Projects
INTEGRATING SOFT SKILLS INTO THE ESSENTIAL SKILLS FRAMEWORK – BUILDING A NATIONAL CONSENSUS
- To develop a plan to create a common assessment and development approach for ‘soft’ skills in Canada;
- To propose their integration into the existing essential skills framework;
- To identify and develop common terminology.
These objectives will be achieved by:
- Identifying existing ‘soft’ skills taxonomies, frameworks, efforts, assessments and resources being used and/or supported; and
- Developing a plan for moving forward on a collaborative impact effort to expand the essential skills framework to include ‘soft’ skills.
TIME FRAME: Completion Nov 2018
ACTIVITIES: The project has four main activities:
- Conduct a literature review of work on ‘soft’ skills across Canada to capture current thinking and efforts on ‘soft’ skill development;
- Develop and implement a survey targeting a broad set of stakeholders across Canada (e.g. employers, service providers, educators, trainers, governments) to understand current practices, language, and views on ‘soft’ skills development;
- Select a representative group of stakeholders (15-20), to be involved in a planning session to explore possibilities for the creation of a Canadian “soft skills” framework and its integration with the existing essential skills framework (stakeholders to be trained in consensus-based decision making and Collective Impact as part of the process); and
- Write a report that summarizes the results from the project and providing recommendations for reaching consensus on the development of a Canadian “soft skills” framework.
OUTPUTS: Principal outputs for the project include:
- A summary of the existing ESDC Competency-based “soft” skills taxonomy;
- An initial draft set of skills suited for initiating consensus discussions;
- Recommendations for integrating “soft skills” into the existing essential skills framework;
- A plan for developing a national consensus on ‘soft’ skills development and assessment;
- Recommendations on how to render the taxonomy of practical use to front line application; and
- A final report to ESDC.
CONTACT: For more information about, or to express interest in participating in this project, please Contact Paul Brinkhurst, Futureworx, 587-226-7800, [email protected].
