Oracy and Essential Skills for Life

Talk The Talk

Confident communication for life! That has been the objective of Talk The Talk since 2013 when we first began delivering our engaging oracy and confidence building workshops into schools across England and Wales; inspiring young people to speak out, speak up and be heard!

As part of Labour’s education mission, Sir Keir Starmer has recently announced that oracy and other essential skills will form a core focus as he described five ‘barriers’ that must be torn down in order to ‘prepare our children for the future’. A central focus on oracy development would certainly raise the profile of oracy within all classrooms and begin to establish consistent approaches and expectations for its teaching across the country. Sir Keir goes on to rightfully position oracy as ‘not just a skill for learning’ but ‘also a skill for life’, which very much resonates with the key message and outcomes that we deliver with our confident communication workshops.

Oracy development is crucial for young people as it forms the basis of their ability to use language and communicate and supports wider social and emotional benefits. As young people leave school, progress to higher education and then enter the UK workforce; developed communication and interpersonal skills become vital to success. Furthermore, those young people who are confident to apply developed essential skills, such as oracy, have been shown to benefit from improved employment outcomes.

At Talk The Talk, we work directly with young people and their teachers in schools to deliver high-impact oracy and confidence growth. Our confident communication workshops support young people to develop effective skills across visual, vocal and verbal communication modes, recognise the importance of effective structuring in spoken communication and apply persuasive language techniques to deliver their message with effect. Talk The Talk workshops encourage young people to take a step outside of their comfort zone and towards becoming a confident communicator for life.

As a Skills Builder Partnership Impact Organisation, all of our core workshop programmes support the progression of essential skill development at Impact Level 4. Our workshops provide opportunity for young people to build their Speaking, Listening and Aiming High skills from the Skills Builder Universal Framework. Together, working as part of the wider Skills Builder Partnership of impact organisations, we contribute to the vitally important and full range of essential skills inputs to support our young people to aspire and succeed.

Developing the essential skills of young people, such as oracy, is paramount to enable them to secure high quality employability outcomes, improve their social mobility and ultimately support them to have happy and successful lives. With businesses reporting that oral communication skills are lagging behind and school leaders feeling that oracy input should be essential post-pandemic; a focus on high quality oracy and essential skills development is exactly what our young people need, and need now!

If you would like to find out more about how Talk The Talk could support the young people in your school or organisation, please do get in touch with us at info@talkthetalkuk.org or via our contact page on our website here.

July 2023

Categories: Uncategorised