Essential Skills Wales

Following an in-depth review, we are in the process of reforming Essential Skills Wales qualifications in Application of Number, Communication and Digital Literacy.

Building on the findings of our review, we’re conducting a survey to establish stakeholders views on the essential knowledge and skills that should be included within these qualifications.

We want to hear the views of those delivering the existing Essential Skills Wales qualifications, as well as employers and other interested parties to develop a broad understanding of the key content needed to effectively prepare learners for modern life, learning, and work.

Survey results will inform stakeholder panel discussions during summer 2025, with design requirements published for feedback in Autumn 2025, including purpose, content, and assessment arrangements.

More information

Essential Skills Wales qualifications are designed primarily for post-16 learners in further education, work-based learning, adult community learning and alternative settings. They reflect the transferable skills needed for learning, work and life, offering an alternative to GCSEs in mathematics and English for developing literacy, numeracy and digital skills, and are used on apprenticeship frameworks.

While we intend for these qualifications to be available at multiple levels, this survey focuses on content at levels 1 and 2. At both of these levels, it is important that the qualifications allow learners to develop and demonstrate an understanding of, and proficiency in, the skills that support them to progress to employment in a range of sectors.

For the purpose of this survey, the content has been summarised at a high-level. Some content has been updated based on feedback from stakeholders and findings from an external report on our technical review of Essential Skills Wales.

Get involved

To help shape the design of these qualifications please have your say by completing the survey below, which will be open until 20 June.

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