Deepen your skills to integrate 21st century skills into your teaching or school leadership. 

Today’s young people are growing up in a fast-paced world. As new technologies, labour markets and digital channels open up new opportunities, they also pose new challenges for the world’s future citizens and workforce.

To be fully prepared for life and work in a global economy, it is essential that young people have the opportunity to develop the right skills.

Developed by the British Council and leading education experts, the training packages introduce participants to new interactive approaches and techniques while helping them to develop practical activity plans for use in the classroom. Teachers and School Leaders need to be empowered and enabled to create a learning environment where they can deliver teaching and learning which allows young people to develop core skills and competencies.

We also encourage school leaders to complete the Introduction to Core Skills for School Leaders course

What are Core Skills?

Core skills are the essential skills that young people need to be fully prepared for life and work in a global economy. Sometimes referred to as deep learning or 21st century skills, they introduce young people to new ways of working, new ways of thinking and new ways of living in a global world.

Developing these skills will help young people grow into creative and critical citizens, ready to shape the future for themselves and future generation.

The British Council is inviting applications from school leaders and teachers for the Core Skills Professional Development Programme. The training packages give participants the tools and approaches they need to ensure effective core skills provision in their schools, including strategies for planning, monitoring and improving teaching and learning and for mapping core skills across the curriculum. 

How are these courses delivered?

Teachers who would like to take the course are required to complete the one-day Introduction to Core Skills Course. Once completed, they can then choose to complete any of the six Core Skills Courses. These are taught over a 4 to 8 week period, with a 2-day face-to-face session at the beginning, a period to implement a project plan, and another 1-day face-to-face session at the end. Online support will also be provided throughout the project implementation phase.

Learn more about each of the core skills featured in the training packages.

An introduction to teaching core skills

Learn about the six core skills, how they apply to real life and why they are essential for students. Gain practical teaching approaches to introduce the core skills into the classroom and to begin to embed them within the curriculum.

An introduction to core skills for school leaders

Learn about the six core skills, how they apply to real life and why they are essential for students. Discover tools for assessing the provision of core skills and develop strategies for embedding them effectively within your school and within the curriculum.

Leading the core skills

Discover successful leadership practices to help you integrate and embed the core skills across your school’s curriculum. Learn how to lead curriculum change at school, see international examples of effective curriculum development, and understand how to align curriculum development with school priorities and staff professional development.

Teaching critical thinking and problem solving

Help your students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills such as how to consider different perspectives, how to evaluate evidence and how to solve non-routine problems. Learn how these skills can be taught and assessed and see practical examples for developing them in the classroom.

Teaching creativity and imagination

Learn about the importance of creativity as an underpinning approach to teaching and learning. Discover innovative approaches to help your students develop their creativity and imagination in the classroom and learn how they can apply creativity to real-life challenges.

Teaching communication and collaboration

Learn the theories and practices of effective communication and how to develop intercultural collaborative and communicative skills in your students. Develop activities and initiatives to enable your students to better communicate and collaborate beyond their classrooms with people from other cultures and countries.

Teaching citizenship

Learn what citizenship means at the local, national and international levels, and how to develop citizenship skills and values in your students. Discover practical ways to teach citizenship in the classroom and develop leadership techniques to help to embed citizenship within the curriculum.

Teaching digital literacy

Get to grips with the core concepts and practices of digital literacy and how to incorporate these into the curriculum. Help your students understand how digital tools can be used meaningfully for effective learning, communicating and collaborating, and locating, evaluating and analysing information.

Teaching student leadership and personal development

Understand the foundations of leadership in different learning contexts and the importance of young people developing their own leadership skills in relation to real-world challenges. Consider how to support the development of key personal qualities such as perseverance, resilience and self-confidence and foster a commitment to life-long learning.