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D. Topics in Computer Science · Topics in Computer Science: Sustainability, Emerging Research and Careers

Essential Skills and Work Habits: The Ontario Skills Passport

D3.5About 60 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can name the Essential Skills and Work Habits described in the Ontario Skills Passport.
  • I can explain how each kind of skill and habit is used in computing careers.
  • I can give evidence of my own skills and habits from school, work and projects.
  • I can assess my strengths and set goals for growth.

Words to know

Ontario Skills Passport (OSP)
An Ontario resource that describes the Essential Skills and Work Habits needed for work, learning and life, with examples from real jobs.
Essential Skills
Skills used in nearly every job and in daily life, such as reading text, document use, numeracy, computer use and problem solving.
work habits
Ways of working that employers value, such as reliability, teamwork, organization and initiative.
self-advocacy
Speaking up for yourself: asking for help, information or what you need to do your work well.
Skills for Success
The Government of Canada's framework of nine skills (reading, writing, numeracy, digital, problem solving, communication, creativity and innovation, collaboration, adaptability).
evidence
A specific example that shows you have used a skill, such as a project, task or result.

What employers actually ask for

In the careers lesson, the sample job postings asked for communication and teamwork as often as Python. Technical skills get you noticed; Essential Skills and work habits decide whether you succeed and get the next opportunity. The curriculum asks you to describe these using the Ontario Skills Passport (OSP).

Ontario Skills Passport (OSP)Essential Skills:literacyReading TextWritingDocument UseComputer UseOral CommunicationEssential Skills:numeracyMoney MathScheduling or Budgetingand AccountingMeasurement andCalculationData AnalysisNumerical EstimationEssential Skills:thinkingJob Task Planningand OrganizingDecision MakingProblem SolvingFinding InformationCritical ThinkingWork HabitsWorking SafelyTeamworkReliabilityOrganizationWorking IndependentlyInitiativeSelf-AdvocacyCustomer ServiceEntrepreneurship
The Ontario Skills Passport describes 15 Essential Skills (grouped here into literacy, numeracy and thinking skills) and 9 Work Habits.

The Essential Skills

The OSP describes Essential Skills used in almost every job:

  • Literacy and communication: Reading Text, Writing, Document Use (tables, forms, diagrams, schedules), Computer Use and Oral Communication.
  • Numeracy: Money Math, Scheduling or Budgeting and Accounting, Measurement and Calculation, Data Analysis, Numerical Estimation.
  • Thinking skills: Job Task Planning and Organizing, Decision Making, Problem Solving, Finding Information, Critical Thinking.

The Work Habits

Working Safely, Teamwork, Reliability, Organization, Working Independently, Initiative, Self-Advocacy, Customer Service and Entrepreneurship.

The Government of Canada uses a similar framework called Skills for Success, updated in 2021, with nine skills: reading, writing, numeracy, digital skills, problem solving, communication, creativity and innovation, collaboration and adaptability. The names differ a little, but the ideas overlap.

Computing taskEssential Skill or Work Habit
Reading a library's documentation to learn a new functionReading Text, Finding Information
Writing a clear bug report or code commentsWriting
Reading a flow chart, UML diagram or test plan tableDocument Use
Estimating how long a feature will take to buildNumerical Estimation, Job Task Planning and Organizing
Finding why a program gives the wrong outputProblem Solving, Critical Thinking
Explaining a design to a non-technical clientOral Communication, Customer Service
Meeting a sprint deadline your team relies onReliability, Teamwork
Asking a senior developer for help after trying for an hourSelf-Advocacy
Following safe practices for equipment and ergonomicsWorking Safely
Essential Skills and Work Habits in everyday computing work.
Worked example

Example 1: Turning experience into evidence

Kai helped run the school's coding club for younger students for a semester. Write three pieces of evidence for the OSP, naming the skill or habit for each.

  1. Oral Communication: "I explained loops to groups of 10 Grade 7 students each week, using examples they suggested."
  2. Job Task Planning and Organizing: "I planned 12 weekly sessions, prepared the activities in advance and kept a checklist of materials."
  3. Reliability: "I attended every session and arrived 10 minutes early to set up the computers."
  4. Notice the pattern: what you did, how much or how often, and the result, not just "I'm a good communicator".

Specific, measurable statements, each linked to a named skill or habit.

