Canada's 9 Essential Skills for Success

Do you have a strong grounding in the nine essential skills? Here's what they are, and why they're important!

Here's what you need to know about Canada's new Skills for Success! Each of these nine skills is essential to thriving in our fast-moving academic and career markets. You'll probably find you're stronger in some areas than others. Remember, it's never too late to improve your skills ? as long as you know what they are!

Nine essential skills

There are nine skills altogether. Here they are: simple, right?

• communication
• collaboration
• adaptability
• creativity and innovation
• problem solving
• reading
• writing
• numeracy
• digital capabilities

Sounds like overkill? These skills overlap, creating a sturdy foundation for your future with these as the building blocks. Utilizing a combination of these skills can help you to get jobs, keep you ahead in school, aid in making connections with others, and help you on your way to a prosperous career.

Person-to-person skills

Communication and collaboration are important parts of your interpersonal skill set. Effective communication and collaboration go hand in hand ? they're vital for success in any job. Learning how to effectively listen to verbal and non-verbal cues, understand, and consider others' viewpoints is essential for workplace relations and networking.

Being able to anticipate and address points of contention, discuss and then negotiate in a sensitive and helpful manner will help resolve issues without letting them get out of hand. Knowing how to collaborate will help you to build and keep strong relationships, and proves your willingness to problem solve with others!

Problem-solving skills

Being able to problem solve is crucial in all aspects of life. Making decisions and taking action can be difficult, but the ability to think on your feet will help you get ahead and improve the way you carry out activities, meet deadlines, and achieve your goals. Not all problem solving is done "in the moment," though. It can also come from careful thought and planning.

Creativity, innovation, and adaptability also tie in with problem solving. Thinking outside the box helps you think up new ideas, methods, and develop new projects! Adaptability means overcoming setbacks and persisting even when situations have taken a turn for the worse. Being able to identify new opportunities for innovation, challenging norms, and using inquisitive approaches to issues can lead to breakthroughs in your chosen field. These skills are all enmeshed and build on each other.

Literacy skills

Reading and writing skills may be understated, but they're essential to modern life. Being able to read, comprehend, and then create and add meaning to what's on the page is a fundamental skill set. People with strong literacy skills explore thoughts and ideas related to the text they're reading, and ask questions of themselves and the text. Being able to interact with any kind of text is a great skill to have and it makes reading all the more fun and interesting.

Effective and concise writing skills are also important; articles, emails, project proposals, essays, exams, and even business documents all require good writing skills.

Being able to write with proper grammar, punctuation, and style while also knowing how to write for your intended audience will help you to communicate better with other people, share your ideas properly, and improve overall success. If you find yourself falling behind, reading for fun can actually help to improve your writing and introduce you to new vocabulary!

Numeracy & tech skills

In our rapidly evolving world, it's crucial to have a strong foundation in numeracy, which involves technological and mathematical skills. Being able to comfortably navigate a computer and digital media shifts focus from figuring out how the tech over to pure productivity! Lying on your resum? about knowing how to use spreadsheets will get you nowhere.

You'll need to understand numbers and be able to identify relationships between figures and statistics. Learning how to find, get, and analyze data, as well as using graphs, diagrams, and maps will give you an edge in the job market.

These nine skills all go together

All nine skills for success interact with each other. Remember, it's never too late to develop your skills. Give yourself room to play and experiment ? read for fun, try some math problems, or develop your own video game! Giving yourself space to try new things will help build your skill set, and you'll have fun doing it.