20 Key skills
Be reassured – key skills are nothing new. They are really ongoing skills
that you will have largely acquired in your journey through education. Just
as it is expected that you can write an essay in order to pass A-level law, it
is also expected that you can read, summarise, form an argument, present
your work in a reasonable way, etc.
What is new, is the increasing requirement to show that you have
achieved a reasonable level of proficiency in these skills. To a prospective
employer, or a university admissions tutor, these skills are an integral and
essential part of your attainment. This is an encouragement to think
positively and enthusiastically about key skills, because if you are studying
A-level subjects, you should find it a reasonably straightforward task to
assemble the evidence needed.
The government and examination boards have set out guidelines on what
is expected and how this can be achieved. There follow some suggested
activities which can be included in your portfolio of key skills, and which
can, as a routine part of your study, help you to provide evidence that you
are working at an appropriate level in the particular areas of skill.
Key skills to be assessed
The main key skills at level 3 are: The wider key skills at level 3 are:
- C3 Communication • WO3 Working with others
- N3 Application of number • LP3 Improving own learning and
performance - IT3 Information technology • PS3 Problem solving
To achieve a qualification in key skills, both internal and external
assessment is involved. You will have to compile a portfolio of tasks
undertaken across your studies, showing evidence that you are competent
in each area of skill. This need not be a particularly difficult task, or much
more than you would do in the normal course of studying at A-level. The
ideas here will provide opportunities for you to demonstrate that you have
the skills within the various categories, which you can use to compile your
portfolio. It is difficult in an essay-based subject to show evidence of the
skill of application of number, but there are many opportunities of using the