Assess yourself honestly

Growth starts with an honest picture. The program below takes a self-rating for each work habit (1 = beginning, 4 = strong) and lists strengths and areas to grow.

ratings = {"Working Safely": 4, "Teamwork": 3, "Reliability": 4,
"Organization": 2, "Working Independently": 3, "Initiative": 2,
"Self-Advocacy": 1, "Customer Service": 3, "Entrepreneurship": 2}
strengths = [h for h in ratings if ratings[h] >= 4]
to_grow = [h for h in ratings if ratings[h] <= 2]
print("Strengths:", ", ".join(strengths))
print("To grow:", ", ".join(to_grow))
print("Average:", round(sum(ratings.values()) / len(ratings), 2))

Turning a self-assessment into a plan. The ratings are one student's example. Output (one line each): Strengths: Working Safely, Reliability / To grow: Organization, Initiative, Self-Advocacy, Entrepreneurship / Average: 2.67

Sample self-assessment of work habits (1 = beginning, 4 = strong)Working Safely4Teamwork3Reliability4Organization2Working Independently3Initiative2Self-Advocacy1Customer Service3Entrepreneurship21234
A student's honest self-rating, drawn from the Python program's data. The short bars (Self-Advocacy, Organization, Initiative, Entrepreneurship) show where to focus next.
Just for fun

Reliability is an OSP work habit.

A program that crashes every Friday at 4:59 p.m. does not have it. Neither does a developer who says "it works on my computer" and goes home.

Hands-on activity

Build your skills evidence file

You need: paper or a document, and a computer with Python.

  1. Rate yourself 1 to 4 on each of the nine Work Habits. Ask a parent, coach or employer to rate you too, and compare.
  2. Put your ratings in the Python program and run it.
  3. For five Essential Skills and three Work Habits, write one piece of evidence each from school, a job, volunteering, sports, clubs or your programming projects. Use the pattern: what you did, how much or how often, and the result.
  4. Choose one habit to grow. Write a specific goal and how you will practise it this month (for example, "Self-Advocacy: when stuck on a bug for 30 minutes, I will ask a specific question in class or online").
  5. Keep the file. It is useful for co-op applications, résumés and interviews.

What to look for: evidence statements that are specific and measurable, a fair self-assessment, and a realistic growth goal.

Your turn

1

What is the Ontario Skills Passport?

2

Name five OSP Essential Skills.

3

Name five OSP Work Habits.

4

Which Essential Skill is used when reading a flow chart or a table of test cases?

5

A developer notices the team's test process is slow and, without being asked, writes a script to automate it. Which work habit is this?

6

Rewrite "I'm good at teamwork" as specific evidence.

7

Name three of the federal Skills for Success.

More practice: warm-up

1

What is self-advocacy?

2

Which work habit means doing what you said you would do, on time?

3

Which Essential Skill is used when estimating how long a task will take?

4

Which work habit is about protecting yourself and others from harm?

5

What is evidence of a skill?

More practice: on your own

1

Using the program's sample ratings, which habits are listed as strengths, and what is the average?

2

Change Self-Advocacy to 3 in the ratings. Which habits are now "to grow" and what is the new average?

3

Explain why debugging uses both Problem Solving and Critical Thinking.

4

How is Customer Service used by a computing professional who never works in a store?

5

Give an example of Entrepreneurship for a student interested in computing.

Challenge

1

Modify the program so it prints each habit with a bar of # characters equal to its rating, for example Reliability ####. Write the loop.

2

Choose a computing job from the careers lesson. Name the three Essential Skills and two Work Habits you think matter most, and justify each choice with a task from that job.

3

An employer says, "We can teach new hires our tools in a month, but we can't easily teach reliability or teamwork." Do you agree? Explain using what you know about how skills are learned.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which is an OSP Work Habit?

2.

A programmer reads a UML diagram to understand a design. Which Essential Skill is that?

3.

Which statement is the strongest evidence of a skill?

4.

Asking a teacher a clear question after trying to solve a bug on your own is an example of:

5.

How many Work Habits does the OSP describe?

6.

With ratings 4, 3, 4, 2, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, what is the average to two decimal places?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Expectation D3.5 asks students to describe the Essential Skills and Work Habits needed for success in computing careers, as defined in the Ontario Skills Passport.

How to help: Rate your teen's work habits alongside their own self-rating and talk about the differences kindly and honestly. Help them find evidence from part-time jobs, sports, family responsibilities and volunteering; these count. Share which skills and habits matter most in your own work.

Common difficulties:

  • Vague evidence ("I'm responsible"). Push for what, how much, and the result.
  • Thinking only technical skills matter in computing.
  • Rating every habit 4. An honest self-assessment is more useful.