Skilled for Health

Skilled for Health is the national programme that embeds Skills for Life learning into health improvement topics. It aims to address both the skills and health inequalities prevalent within traditionally disadvantaged communities. Individuals with low levels of literacy, language and numeracy skills may experience greater social inequality, and are likely to have the most difficult challenges in managing their own health and in accessing health services for themselves and their families.

The approach taken in the Skilled for Health materials is to identify general health topics that are relevant to a wide range of learners and to use these as a lever for development of literacy, language and numeracy skills. The materials cover issues relating to health and healthy living rather than specific health conditions.

Skilled for Health presents two sets of resources: Making the Case promotes the strategic goals; Teacher and learner resources support practical implementation with two sets of materials – Health and well-being and Services and self-care.  These materials were first published in 2006 but revised, with new material added, in 2010. These materials will be of interest to a wide range of teachers in all settings, including Skills for Life, functional skills and key skills teaching and learning. Vocational, employability and community teachers will find useful resources in the embedded learning materials.