates achievements.  The structure nature of the recording within Deskspace, allows candidates to see where there is room for improvement and identify concrete tasks for them to complete – enhancing the employability skills that are embedded with in Skills for Work

Deskspace Features Summary  Very intuitive to use  Embedded checklists based on NABs  Reflection is built into the features  Additional features such as SWOT analysis and recoding of goals  Ability to publish material direct to others, to a central gateway for marking or as a webfolio  Ability to export portfolio at the end of the course and import into other systems.

Core Skills and A Curriculum for Excellence An Action Research Project undertaken by St Margaret’s Academy supported the SQA and the Scottish Government

Project Aims To develop the four capacities of a Curriculum for Excellence through learning activities matched to the specific skills set of the new Core Skills Framework Core Skills delivered explicitly in meaningful learning contexts in various activities across the curriculum Provide opportunities for achievement in cross cutting themes

The St Margaret’s Project Increase opportunities for pupils to achieve through a more flexible curriculum which demonstrates the seven principles of curriculum design: –Challenge and enjoyment, –Breadth –Depth In practical terms acquire the skills necessary for life and work through a variety of contexts –Progression –Personalisation –Choice –Coherence and relevance

The St Margaret’s Project CfE assists by promoting cross curricular delivery initiatives. Design the curriculum in S1-3 to achieve accreditation in core skills for S3 pupils The intention is to provide a smooth and well paced progression for every child. The “third curriculum level” is the focus of this project

The St Margaret’s Project Shape curriculum design IT cross curricular Creative Arts as Core Electives in Social Subjects, Expressive Arts and Technologies Requirement for cross cutting themes Additional time for communication and numeracy

The St Margaret’s Project Focus on learning – not assessment driven Accreditation at Levels 2-5 but majority at Level 4 Pupils ‘resulted’ at end of S3 Evidence gathered across S1-S3

The St Margaret’s Project Merge reporting on Core Skills achievement with recording and reporting of achievement Developing electronic assessment capture linked to current reporting Core Skills Framework as a ‘catalyst’ to enrich the learning experience to develop the capacities