An image of the Eight Essential Skill icons. Listening, Speaking, Problem Solving, Creativity, Staying Positive, Aiming High, Leadership and Teamwork.

Start building essential skills with your child at home

Skills Builder recognises the vital role parents and carers have in helping their children to build their essential skills. The Skills Builder Universal Framework which provides a common language for building essential skills has been used to create Homezone especially for parents and carers.
Go to Homezone

Why does your child need to build their essential skills?

Research shows that building essential skills supports:

Social and emotional wellbeing

Learning and academic outcomes

Careers and opportunities

88% of parents say that a good education goes beyond exam results.

Parentkind survey

Where does your child have opportunities to build their essential skills?

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.

  • Free Play and Gaming
  • Music and Drama clubs
  • Youth Groups and Organisations
  • Arts and Crafts

Hobbies & Interests

SEE EXAMPLES

School

  • 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
SEE EXAMPLES

Community Connections

  • Part time paid / voluntary work
  • Babysitting / child / pet care
  • Local Community and Religious Groups
  • Neighbourhood Networks
SEE EXAMPLES

Home

  • Building relationships with family and friends
  • Caring responsibilities
  • Helping out at home eg. cooking, cleaning
  • Contributing ideas for family activities and events
SEE EXAMPLES

'Parental engagement plays a vital role in essential skills development.'

from 'Better prepared: Essential skills and employment outcomes for young people'

How can you support your child to build their essential skills?

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.

Find out more
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
Find out more
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
Find out more
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