The Curriculum and Assessment Review’s interim report was published today. The panel emphasised the importance of essential skills to a complete education. Encouragingly, the report restated the Review’s commitment to:
Develop a cutting-edge curriculum, equipping children and young people with the essential knowledge and skills which will enable them to adapt and thrive in the world and workplace of the future.
This conjoining of knowledge and skills reflects the clear call from over 40 organisations for essential skills to be embedded within the national curriculum and in its linked assessment models and qualifications.
Essential skills are communication, creative problem-solving, collaboration, and self-management skills. These skills are a key predictor of social mobility, life satisfaction, and employability (Essential Skills Tracker 2023). Ensuring all learners develop these skills is critical to achieving the panel’s ambitions to create a curriculum which supports the development of students and prepares them for their future lives and careers.
Essential skills - fundamental to preparing learners for life and work
We are pleased to see the following themes identified by the review panel:
- Ambitions to look at how to embed essential skills across the curriculum. Over the past 15 years, Skills Builder Partnership has shown that this is vital for learners to develop their essential skills. Thousands of educators across the country are using the Universal Framework to build essential skills in a consistent and sequenced way. The Universal Framework breaks down the eight essential skills and provides a clear solution to the pressing question of how to embed essential skills in the curriculum.
- Essential skills complement a knowledge rich curriculum. When developed through the Universal Framework, essential skills are rooted in secure knowledge. When teaching essential skills, schools and colleges do so through a curriculum rich in knowledge and, where applicable, through high quality teaching of technical skills. The development of skills requires both explicit teaching and opportunities to practice across subjects or domain-specific contexts.
- Recognition that the curriculum needs to respond to social and technological change. The review acknowledges the need for the curriculum to evolve in response to rapid social and technological shifts including Artificial Intelligence and the future workplace. This reflects research by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) which shows that 90% of the jobs that will be created between now and 2035 will require higher levels of essential skills.
- The consistent call from learners and parents for more of a focus on the skills that will equip them for life and work. Essential skills like creativity, problem solving and communication were among the top priorities for parents and learners in polling carried out on behalf of the Review panel. This echoes nationally representative research that shows that individuals value essential skills. 92% of UK workers believe that essential skills are important for success within their career and 61% of UK parents (Essential Skills Tracker 2023) and carers view the provision of skills building opportunities as an important factor when choosing a school or college.
- A commitment to high standards for all learners. We know that learners from disadvantaged backgrounds have fewer opportunities to develop their essential skills. By ensuring that essential skills are taught throughout the curriculum, we can enable all learners to benefit from essential skills and ensure that “skills gaps” early in life do not result in “skills traps” (Essential Skills Tracker 2023) during peoples’ careers.
- The importance of assessment in learner progress. Consistent formative and summative assessment are critical to tracking learners’ progress. Schools and colleges which embed regular assessment ensure that essential skills are treated as a core component of education rather than as an afterthought.
What next?
Essential skills are a core part of a complete education. The review of the curriculum and assessment is an opportunity to raise standards in how essential skills are taught and measured. The Universal Framework is the leading model for how to develop these essential skills in education. As such, adopting the Universal Framework allies with the panel’s aim to to capitalise on what works.
Tom Ravenscroft, Founder and Chair of Skills Builder Partnership said:
"To deliver on the Government's mission to Break Down Barriers to Opportunity for all children and young people, we need to raise the standards for how essential skills are rigorously taught and assessed, building on everything the 950 organisations in Skills Builder Partnership have learnt."
"In the next stage of the Review, we look forward to working as a Partnership to contribute towards ensuring a curriculum that enables all learners with high quality opportunities to build the essential skills that will unlock the productivity and social mobility this country needs."
