Skills for Learning, Life and Work
The development of skills is essential to learning and education to help young people to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. The skills and attributes which children and young people develop should provide them with a sound basis for their development as lifelong learners in their adult, social and working lives enabling them to reach their full potential and to meet the challenges of learning, life and work in the 21st century young. 
Through Curriculum for Excellence all children and young people are entitled to opportunities for developing skills for learning, life and work, with a particular focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. These skills are relevant from the early years right through to the end of secondary school and beyond and should be developed across all curriculum areas, in interdisciplinary studies and in all the contexts and settings where young people are learning.
The Scottish Government published Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for Learning, Skills for Life and Skills for Work on October 28, 2009. This document is the fourth in the series of Curriculum for Excellence guidance documents and is aimed at all those who support children and young people in developing skills for learning, life and work. It applies to those working in early years through to the senior phase of learning and beyond, across all areas of the curriculum and in a range of settings.
It sets out key messages about how children and young people develop and apply skills as part of Curriculum for Excellence and shows how skills for learning, life and work are embedded across the curriculum, both through the Experiences and Outcomes (which provide guidance on how and what children and young people learn from the early years to the end of S3) and in the senior phase of learning.
This document is intended to stimulate thought and discussion and to support educators, employers and carers in considering how they develop the skills of the children and young people they work with.
One of the ways that young people can access applied learning is through taking a Skills for Work qualification. These qualifications have been designed to provide practical learning opportunities for school pupils. Following a successful two year pilot Skills for Work qualifications were mainstreamed across Scotland in Autumn 2007. There are currently 22 qualifications available in a variety of topics and levels from Access 3 to Higher. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) will continue to develop Skills for Work qualifications in consultation with key stakeholders and a further three are currently in the process of being launched. More information regarding all the available Skills for Work qualifications, including case studies, can be found at SQA Skills for Work website.