Canadian Language Benchmarks

If you have taken LINC courses in Canada, you are probably familiar with the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB). Complete the activity below to review what the CLB icons look like.

Type Reading, Writing, Speaking, or Listening in the boxes where it says Your answer.

Essential Skills

The Government of Canada also wants learners to know and understand the Essential Skills.

“Essential skills are the skills that people need for work, learning, and life. They are used in the community and the workplace, in different forms and at different levels of complexity.” – Government of Canada

Essential Skills are important for all Canadians. Your employer will want you to have good Essential Skills. There are nine categories of Essential Skills used in nearly every job and in daily life.

These skills are transferable between jobs and life. For example, can you understand instructions from the boss in a hotel? Yes? Then you can probably understand instructions from a supervisor at a clothing store or a coffee shop. Using the phone to call the boss or co-workers is a skill for all jobs. Using a computer to find your work schedule in one job will help you do the same thing in a new job.

Do the activities below to learn about the nine Essential Skills.

The following activity will help you recognize and understand the Essential Skills icons that you will see in this workbook.

Using the Icons

Icons are symbols or images that represent something. You will see icons related to the CLB and the Essential Skills at the end of each page in this workbook. If you look below, you can see three icons there. The first one is a CLB icon, and the second two are Essential Skills icons. The icons point out the CLB skills and Essential Skills you used on each page. Use these icons to reflect on or think about what you learned.

Look at the icons below. Did you use these CLB competencies and Essential Skills on this page?