Cooperative Education & Careers Division

• What is Key Skills?
• How to make the most of Key Skills

What is Key Skills?

To access the Key Skills system, click here.

Key Skills is an on-line skills development package which we have recently installed on the campus network for free use by UL students. It is a Web based system which:

• helps you find out what your skills are and where you need to improve,
• helps you to do course and assessment tasks better by giving on-screen guidance about the skills you need to do them,
• guides you to other resources to help you.

The themes included are:

• Writing Skills
• Oral Communication Skills (speaking)
• Visual Communication Skills
• Information Skills
• Information Technology
• Working with Others
• Working with Numbers
• Solving Problems
• Improving Your learning
• Career Management

Each theme contains more detailed topics eg 'Oral Communication Skills' includes 'Oral Presentations', ' Seminars and Tutorials' and 'Being Interviewed'. The menu in the system gives all the topics.

N.B. You will need a floppy disk to save information onto your Scratch Pad.

To access the Key Skills system, click here.

How to make the most of the Key Skills system

Read the welcome page carefully to help you understand the contents of the system. Key Skills is an on-line package so you can work away at your own pace, and can move from section to section, depending on your interest. Each section contains:

• skill checks to allow you to evaluate your current expertise in that area;
• on-line guidance to help you improve your skills;
• information about further resources to help you.

You should find this really useful if you have a specific objective in mind. For example, you might have to write a report, such as your final-year project, in which case you should refer to the section on Writing Skills. You may be preparing for an interview for a CoOp placement or a graduate position, or putting together a CV - in which case you should refer to the Career Management Skills section. You are free to pick and choose whichever topic is most useful to you at any particular time.

Key Skills User Notes 2 - guidance notes are available here

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