Essential Skills
Essential Skills qualifications can be really life-changing. They have helped people to:
Please find below important information in relation to the delivery of Essential Skills Qualifications.
Click here to download the Essential Skills Standards & Curriculum
Entry Level
Entry Level 1-3 Numeracy
The aim of this qualification is to improve the learners’ ability to understand, use, calculate and manipulate mathematical information and interpret results.
Below we have provided exemplar material that uses the 'Party' theme.
Entry Level 1-3 Literacy
The aim of this qualification is to improve the learners’ ability to: speak, listen and respond; read and comprehend and write to communicate.
Below we have provided exemplar material that uses the 'Giants Causeway' theme.
Level 1 and 2
New Suite of Digital ICT Essential Skills
Starting September 2025, the new and improved suite of Digital ICT Essential Skills will be available. See below for more information.
Entry 3
The objective of the OCN NI Entry Level 3 Certificate in Essential Skills – Digital ICT qualification includes the following five skills areas:
Level 1
The objective of the OCN NI Level 1 Certificate in Essential Skills – Digital ICT qualification includes the following five skills areas:
Level 2
The objective of the OCN NI Level 2 Certificate in Essential Skills – Digital ICT qualification includes the following five skills areas:
Sample Materials for Level 2
Sample materials for Entry Level 3, Level 1 and Level 2 are now available to view on Ambition-Assessments - our new external assessment platform.
Use the links below to access the relevant sample assessment. You can use the sample material to showcase to your learners how the system will operate.
By clicking on the qualification title, you will be able to download the qualification specification.
Six pathways are available to learners within this qualification. These pathways use a range of units, with varying weights assigned to the portfolio-based assessment and multiple-choice question assessment methods. For further information on each pathway please view the Tutor Guide.
Please note as this is a sample not all of the functionality has been switched on e.g. downloads/uploads.
The breakdown of the above pathways are available to view within the Tutor Guide below.
Tutor Guidance
Tutor Guidance documents for the portfolio/controlled assessment tasks are also available below. These should be read alongside the qualification specifications for full clarity.
