Northwest Community College is proud to be a designated
provider of TOWES Essential
Skills services in British Columbia.
What is TOWES?
TOWES stands for Test
of Workplace Essential Skills. It is Canada’s Essential
Credential, a nationally accepted test that measures essential
skills in the workplace.
The purpose of the test is not to pass or fail; instead,
it is to find your level of proficiency in handling common
tasks needed in the workplace. TOWES is
not an academic test. It will feel familiar as the tasks
are just like situations you encounter in the workplace everyday.
In order to improve performance in a world that is becoming
more competitive there is a need to constantly improve and
implement new technologies. Few jobs today require “unskilled” workers.
In every job, productivity, efficiency and safety are essential.
TOWES measures workplace
essential skills, which differs from the skills measured
by academic credentials such as Grade 12 diplomas. Research
shows many people who have not graduated have the essential
skills required for many jobs.
TOWES provides a uniform
national standard that will help enhance productivity and
our overall quality of life.
Why take TOWES?
TOWES can help you improve
your job prospects. If you already have a job, TOWES will
identify gaps in essential skills that can be addressed to
improve your career options. Your TOWES score
shows employers that you have workplace essential skills.
They will feel more comfortable hiring you- and paying you
accordingly.
TOWES is effective testing
and training that uses authentic workplace documents - such
as catalogues, order forms, labels, and schematics - as source
material, unlike many academic tests which assess grammar,
composition skills and factual knowledge.
TOWES measures the three
essential skills that are needed for safe and productive employment:
Reading Text - the ability to understand
and use information contained in prose passages.
Document Use - the skills and knowledge
needed to understand and use information from documents
such as tables, catalogs, maps, and scale drawings.
Numeracy - the ability to understand
and use numerical information embedded in print.
Questions range in difficulty and mimic actual workplace
tasks by having the test taker assume the role of a worker
who needs to use information embedded in documents.
TOWES has been validated
through extensive field-testing across Canada. It links with
a major initiative of Human
Resources and Social Development Canada that has profiled
the essential skills needed in over 200 different occupations.
Measure Up!
Measure Up! is
a free web-based tool that tests your essential skills. It
has problem sets similar to the ones used in TOWES.
Each problem set is based on a document - a memo, catalogue,
regulations, work order - associated with workplace contexts.
The self-assessments found in Measure
Up! have not been subjected to the rigorous validity
and reliability standards of TOWES.
It is an informal tool which demonstrates the power of TOWES.
To get more information on how to access TOWES testing
for your clients or employees contact Lorrie Gowen at 250.638.5451
or by email at lgowen@nwcc.bc.ca
