There are 9 identified Workplace Essential Skills. These are skills that are needed for success in the workplace and employers will seek workers who demonstrate these skills. They are the following:
1) Reading
2) Document Use
3) Numeracy
4) Writing
5) Oral Communication
6) Working with Others
7) Thinking
8) Digital Technology
9) Continuous Learning
The first skill on the list is Reading. The ability to read workplace documents, work orders, manuals, code books, and other material pertinent to the trade is very important. Technical reading can be a challenge, especially if it is a skill that is new to us. There are ways we can practise this skill and strengthen it so that it becomes easier.
Below is a link to a page on the Government of Canada's website, giving tips and ideas to develop and strengthen the essential skill of Reading. I'd encourage you to take a look at it and try out some of the ideas as you read through materials in your Trades courses.
https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/essential-skills/tools/reading.html
Thanks for this, Daphne.
ReplyDeleteMost of the math required for the piping trades is very basic -- addition, subtraction, working with decimals and simple fractions. The tricky part is following a written set of directions, solving problems by putting together information from various charts, tables and related information. This requires a specialized understanding of vocabulary and concepts the words and ideas of the trade- each trade has its own vocabulary.
Ordinarily, apprentices learn the vocabulary and concepts on the job, usually by convincing someone, preferably an experienced trades person, to let them hang around and listen to the talk of the trade. In order to convince an experienced tradesperson to talk to you about the trade you need to develop a specialized set of social skills beginning with an attitude of respect toward the trades and the learning process. Often an experienced person is reluctant to share too much about the trade because they may be concerned about being replaced or loosing income. If they detect a bad attitude they just won't talk to you (at best) and try to get rid of you (at worst).
The other part of trades training is the academic preparation that is required to challenge and pass the levels of apprenticeship and qualifying exams. Again, this is a very specialized process that involve using the vocabulary of the trade but putting that together with other problem solving skills. The most basic and fundamental skill is reading and comprehension.
Developing the capacity for specialized reading and comprehension is a career-long process.