Essential Skills in Construction: Resources

Essential Skills in Construction: Resources provides links to build your Essential Skills knowledge base as well as trades-related materials to use in training.Read More

Instructor Essential Skills Training

Instructor Essential Skills Training links you to online, self-paced e-learning courses that show instructors how they can improve the ability of their apprentices in succeeding at technical training.Read More

Support for Essential Skills Professionals

Support For Essential Skills Professionals has a regular blog, lets you ask experts questions and allows you to cooperate with other training professionals across the country. Read More

Sustainable Essential Skills in Construction

Sustainable Essential Skills in Construction is dedicated to helping instructors and trainers in the construction industry improve their instructional practice and increase their apprentices' success in technical training.

What are "Essential Skills"?

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

There are 9 Essential Skills:

  1. Reading
  2. Writing
  3. Document Use
  4. Numeracy
  5. Computer Use
  6. Thinking
  7. Oral Communication
  8. Working with Others
  9. Continuous Learning

The Site

This website has three parts. Essential Skills in Construction: Resources links you to the fundamental Essential Skills site and lets you search a database of Essential Skills materials. Instructor Essential Skills Training links you to online, self-paced e-learning courses you can take. Support For Essential Skills Professionals has a regular blog, lets you ask experts questions and allows you to cooperate with other training professionals across the country.

The Partners

This site is maintained by two organizations devoted to the improvement of training in Canada’s construction industry:

SkillPlan is a nationally recognized leader in Essential Skills development and workplace education programs. We are a not-for-profit organization with over 20 years of experience providing consulting services and Essential Skills resources to the construction industry and other sectors.

Originally created in 2001 as the Construction Sector Council, BuildForce Canada is a national industry-led organization committed to working with the construction industry to provide information and resources to assist with its management of workforce requirements.