Essential Skills Masterclasses

A series of Skills and career-based workshops for college students with additional learning needs.

The Essential Skills Masterclasses are a series of workshops delivered by Heathrow and The Skills Builder Partnership. The workshops are delivered to groups of college students with additional learning needs where they learn about the Essential Skills and the Skills Builder Framework and practise these through a range of activities.

During the sessions, students explore the Framework as facilitators provide a visual display of the steps for progression and discuss how to build upon their skills. Throughout the session students are encouraged and supported to consistently use the Skills Builder terminology. Students take part in discussions with Heathrow volunteers and their peers sharing how they demonstrate the skills in their educational and life experiences.

Students complete a series of business challenges based on real-life Heathrow scenarios allowing them to practise and apply the Essential Skills. This creates a link between the use of the skills and future employment/careers. Each group of students takes part in two workshops across the academic year giving them an opportunity to revisit the skills and progress. At the beginning of each workshop, they self-assess against the skills and at the end repeat this to reflect and track their progress.