TVETipedia Glossary

Core skills

The four categories of core skills that constitute the Global framework on core skills for life and work in the 21st century are:

Social and emotional skills
Cognitive and metacognitive skills
Basic digital skills
Basic skills for green jobs

Source:
ILO (2021): Global framework on core skills for life and work in the 21st century

(also work/soft/life/transferable skills)

The core skills for life and work in the 21st Century is a set of non-technical skills, such as social and emotional, cognitive and metacognitive, basic digital skills and basic skills for green jobs, transferable across occupations and professions, as well as between low- and high-level jobs. Both core skills and technical skills are required by individuals, if they are to become employable, manage their careers in a fast-changing world of work, use digital technology at work and in everyday life, achieve life goals and contribute to their own well-being and that of their community.

Source:
ILO 2021, Global framework on core skills for life and work in the 21st century

(or core work skills)

A set of nontechnical skills, such as soft, social and emotional, cognitive and metacognitive skills, basic skills, including literacy and numeracy, digital literacy and numeracy, and basic environmental awareness, transferable across occupations and jobs.

Source:
ILO, Changing demand for skills in digital economies and societies: Literature review and case studies from low- and middle-income countries. (Glossary on pp. 12-13), 2021
ILO, Changing demand for skills in digital economies and societies: Literature review and case studies from low- and middle-income countries. (Glossary on pp. 12-13), 2021
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The report sheds light on changing demand for skills in digital economies and societies, based mostly on a literature review, supported by a set of case studies from low- and middle-income countries. It reviews different approaches to measuring digital skills, and discusses the impact of digitalization on skills and related policy recommendations. It shows that, while digitalization may vary widely in its extent and forms across countries and sectors, its impact on jobs and skills is nevertheless considerable everywhere.

(core skills and competences)

Ability to understand, speak, read and write language(s), to work with numbers and measures and use digital devices and applications.

Comment

- Core skills and competences represent the foundation for interacting with others and for developing and learning as an individual;

- they are one of the six categories of transversal skills of European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO):

core skills and competences;
thinking skills and competences;
self-management skills and competences;
social and communication skills and competences;
physical and manual skills and competences;
life skills and competences;

- core skills and competences consist of three clusters:

mastering languages;
working with numbers and measures;
working with digital devices and applications;

- in the literature, core skills and competences are also referred to as basic skills;

- this term is close to, but not synonymous with: key competences.

Source: European Commission and Cedefop, 2021

Source:
Cedefop, Glossary. Terminology of European education and training policy, (accessed 03/2023)
Cedefop, Glossary. Terminology of European education and training policy, (accessed 03/2023)
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This multilingual glossary (provided in a multitude of European languages) defines a selection of key terms used in European education and training policy. It is a revised and expanded version of the “Terminology of European education and training policy – A selection of 130 key terms” (2014). It considers new priorities of European Union policy, mainly concerning skills intelligence and employment. New definitions have been developed in collaboration with the experts of Cedefop’s departments VET and Skills and VET and Qualifications.