April 1, 2025

Czech Educational Leaders Visit UK to Explore Skills-Based Curriculum Implementation

Building Essential Skills Through International Partnership

Equipping learners with essential skills is crucial in our increasingly interconnected world. It’s a challenge that transcends borders and in March, we had the privilege of hosting a delegation of Czech educational professionals keen to explore how Skills Builder Partnership is tackling this very issue. The delegation, composed of nineteen professionals, visited the UK to observe the successful implementation of the Universal Framework in schools and discuss the integration of essential skills into national curricula. This visit underscores a shared commitment to fostering skills-based education and ensuring that young people are well-prepared for the demands of the 21st century. This collaborative effort highlights the global significance of skills-based curriculum reform and the pivotal role organisations and NGOs play in driving educational enhancement.

Skills Builder Approach in Action

The two-day visit provided the Czech delegation with a comprehensive overview of Skills Builder's Universal Framework implementation in a variety of educational settings.

The delegation saw the Skills Builder Accelerator Programme in action, empowering educators to incorporate essential skills throughout their provision. By building a team of confident teachers with access to high quality resources from Skills Builder Hub, the programme allows educators to observe clear learner progress in the eight essential skills.

Day 1: Shaftesbury Park Primary School and William Tyndale Primary School

The delegation began the first day at Shaftesbury Park Primary School, where they were welcomed with a presentation from Headteacher Bunmi Richards. Deputy Head Alastair Anderson and Skills Leader Francesca Heser, outlined the school's implementation of the Universal Framework via their enterprise curriculum. This was followed by a tour of the school, giving the visitors a firsthand look at the learning environment and how well essential skills are embedded in the day-to-day life of the school. The highlight of the morning was the opportunity to observe lessons, allowing the delegation to witness how effectively confident teachers are able to integrate essential skills development into their teaching practice.

“We needed to raise the aspirations of our students and Skills Builder has had a huge impact for our students. Children here are equipped with these skills and are independent and empowered.”

Francesca Heser, Skills Leader, Shaftesbury Park Primary School

The afternoon session took place at William Tyndale Primary School, where a similar programme was followed. Despite differences in school contexts, there is remarkable consistency in what they do well, as outlined in the principles of best practice. Skills Leader Michelle Georgeson at William Tyndale explained how it takes time to fully embed the essential skills into every day school life and shared their success in making links with local businesses within the community to help bring the essential skills to life for their learners. The delegates were able to visit a lesson and observe a short lesson resource from the Skills Builder Hub.

It was clear to see that materials accessible on the Hub provide teachers with resources that focus tightly on specific skill steps from the Universal Framework to ensure pupils get opportunities to build their essential skills at a level suitable to their needs. A particular highlight of this visit was seeing a project the students were undertaking with external business support to designing what their school should look like in 2050, a great example of the creative problem-solving skills in action!
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“We started working with Skills Builder because we had pupils that couldn’t work together and couldn’t share. Now our secondaries are telling us that pupils reach them well prepared and most importantly our children are happy because of Skills Builder.”

Michelle Georgeson, Skills Leader, William Tyndale Primary School

Day 2: Blythe Bridge High School

On the second day, a virtual visit with Blythe Bridge High School took place, showcasing how the Skills Builder approach can be implemented in secondary education. The Skills Leader, Matthew Goodwin, shared the school's journey on the Skills Builder Accelerator programme and their approach to embedding essential skills in their curriculum.

Using teacher training sessions provided by Skills Builder Partnership, staff at Blythe Bridge High School have been able to embed skills steps from the Universal Framework across all areas of the curriculum, starting with Citizenship. In addition, Matthew explained that the language of the essential skills has been shared with external organisations, so that learners are hearing a consistent language in relation to the skills. This is particularly evident during annual careers fayres and extra curricular activities, where learners have an opportunity to see practice their skills in a range of context and link their learning to the world of work. Finally, Matthew shared information about the schools use of Skills Builder Hub as a tool to measure learner progress. Bringing rigour to the assessment of essential skills through consistent measurement provides educators with a clear understanding of which steps from the Universal Framework have already been achieved and what therefore, should be the next focus.

Skills Champions at Blythe Bridge High School

The delegation enjoyed hearing from Skills Champions James, Izabella, Asia and Lucas. When asked about why he wanted to become a Skills Champion, James aged 13 said, “I knew that it would be a challenge, but I wanted an opportunity to improve my friends’ understanding of the skills so that they can make better decisions”.

When asked about any challenges that the Skills Champions faced within their role, Asia aged 13, explained how she overcame her fear of public speaking by using steps from the Universal Framework to support her when delivering whole school assemblies.

“Our partnership with Skills Builder has played a major role in embedding the essential skills throughout our school. The Universal Framework continues to impact all areas of school life, inside and outside the classroom.”

Matthew Goodwin, Skills Leader, Blythe Bridge High School

“Over the two-day visit, we were fully immersed in the Skills Builder experience. The powerful experience of seeing meaningful education in action, coupled with the teachers' high professionalism, provided significant inspiration and motivation to all of us.”

Romana Šloufová, Project Manager, Schola Empirica

Building a Future on Essential Skills Internationally

The visit of the Czech educational delegation to the UK highlights the shared commitment to empowering learners around the world with essential skills.

Collaborating and sharing best practices allows us to collectively create a future where everyone can develop the essential skills to thrive.