We are delighted to announce our new partnership with ASDAN. This collaboration marks a significant moment in our journey toward a world where every individual can build the essential skills they need to succeed.
At the Skills Builder Partnership, we are driven by a fundamental belief: that skills like communication, problem-solving, and teamwork are the foundation of a successful life. They should be taught with the same consistency, rigour, and intentionality as any other core subject. By aligning our approaches, we are creating a more cohesive way to ensure no learner is left behind.
Connecting practical learning with essential skills
For decades, ASDAN has pioneered personal, social, and employability education. Their programmes are widely recognised for being inclusive, flexible, and deeply practical, helping young people - particularly those who may struggle in traditional academic settings - to develop the confidence and self-reliance they need for the future.
ASDAN’s curriculum is built around six core skills: Learning, Communicating, Decision Making, Thinking, Team Working, and Self-awareness. The partnership brings a fantastic opportunity to align our approaches, creating a bridge between these core areas and our Universal Framework.
By aligning ASDAN’s core skills with our eight essential skills, we are providing a unified way to celebrate learner progress. This means that the hands-on work students are already doing in ASDAN modules can now be further supported by the specific, measurable steps of our Framework. This collaboration ensures that when a student builds a skill, they have a nationally recognised language to prove their progress.
Driving positive impact for every learner
The true heart of this partnership is the impact it will have for practitioners, and learners. We want to ensure that the time spent in the classroom or on a community project results in lasting, transferable growth.
Here is how our collaboration is set to support positive outcomes:
1. A shared language for success
One of the biggest barriers to skill development is a lack of a shared language - the challenge of using different words for the same skill in different contexts. By bringing our two systems into alignment, we are offering a common vocabulary. Learners can now use the same words to describe their progress whether they are in a classroom, working on an ASDAN portfolio, or engaging in a work placement. This consistency builds confidence and helps them internalise their own growth.
2. Clearer, more actionable feedback
Feedback is most effective when it is specific. By using the Framework’s detailed steps, educators can provide even more granular feedback during ASDAN activities. Instead of simply telling a student they are "good at teamwork," a teacher can now point to the specific milestone they have reached - such as the ability to manage conflict within a group or contribute to a shared goal. This makes the path to improvement clear and achievable.
3. Empowering transition and progression
For many learners, the most difficult hurdle is articulating their strengths to a future employer or college tutor. By linking practical ASDAN activities with our Framework, we are giving students more ways to showcase their capability. They can now walk into an interview and explain exactly how their project work demonstrates high-level problem-solving or leadership skills, backed by the evidence of a structured, national framework.
Our shared mission for social mobility
ASDAN’s mission to engage, elevate, and empower learners with diverse needs is a perfect match for our evidence-based approach. We know that the skills gap is often a social mobility gap. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds often have fewer opportunities to build these essential skills outside of school, which is why it is so vital that we embed them within the curriculum.
This partnership is about more than just curriculum alignment; it is about social justice. By working together to make the development of these skills visible and intentional, we are helping to ensure that every young person - regardless of their starting point or the challenges they face - has the best possible foundation for their future.
While ASDAN programmes continue to be highly effective when delivered independently, this partnership offers an additional, optional layer of alignment for those who wish to use the Universal Framework to evidence their learners’ journey.
Looking forward
We are proud to align our work with ASDAN. Together, we are providing a more unified experience for learners and a more integrated toolkit for the educators we serve. We believe that by working in partnership, we can ensure that essential skills are at the heart of every education, opening doors to opportunities that might otherwise have remained closed.
We look forward to seeing our partners bring this alignment to life, helping a new generation of learners to achieve their potential.
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