How do essential skills influence life outcomes?: an evidence review

The Skills Builder Universal Framework and the wide partnership of organisations adopting it provide a new opportunity: to focus and consolidate the evidence base around essential skills - both why they matter, and how they can be most effectively built. There are plenty of reports which emphasise the importance of building essential skills in light of structural changes in the labour market, including technological disruptions and changing work norms. But what is less available is a wide range of experimental, quasi-experimental, and high-quality qualitative research to investigate the...  [+] Show more

The Skills Builder Universal Framework and the wide partnership of organisations adopting it provide a new opportunity: to focus and consolidate the evidence base around essential skills - both why they matter, and how they can be most effectively built. There are plenty of reports which emphasise the importance of building essential skills in light of structural changes in the labour market, including technological disruptions and changing work norms. But what is less available is a wide range of experimental, quasi-experimental, and high-quality qualitative research to investigate the links between essential skills development and education, employment and social outcomes. The Skills Builder Partnership have developed a research strategy to build that evidence base. They will be using different methodologies to make a compelling case for developing essential skills by reviewing the current evidence and then conducting further primary and secondary research. This rapid evidence review is a first step in evaluating the current evidence on the outcomes of essential skills development, the ways it is measured, and the underpinning theoretical frameworks, using the language of the Skills Builder Universal Framework.

Excerpt from publication.