As a parent or carer, you are best placed to support your child to recognise all of the different places where they are developing their essential skills. School is just one part of the picture. Hobbies, interests, community connections and activities at home can all help to build the eight essential skills your child needs now and for their future success.

Focused teaching and learning of the essential skills
Practising and applying the skills across the curriculum
Involvement with extra curricular activities and clubs
Careers and work experience opportunities
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Part time paid / voluntary work
Babysitting / child / pet care
Local Community and Religious Groups
Neighbourhood Networks
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Building relationships with family and friends
Caring responsibilities
Helping out at home eg. cooking, cleaning
Contributing ideas for family activities and events
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You can easily support your child to build their essential skills. Talk with your child about the essential skills, what they are and how they are so useful. Help your child to identify where they already build their skills so they can talk about their skill strengths with others. Look for opportunities to build essential skills together.
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Easy access to free resources to support building essential skills with your child or young person
Suggested activities to enjoy together as you develop all eight essential skills
Skills challenges to complete at home together

Visit Homezone
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Discover essential skills strengths and areas for improvement with our new online self-assessment tool
Learners aged 11+ can download their personalised Skills Report to share with you or their tutor
You can also gain an insight into your own essential skills using this free and easily-accessible tool

Visit Benchmark
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Independently build essential skills with our free resource platform for individuals aged 11+
Interactive modules that help to build every step of the Universal Framework
A place to reflect and record examples of how essential skills have been applied

Visit Launchpad