Essential Skills are the skills needed for work, learning and life. They provide the foundation for learning all other skills and enable people to evolve with their jobs and adapt to workplace change.

The Ontario Literacy Coalition provides the Essential Skills Bulletin series to assist literacy practitioners in understanding the Essential Skills. These bulletins provide accurate information and offer practical activities that can be used in the classroom to help students develop the skills needed for work, learning and life.

• ES for work, learning and life… really? [Bulletin 1]
• Lists, Forms and Graphs: Oh my! [Bulletin 2]
• I think, therefore I am… an essential skill [Bulletin 3]

Through extensive research, the Government of Canada and other national and international agencies have identified and validated nine (9) Essential Skills:

• Reading Text
• Document Use
• Numeracy
• Writing
• Oral Communication
• Working with Others
• Continuous Learning
• Thinking Skills
• Computer Use