The Oracy Commission's recent report underscores the importance of speaking and listening skills in education, echoing the calls for these essential skills to be core components of our teaching. The report adds to the groundswell of organisations and educators across the sector who see how essential these skills are for life and work.
Research shows that speaking and listening, when measured with the Universal Framework, predict earnings, job satisfaction, life satisfaction and social mobility. But low levels of essential skills cost the UK economy £22bn and employers consistently cite the essential skills gap as a brake on productivity and growth.
Teachers recognise the huge potential of building essential skills in education. Teaching professionals almost unanimously see a portfolio of essential skills, literacy and numeracy as being important for employment opportunities, at 98%, 99% and 96% respectively. This translates into support for policy change: 86% of teaching professionals agree that the national curriculum should include essential skills, with almost half agreeing strongly.
Along with teaching professionals and the Oracy Commission, we believe that speaking and listening should be taught with the same rigour as literacy or numeracy. Over 900 education institutions, charities and employers have been doing just this - using a shared language and approach to develop knowledge of the skills, focusing learning tightly on specific components and measuring progress.
Among these impactful organisations are leading oracy charities like the Speakers Trust, National Talent, National Literacy Trust, Talk the Talk and The Economist Education Foundation. These organisations demonstrate excellence, designing learning content and measuring speaking and listening using the same consistent approach of the Universal Framework. The open-source nature and wide adoption of the Framework mean that the individuals they work with can build the same skills in the same way when they are in school or taking part in other programmes. This can have a multiplier effect, boosting individuals’ skill development.
And we have strong systemic foundations to build off too: rigorously building essential skills using the Universal Framework is an approach already backed by the Careers & Enterprise Company, IfATE (now Skills England), T Level guidance and 87% of UK teachers.
But as a nation how do we take the next big step and do this at scale across our education system? We set out the blueprint for achieving this in Essential Skills at Scale. The paper details how to make the policy changes, that so many are calling for, a long-term success, covering the systemic change that is required:
- A national model for essential skills, where their value is recognised and they are promoted across the Department for Education and other government departments
- Adoption of the Universal Framework as a common language to maintain high standards and social mobility and growth
- System-wide changes, from the national curriculum through to teacher training, assessment, accountability and joining up extra-curricular and co-curricular learning
With the government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review now in full swing, we have an incredible opportunity to ensure that all children and young people receive an education that builds the essential skills for life and work.
You can help make this happen by responding to the review, whether you are an educator, employer, impact organisation, parent or supporter.
