Employability and Key Skills
Key skills are a range of abilities, attributes and aptitudes vital to almost every aspect of life. Recognising and developing key skills will give students the ability to adapt to new situations and different contexts. Key skills are sometimes referred to as 'transferable skills' - a core set of skills, which are essential to everyone employed at all levels, regardless of position. The ability to articulate, evidence and transfer the key skills of communication, numeracy, information technology, team work, problem solving and managing own learning, has been recognised by employers and universities as being essential to improving employability and supporting personal development and lifelong learning.
Employers have taken the lead in highlighting the importance of key skills for employability. Key skills are an important feature of modern apprenticeships and other government-funded training programmes. The development of key skills has been encouraged in schools and colleges for some time, particularly through GNVQs, work experience programmes and curriculum-enrichment activities. Key skills are also highlighted in the national curriculum to show how they relate to subjects across the curriculum.
The approach taken by the University of Salford Key Skills Implementation Project has been to embed key skills within the curriculum, adopting a flexible model which enables schools to approach this in ways appropriate to the discipline and/or vocational requirements.
Survey of Student Placements 05/06
Download the results for this survey. (Accessible from within UoS network only.)
Further Information
Contact Dorothy Oakey
Page last updated 17 October, 2008 .