Skills Education

Help learners develop the capabilities they need to adapt, contribute and perform alongside their technical and vocational skills

Technical skills matter, but they are rarely enough on their own. Across workplaces, learners are also expected to communicate effectively, solve problems, work with others, exercise judgement and adapt when circumstances change. These capabilities become even more important as technologies, roles and ways of working continue to evolve.

Many of these skills are already present in vocational learning, but they are not always developed intentionally or made visible to learners. A group task might involve collaboration, a workplace scenario might require judgement, and a practical activity might involve problem solving, without learners necessarily recognising or strengthening those capabilities.

This session explores practical ways to design learning activities that intentionally develop durable skills alongside technical and vocational skills. We’ll look at capabilities such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, adaptability and judgement, and identify where opportunities to develop them already exist within everyday learning.

Through practical examples and simple design strategies, you’ll explore how small changes to activities, questions, feedback and reflection can help learners practise, recognise and articulate these skills, without adding a separate layer of content to an already busy program.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify durable skills that can be developed alongside technical and vocational learning
• Recognise opportunities to intentionally develop these capabilities within existing learning activities
• Design or adapt activities to give learners meaningful opportunities to practise durable skills
• Help learners recognise and articulate the capabilities they are developing through their learning

Participants will receive a complimentary copy of “Designing for Durable Skills: Activity Guide”:

• A practical guide for embedding durable skills into existing learning activities. It includes examples of how communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, adaptability and judgement can be developed through familiar vocational learning activities, with simple prompts for making these capabilities more explicit to learners.

Other value options for registration:

Register for this session as a one-off standalone PD purchase OR via one of:

An Education Matters Elite membership

A PD MAX 2027 ticket