Essential Skills

The 10 Essential Skills

Illinois’ Essential Employability Competencies serve as quality guidelines for an individual’s readiness to enter an industry or to pursue further education.

Performance Indicators

At the foundation of the GPEAK system are Illinois’ Essential Employability Competencies and a set of related performance indicators defined through extensive input from employer stakeholders.

The GPEAK systems organizes the essential skills competencies under three main headings:

Working with Others

Teamwork & Conflict Resolution
Adaptability & Flexibility
Cultural Competence
Communication

The Thought Process

Problem Solving
Decision Making
Critical Thinking

Self Regulation

Initiative & Self Drive
Reliability & Accountability
Planning & Organizing

Defining the Essential Skills

Teamwork & Conflict Resolution

Individuals can use their understanding of working cooperatively with others to complete work assignments and achieve mutual goals.

Adaptability & Flexibility

Individuals can use their understanding of workplace change and variety to be open to new ideas and handle ambiguity.

Cultural Competence

Individuals can use their understanding of diversity and inclusion to communicate and work effectively across a multitude of abilities, cultures, and backgrounds.

Communication

Verbal: Individuals can use their understanding of English grammar and public speaking, listening, and responding, convey an idea, express information, and be understood by others.
Written: Individuals can use their understanding of standard business English to ensure that written work is clear, direct, courteous, and grammatically correct.
Digital: Individuals can use their understanding of email, keyboarding, word processing, and digital media to convey work that is clear, direct, courteous, and grammatically correct.

Problem Solving

Individuals can use their critical thinking skills to generate and evaluate solutions as they relate to the needs of the team, customer, and company.

Decision Making

Individuals use their understanding of problem solving to implement and communicate solutions.

Critical Thinking

Individuals use their understanding of logic and reasoning to analyze and address problems.

Initiative & Self-Drive

Individuals can use their understanding of goal setting and personal impact to achieve professional goals and understand personal impact.

Reliability & Accountability

Individuals can use their understanding of commitment, time management, and follow through to ensure that a professional team functions properly and meets collective goals.

Planning & Organizing

Individuals can use their understanding of time management to plan effectively and accomplish assigned tasks.

GPEAK Certified

Individuals have earned all 10 GPEAK Competency Badges.

GPEAK Badges

As learners demonstrate mastery of each of the 10 essential skills, GPEAK awards them a badge which indicates to employers career readiness in that area. Once an individual earns all ten badges, they will be GPEAK certified.

Badges are awarded at three levels, depending on the type of training site:

Bronze – Educational Site: The GPEAK site is educational in nature (i.e. classroom, CBO training cohort). Students or Trainees are developing an understanding of the competency by completing individual or classroom assignments. Earned badges will state the type of site (high school, college, or community-based organization).
Silver – Work-Based Learning Site: The GPEAK site incorporates a work-based learning component (i.e. internship, co-op, apprenticeship, student worker position, service learning, etc.). Participants focus on the practical application of the competency in a work setting.
Gold – Employer Training Site: The GPEAK tools are used by an employer for their employees’ professional development.