ABSTRACT
The idea behind ‘key skills’ (as they are now called) dates back to the 1970s when it was fashionable to talk of ‘generic, transferable skills’. These become prominent in programmes such as the Youth Training Scheme of that era, which at one stage identified no less than 103 generic, transferable skills. The idea is based on the view that there are a number of core, transferable skills that we can use and apply to all sorts of areas in education and employment-skills such as problem solving, working with others and communication are often mentioned. It is worth noting that the idea of a set of skills being transferable and generic, whatever the context, runs contrary to many of the ideas of ‘situated cognition’.
