What are Key Skills and why do I have to take them - I thought I had finished written work when I left school?
Key Skills are the skills that we all use in everyday life - in our work, our homes, our training.
For example: we all need to be able to communicate with our family, friends, banks, shop assistants or employers - that covers Communication. When we buy food, measure a room for carpets or curtains, pay rent or a mortgage, measure out feeds, weigh hay or work out the ground area of a loose box we are using Application of Number. If you want to surf the net, play computer games, place an advert for a horse for sale, write to a livery client or keep training notes you will involve Information & Communication Technology (ICT) : the list goes on and on, and the more you find out about Key Skills, the more you realize that you are involved with them every day, in almost everything you do - it's not like going back to school at all.
There are six Key Skills in total:
Communication
Application of Number
Information & Communication Technology (ICT)
Working with Others
Improving own Learning
Problem Solving.
It is very unlikely that you would have to undertake all of them, and if you have recent GCEs, grades A-C in English, Maths or ICT you will find that you are exempt from some Key Skills......not half as bad as you initially thought!