Core skills

Activities for learners 

Guidance for supervisor or manager to assess English skills

• Managers assessment: English skills

Develop English skills: resources to help 

• Communication skills in social care - a guide to help you communicate with the people you work with
• Support for overseas staff who have English as a second language (ESOL)

Other useful resources 

• Communicating with people with dementia, Alzheimers Society 
• BBC Skillswise - FREE online factsheets and tasks to help adults with reading, writing, spelling and grammar
• Excellence Gateway - FREE online resources for everyone working in the learning and skills sector
• Skills workshop - FREE resources to develop literacy, numeracy and ICT skills for workers at all levels

Qualifications and training

• Find learning providers that we have endorsed and deliver training in English skills on our online directory. 

Activities for learners

• Filling in charts
• Counting medication
• Completing time sheets

Guidance for supervisor or manager to assess number skills

• Managers assessment: number skills 

Develop number skills: resources to help

• A guide to developing mathematics skills in the adult social care workplace, Niace - this online guide is for learning providers who want to help social care workers develop their maths skills
• Strength in Numbers: National Numeracy Challenge - you can sign up to this website and take the challenge to see what number skills you need to develop, do activities to learn and then retake the challenge
• National Numeracy - FREE online assessment and development activities to help adults with numeracy skills
• BBC skillswise - free online factsheets and tasks for to help adults with numbers, calculations, measuring and graphs
• Excellence Gateway - FREE online resources for everyone working in the learning and skills sector
• Skills workshop - FREE resources to develop literacy, numeracy and ICT skills for workers at all levels

Qualifications and training

• Find endorsed learning providers that deliver training in number skills on our online directory. 

Activities for learners

• Planning a trip out using the internet
• Using a word document
• How often do you use digital technology at work and outside of work?

Guidance for supervisor or manager to assess digital skills

• Managers assessment: digital skills 

Develop digital skills: resources to help

• Getting digital in social care: resources to help you - this leaflet links to resources to help social care workers improve their digital skills 
• Learning technologies: a guide for learners - overview of the ways technology can improve your knowledge and skills as a worker, and provides a list of free online learning resources relevant to social care

Other useful resources 

• Ability Net - online factsheets, webinars and resources to help disabled people use digital technologies
• Helping people get online, Age UK - guide for beginners about how to make the most of the internet and stay safe online
• BBC Webwise - online videos and guides to help you get connected and develop online skills
• Digital Unite - guides and supports to help with computer basics, creating a document, smartphones and tablets, internet security and shopping and banking
• Learn my way - FREE courses on using a computer, browsing the web and sending an email

Develop employability skills: learning activities

We've developed a set of additional learning activities to help you assess and develop core skills further:  

• Dealing with an unreliable colleague
• Dealing with complaints
• Dealing with conflicts with colleagues
• Discussing partnership working in a team meeting
• Partnership working in social care
• Managing your own health and wellbeing
• Understanding abuse and neglect
• Understanding agreed ways of working
• Understanding values in social care 

Developing employability skills: resources to help

• Adult social care qualifications - guidance to help you find learning and development 
• Building your own health, resilience and wellbeing -  helps social care workers develop their own mental health and wellbeing at work.
• Greater resilience, better care - guidance to help managers support the resilience and mental wellbeing of their staff

It’s important you and the learner reflect on the core skills activities to check what they’ve learnt and identify any further development needed.

After a learner has completed an activity ask them to complete the

• Learner checklist

You, the employer, should complete the

• Supervisor or manager learning checklist

Or if you’re a learning or training provider delivering training, complete the

• Learning and training provider checklist
  
  

These group activities use real-life scenarios from social care settings to help you assess and develop the core skills of your workers. 

Read the guidance notes to see how you can use them in the workplace. 

• Health and safety law in the workplace
• Storing food safely
• What makes a good care worker?
• How do I learn best?
• Learning from experience
• What type of learning would help me?
• Writing care notes
• Care plans
• How accurate do you need to be?
• Weights and measures in care work
• Giving people choice
• Dietary needs
• Terminology for personal care
• Who do I tell?