Chapter 2: Making Essential Skills Explicit in the Classroom

Instructors regularly teach Essential Skills in their classes, regardless of the discipline they are teaching in. Often, the instructor does not identify these skills as Essential Skills. But expectations about classroom behaviours, dress code and punctuality certainly reflect elements of the workplace in the classroom. Asking students to work together on a project is an example of teamwork or working with others. Observing deadline dates for assignments could help develop the skill of job task organizing and planning. And, working through case studies in the classtoom promotes a multitude of thinking skills, such as decision making, critical thinking, and problem solving. These are all Essential Skills.

The instructors featured in this Guide have designed ways to make workplace Essential Skills explicit in their teaching practice. Students who learn about Essential Skills in this way are better prepared for the expectations of the workplace.

Let's start of by listening to one leader in Essential Skills, Robin Houston-Knopff from Bow Valley College in Calgary, talk about the importance of Essential Skills from the college perspective.