The Key Skills Qualification is a frequently required component of 14-20 education in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The aim of Key Skills is to encourage learners to develop and demonstrate their skills as well as learn how to select and apply skills in ways that are appropriate to their particular context. It is generally available in secondary schools (alongside GCSEs, A-levels or other qualifications), Further Education colleges (alongside NVQ, as part of Apprenticeship training or other equivalent vocational or academic courses) and other places of learning (sometimes alongside other qualifications and sometimes independently). The qualifications can be taken at levels 1-4. The Department for Children, Schools and Families in England and the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills in Wales define Key Skills as "a range of essential skills that underpin success in education, employment, lifelong learning and personal development". The DfES website states that the Key Skills Qualification is offered as a response to concern from employers about lack of essential skills in young recruits and as part of the response to the 1996 Dearing Report. Key Skills qualifications at levels 2-4 attract UCAS Tariff points for University admissions. The UCAS tariff is a points system used to report achievement for entry to higher education (HE) in a numerical format. Subjects Key Skills Qualifications are offered in six areas: Communication speaking, listening, reading and writing skills Application of Number interpreting information involving numbers, carrying out calculations, interpreting results and presenting findings Information Communication Technology finding, exploring, developing and presenting information including text, images and numbers Working with others includes process and interpersonal skills to support working cooperatively with others to achieve shared objectives, work cooperatively and have regard for others Improving own learning and performance developing independent learners who are clearly focused on what they want to achieve and able to work towards targets that will improve the quality of their learning and performance. The standards include process skills, e.g., target-setting, planning, learning, reviewing and interpersonal skills, e.g., communicating own needs, accepting constructive feedback, negotiating learning opportunities and support Problem solving encouraging learners to develop and demonstrate their ability to tackle problems systematically, for the purpose of working towards their solution and learning from this process. Three types or combinations of problems are dealt with: diagnostic problems that depend primarily on analysis to arrive at conclusions, design problems that depend mainly on synthesis to create a