Ұлыбританиядағы кілттік дағдылар біліктілігі: статистика және маңызы

The Key Skills Qualification is a frequently required component of 14 20 education in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The aim of Key Skills is to encourage learners to develop and demonstrate their skills as well as learn how to select and apply skills in ways that are appropriate to their particular context. It is generally available in secondary schools (alongside GCSEs, A levels or other qualifications), Further Education colleges (alongside NVQ, as part of Apprenticeship training or other equivalent vocational or academic courses) and other places of learning (sometimes alongside other qualifications and sometimes independently). The qualifications can be taken at levels 1–4. The Department for Children, Schools and Families in England and the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills in Wales define Key Skills as "a range of essential skills that underpin success in education, employment, lifelong learning and personal development". The DfES website states that the Key Skills Qualification is offered as a response to concern from employers about lack of essential skills in young recruits and as part of the response to the 1996 Dearing Report. Key Skills qualifications at levels 2 4 attract UCAS Tariff points for University admissions. The UCAS tariff is a points system used to report achievement for entry to higher education (HE) in a numerical format.

According to the UK National Statistics office, up to September 2006, almost 2.2 million Key Skills qualifications had been awarded. There were 692 thousand awards of Key Skills qualifications in 2005/06 alone. 522 thousand of all Key Skills qualifications were for main Key Skills, up 19 per cent on the previous year. 170 thousand of all Key Skills qualifications were for wider Key Skills, up 61 per cent on the previous year. The most popular key skills continue to be communication awards (206 thousand awards in 2005/06 compared to 150 thousand ICT awards. Application of Number is still the fastest growing main Key Skill qualification, up by 27 per cent on the previous year to 166 thousand
Since their introduction as a Qualification in 2004, the wider key skills continue to grow. Between 2004/05 and 2005/06, there was an increase of at least 60 per cent in the number of awards for each of the wider Key Skills such that wider Key Skills accounted for almost a quarter of awards of all Key Skills qualifications in 2005/06, compared with around a
fifth in 2004/05. Source: [Department for Education and Skills] rsgateway/DB/SFR/ AWARDS OF KEY SKILLS QUALIFICATIONS: 2005/06 SFR 14/2007.

Schools generally determine the level of entrance dependent on past achievement. Those who achieved under grade C at GCSE in the corresponding subject (English, Mathematics or Information Technology respectively) are asked to take the corresponding level two Qualification. Those who achieved over grade C at GCSE are recommended to take level three or four. Those who take the corresponding subjects at AS/A level (or equivalent) are generally excluded from the external assessment in that subject, as the completion of the corresponding subject certifies the academic achievement required. By 2010 the main three key skills will be replaced by Functional Skills in England, which will form part of the new Specialised Diploma Framework. The wider key skills will continue to be accredited.

Students with a GCSE (or equiv.) up to grade D in the subject associated to the Key Skill (i. e. IT, English or Maths) are exempt from taking the test for level 1 and can be entered for a proxy, this means that only the portfolio need be completed. The same applies to level 2 Key Skills if the student has a GCSE (or equiv.) grade C or above. The exception to this is Key Skills ICT where a proxy makes the student exempt from both the test AND the portfolio. It is important to establish the correct level to be aimed for initially, especially when it comes to ICT.

In Wales Key Skills have been replaced with Essential Skills Wales (ESW) (as of September 2010.) Essential Skills Wales is the suite of skills qualifications which replaced the previous Key Skills of Communication, Application of Number and ICT, and the Basic Skills of Adult Literacy, Adult Numeracy and Skills for Life ICT. These skills can be achieved through the medium of Welsh or English.