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About Life Skills

Life Skills is an interactive website designed to help users find out more about themselves and identify the skills they have already acquired from home, school and/or the workplace. It is designed to help them back onto the pathway to further education, training and/or employment.

Target audience

The target audience for the Life Skills website is extremely wide-ranging and includes users from an extensive variety of backgrounds. The website is aimed at users seeking re-entry into study or the job market.

Users are likely to possess low levels of language, literacy and numeracy. In addition, they are expected to be inexperienced computer users.

History and background

In 1992, research was carried out which aimed to identify a set of generic skills employees needed to participate effectively in the workplace. These seven skills, known as the Mayer Key Competencies, are:

·            collecting, analysing and organising information

·            communicating ideas and information

·            planning and organising activities

·            working with others and in teams 

·            solving problems 

·            using mathematical ideas and techniques 

·            using technology.

Further investigation into generic skills needed for employability in the Australian workplace led to the introduction of the Employability skills Framework. The eight key employability skills are:

·            communication skills that contribute to productive and harmonious relations between employees and customers

·            teamwork skills that contribute to productive working relationships and outcomes

·            problem-solving skills that contribute to productive outcomes

·            initiative and enterprise skills that contribute to innovative outcomes

·            planning and organising skills that contribute to long-term and short-term strategic planning

·            self-management skills that contribute to employee satisfaction and growth

·            learning skills that contribute to ongoing improvement and expansion in employee and company operations and outcomes

·            technology skills that contribute to effective execution of tasks.

The Employability skills Framework has been developed for use at all educational levels, including VET (vocational education and training). It can serve as a guide for teachers and training facilitators and, as with the Life Skills website, it can be used as a self-assessment tool by job seekers.

Using Life Skills 

Ideally, Life Skills should be used in a teacher-led or facilitator-led environment. Some users may choose to work independently through the website, but it is likely that a large proportion of the target audience will need teacher or facilitator support.

 The role of the facilitator 

Before implementing the course, it is recommended that the facilitator:

·            work through Life Skills and become familiar with the structure and function of the website

·            outline the purpose of Life Skills to users

·            introduce the main concepts related to Life Skills, ie employability skills, personal attributes

·            explain why users should keep a Life Skills portfolio or record of their progress.

While users are navigating through Life Skills, the facilitator may need to provide:

·            basic technical/functional support using the website, eg saving and printing documents

·            language and literacy support

·            motivation and encouragement

·            ongoing assistance for users who may need help building their portfolio.

Once users have completed Life Skills, the facilitator may choose to:

·            identify areas where users need to gain more experience

·            recommend further career options to users

·            highlight the Links page within the Life Skills Resources and recommend websites that may be helpful.

The sections contained within the website

The Life Skills website is made up of three main sections. Each section helps users to identify the skills they already possess and those skills which they need to develop further as they work towards further education, training or employment.

Step 1 – Activities

This section helps users to think about the skills and abilities they use in their everyday lives. It consists of eleven activities which ask them to look at different scenarios such as a typical day, cultural awareness, voluntary work, and education and training. Each activity is interactive and challenges users to identify tasks related to each topic. These activities can then be printed out and kept as part of their portfolio and/or saved to their computer for editing at a later date.

Step 1 has two purposes. It is intended to provide a sampler of the Life Skills website, before users sign up for an account. It is also intended to build user confidence.

Note that the information in Step 1 is not saved on the website. This information may need to be emphasised to users.

Step 2 – Employability skills

This section enables users to match their existing skills with a set of eight employability skills. Users are required to log on to the website where they alone can access their own information. This information will be kept confidential and stored for use at a later date. Each skill is clearly defined, and users have the opportunity to tick boxes to help them identify tasks which they already carry out. They will also have the chance to add extra tasks from their own personal experiences.

The information they provide in this section is then saved to the Life Skills website to be accessed later in Step 3.

Step 3 – My summary

In this section users are able to print out a summary of their progress for discussion with their facilitator.  The summary includes a printout of the information they provided for each 'Employability skill' throughout Step 2.  Users may also provide copies of their completed activities from Step 1.

Help

This section provides general information about how to use the website, including how the account sign-in works and what is involved in each step.

Resources

This section provides useful information and links for users as they move through the Life Skills website. It includes a glossary and links to many useful websites. 

User accounts

Some users may be apprehensive about signing up for an account. This may be due to any number of reasons, including a lack of confidence using the Internet or concerns about security.

User accounts are required only from Step 2 onwards. This has been designed to be a simple process, requiring minimal personal information from users – name, date of birth and a username.

he facilitator may wish to make a record of users' sign–in details, in case they forget their username. Some users may not have an official date of birth, and facilitators may need to help them to create a user account.

User accounts are automatically deleted after three months of inactivity and personal details are completely erased. Personal details remain confidential at all times.

Suggestions for moving through the website

Users can proceed through Life Skills in a linear fashion. At times during Step 2, users may find it useful to refer back to activities completed in Step 1. The facilitator should encourage users to keep their portfolio folder with them as they proceed through Life Skills.

The 'First time here' questions on the home page should help users to understand the purpose and function of Life Skills. As some users may bypass these sections, the facilitator may need to ensure that users know what to do.

For some users, the facilitator may choose to select activities that are particularly relevant, thus helping users to move through Life Skills as efficiently as possible.

 Users should be encouraged to print their work after completing each activity or employability skill. Ideally, they should also be able to save their work electronically.

Mapping of Employability Skills to Mayer Key Competencies

 apping of employability skills to activities

Each of the activities contains tasks which support the employability skills. If the facilitator chooses to direct users to specific activities, this mapping may help determine a pathway through the activities.

It is important to remember that all the employability skills are incorporated into each activity. This mapping is designed to highlight particular skills.

Technical notes

 Life Skills is a dynamic application that requires an Internet connection. It cannot be used as a stand-alone CD-ROM resource.

 Hardware and software requirements

Computer requirements
To use Life Skills, the following hardware and software are required.

Hardware

• IBM compatible computer, 300 MHz processor OR a Macintosh® equivalent (OS.9.x, 800 x 600 with a minimum number of 'thousands of colours')
• 128 MB of RAM
• 4 Gb hard disk
• Microsoft® Windows® 95, 98 or 2000
• 800 x 600 display (1024 x 768 recommended)
• CD-ROM drive
• 1.44 Mb floppy disk drive
• sound card
• 28.8 k modem or higher configuration
• printer.

Software

• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® version 5.5 or higher on an IBM compatible computer, or the Macintosh® equivalent
• Netscape® version 6.2 or higher, as an alternative to Microsoft® Internet Explorer®
• word processing program, for example Microsoft® Word.

The following plug-in is required to run the multimedia interactions in Life SKills: