Both the Government and Business have been more aware of the necessity for students leaving the education system to have Key Skills. There is a frustration that schools and universities are not doing enough to teach and promote these skills in a curriculum that is still largely academic. It is a myth of course that nothing is being done. Schools work through Education Business Partnerships and organisations like the ICF and CTP in an attempt to deliver these skills within work-related learning, and the higher education sector has its own enterprise scheme. We know, however, that most schools and HE / FE colleges find this quite difficult and the more enlightened ones find ways to use outside expertise in exciting their pupils to seek and practise these skills.

The ICF is considered a leader in this field.

The present Government has now decided to force the issue in the state system by insisting that a percentage of the curriculum contains what they call "employability skills" within the context of a audited scheme of work-related learning. It is now firmly stated that schools and colleges have a responsibility to prepare their pupils for "adult life". Key skills are defined as a requirement of a new National Curriculum. The ICF has been one of the bodies on the consultative committee of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), which is responsible for drawing up the programme. UCAS have now allocated points to the various key skills qualifications for entry to university.

Assessment of any scheme is of course crucial so that neither students nor businesses will question its credibility. Over the last three years we have been piloting various courses to enable students to have opportunities to obtain assessed evidence for the portfolio part of the qualification within a tightly disciplined programme of exercises carried out during the period of the course. It is important to note that in most cases (except the communication and teamwork element) we are not able to provide assessment for the exam component but we know that a properly organised event will provide valuable practice so increasing the chances of success in both components.

During the earlier part of this experimental period we linked with the OCR to use the assessment system within their skills exam, the Diploma of Achievement. This is a skill based course taught over the whole year in the general studies part of the curriculum. An important principle of this exam is that students are able to be assessed throughout the course and as many times as opportunities allow. An average is taken of the three best scores out of a maximum of six so there is no concept of failure but rather a positive concept of continuous improvement. We have always stated that ICF Conferences should be a time when students can experiment and learn from their mistakes to improve. We are pleased when students respond to these challenges and visibly improve in many of the key personal transferable skills. Our philosophy fits very well therefore with that of the Diploma of Achievement. 

We did attempt to fit the skills practised in our conferences more closely with the key skills as presently defined by the QCA and DfEE. School and college staff have been keen for their students to have the opportunity not only of practising their skills within a team context but also for them to recognise where these skills fit into the programme which is being defined by the statutory bodies. We have now reached the stage where we have a structured system to provide witness statements assessed against the criteria in many of the key skills as presently defined in Communication, Working with Others and Problem-Solving.

We still believe that the DfEE definition of key skills provides too coarse a structure on which to base assessments of personal achievements. A comprehensive analysis of the skills practised in a typical ICF conference has therefore been carried out. As a result of this we decided to omit Improving Own Learning and Performance. The other five major key skills, as defined by the DfEE together with our own key skill of Business Awareness, to include important skills such as negotiation, entrepreneurship, financial awareness and craft, have been subdivided into a total of 19 "bite-sized" items. A "skill grid" and "record-form" have been developed as a simple method for students to record and describe their achievements. The adviser concerned qualitatively verifies and validates the claims of each student by recording his or her comments on the same record-form. Unlike the approach used with the Diploma of Achievement, we do not ask advisers to carry out a quantitative assessment but to witness what is done. The results are moderated and assessed by us.

These record forms are then processed by the ICF to produce a personalised Summary of Skills Achievement for each student. This document together with the record-forms become part of the portfolio of skills held by the student in his or her Progress File.

It must be noted that, although the key skill requirement is still on the statute book, schools and colleges have in many cases ignored the requirement in any thorough way. We now see much more emphasis now being placed on "enterprise skills" and five days of work-related learning is now stipulated at key stage 4.

For more information on the ICF's approach to the development and assessment of key skills in today's young people please contact: