Of Cabbages and Key Skills: exploding the mythology of core transferable skills in post‐school education

Abstract

The concepts of core, generic or key skills are now ubiquitous in educational discourse and an integral part of recommendations for education and training programmes from school to university. It is our contention that ‐‐ in the sense of free‐standing, context‐independent abilities ‐‐ such skills are without philosophical or empirical support and are entirely illusory. Although the ideas of integrated core units or common learning experiences underpinning the post‐school curriculum have some educational justification, the pursuit of general transferable core/key skills is a wasteful chimera‐hunt and should now be abandoned.