Progressing in a fast-paced and ever-changing world is an increasingly complex process for young people. The need for competences in personal effectiveness is more apparent than ever, including our ability to assess information, problem solve, appraise options, find the best outcome and communicate our processes and decisions with others.
ASDAN is redeveloping its flagship personal effectiveness offer to bridge the gap between academic and life skills to equip learners with the necessary skills to succeed within and beyond education.
ASDAN is an education charity and awarding organisation with a mission to engage, elevate and empower learners with diverse needs. Its regulated qualifications, accredited curriculum programmes and courses enable learners to achieve meaningful learning outcomes, elevating them to go on to further education, training or work, and empower them to take control of their lives.
Six skills at the core of effective education
Universally applicable, real-world skills are central to ASDAN’s educational offer. ASDAN has launched it’s renewed six core skills, which are the bedrock of the new personal effectiveness qualifications at Entry Level 3 to Level 3, available from September 2025.
In today’s world, where adaptability, compassion and resilience are paramount, ASDAN’s six core skills provide a roadmap to navigate various aspects of life:
- Learning
- Communication
- Decision making
- Thinking
- Team working
- Self-awareness
Dr Zoë Elder, ASDAN’s Associate Director of Professional Learning and Innovation, explains, “These skills are fundamental…they’re not time-specific or situation-specific. They’re always going to be invaluable for learners, whatever the context.”
The six core skills, each underpinned by a subset of supporting competencies, have been refreshed to address today’s unique challenges and to prepare learners for a world where critical thinking, decision making and effective teamworking are essential.
An exciting and vital change to ASDAN’s education framework is the introduction of the skill of self-awareness, which is much more than developing resilience or positive mental health.
Effective learners are self-aware. They have tools and strategies to manage their emotional and physical states, helping them to achieve their aims while staying healthy and happy.
This recognised skill provides an opportunity for learners to develop a language around their strengths, their ideals, and what might disrupt their ability to achieve their goals. It also supports learners to identify and manage pressure points so they can maintain a positive outlook in the face of both challenges and opportunities.
From managing the impact of digital platforms to navigating personal wellbeing, ASDAN’s six core skills provide every learner with a practical set of tools attuned to their own needs, as well as the contemporary demands of life, learning and employment.

Equipping young people for the workplace
Employers are increasingly stating the need for what used to be known as the “soft skills”. These are the personal effectiveness skills – hard to define and unable to be taught in a book. Young people learn these skills by living them, by participating in activities that enable them to try something out and see where their strengths lie with the support of their teacher.
This trial-and-improvement approach develops self-awareness and is essential to building the confidence to approach new opportunities when moving on to a workplace or higher education.
The Good Childhood Report 2024, states that when comparing to 26 other countries in Europe, the UK had the lowest average overall life satisfaction among 15-year-olds.
As an awarding body, ASDAN believes that if this skill in self-awareness is not valued or recognised as necessary by education frameworks or assessors, then young people may not have the confidence to progress and forge the best possible outcomes for themselves.
The redevelopment of ASDAN’s personal effectiveness offer has been a chance to review how our existing offer meets learners’ needs and shapes our new qualifications for the future.

Flexible learning to meet individual needs
ASDAN has built in a flexibility not previously seen in its personal effectiveness qualifications. Through working with education professionals both new to and experienced in teaching personal effectiveness, ASDAN has ensured that there is scope to develop the skills alongside one another and through real-life contexts.
Each unit in ASDAN’s new personal effectiveness qualifications focuses on one of the new core skills. To foster a person-centred learning experience, the order these units are completed can be decided by the teacher, and different units can be completed at different levels, to match learners’ strengths.
The introduction of a diagnostic tool, planned for later this year, will enable teachers to help learners identify areas of development and this tool will be able to be used across all ASDAN courses.
The move to digitising all of ASDAN resources aims to empower young people to manage their own learning more effectively, with their ASDAN portfolio accessible across different contexts and easily reviewed by teachers.
An accessible, inclusive, learner-led approach is at the forefront of ASDAN’s development of its new personal effectiveness qualifications. Its refreshed core skills framework combines ASDAN’s historical strengths with a clear vision for the future – engaging, elevating and empowering every learner to navigate the modern world with confidence, resilience and compassion.
Start a conversation with ASDAN to discuss how your learners can benefit.
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