Essential Skills

Literacy and Essential Skills

Literacy is your ability to understand and use printed material in daily activities, at home, at work and in the community - to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential [1]. Some sources define literacy as the "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials..." [2].

Essential Skills are the skills you need to learn all other skills. Each person requires Essential Skills to function in their daily life, at home, at work and in the community. Everyone needs essential skills to be literate. Having strong essential skills leads to better paying jobs and the adaptability to meet new challenges and stay employed.

End Notes

1. Canada and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society: Further Results of the International Adult Literacy Survey (Ottawa and Paris: 1997), p. 14.)

2. Definition of literacy agreed during a June 2003 meeting organized by the UNESCO Institute for Education, the Basic Education Section of UNESCO and the UIS in Paris.