St Joseph’s Skills Builder and PSHE plan 2023-2024
It has never been more important to build a set of essential skills to succeed in life for our children and young people: the ability to creatively solve problems, to self-manage, to communicate effectively, and to work well with others.
These are skills that are needed to do almost anything well. The need for these skills is clear, but there is still a gap – too many children and young people do not build these skills to the level they need, and so miss out on opportunities to thrive in other parts of their lives.
Too often this is an area where terminology is confused and confusing. The work of all the schools, colleges and organisations in the Skills Builder Partnership is to cut through this: to refine a consistent, universal approach to these essential skills.
We define the essential skills as: Listening, Speaking, Problem Solving, Creativity, Staying Positive, Aiming High, Leadership and Teamwork.
The Skills Builder Universal Framework
This Universal Framework builds off the original Skills Builder Framework, launched in 2017,
which has already proved its worth with children and young people, used in more than 750
organisations in the last year. Through a 9-month process of refinement and testing, it has been extended and improved to be truly universal – helping to join up how these skills are built in school or college to how they are recruited for and then supported by employers.
For educators, the Framework can be used to support children and young people to:
• Understand their existing skills: Reflecting on where their essential skills currently are, and being able to identify any gaps they might have
• See what progress looks like: Being able to see what the next steps are to improve their
essential skills further.
• Join the dots: Using a consistent language and understanding of essential skills to understand how they are used and practiced in lots of different settings
• Capturing success: Seeing progress and being able to better articulate their skills
Working together
The Universal Framework is freely available to all educators, and you can find a complete approach to building these skills through the Skills Builder Hub, including assessment tools and a full set of teaching and training materials.
Tom Ravenscroft
CEO, The Skills Builder Partnership
www.skillsbuilder.org
