From twin sets to shoulder pads and finally an outfit that, hopefully, works for everyone
Before the Skills for Life Strategy, Basic Skills didn’t really make the news. It was largely unseen, taking place with a handful of learners in shabby classrooms, community centres or portacabins on wet Wednesdays. There were a lot of cardboard boxes, handmade worksheets and Pritt Sticks involved with little support or training. I know; I was there. We were affectionately known as the ‘Twin-set and pearls Brigade’. I resented this image as I’ve never owned either a twin-set or pearls.
The Skills for Life Strategy in 2001 changed all that. Billions of pounds of investment saw an infrastructure for literacy and numeracy learning that aimed to boost demand; raise standards; improve the quality and consistency of provision and increase learner achievement. This was welcome news to a field that had been under-funded and under-valued for years. Suddenly, we had conferences, men in suits, women in shoulder pads, some brilliant resources and a support programme to ensure we were up to date with the best approaches. National campaigns helped us to attract learners and the funding raised our profile.
Ten years on, reflecting on what we’d achieved, it became clear that plenty of success had also resulted in some unexpected over-sights. Targets set by Lord Leitch had driven funding and, increasingly, teachers had come under pressure to teach to the test rather than follow what learners wanted. Provision was all about levels, qualifications and certificates. It was a bit like the Henry Ford quote, “You can have any colour, as long as it’s black.” In short, you could improve your literacy or numeracy, as long as you worked towards a qualification at Entry Level, Level 1 or Level 2. The focus was the test, not learners’ lives outside the classroom.
So the concept of Functional Skills in maths and English was welcomed by both teachers and learners. These qualifications equipped people to apply their skills in practical situations, choosing appropriate skills and techniques to solve a range of problems. Teachers can use situations that fit with learners’ lives and ensure they can transfer their skills and not just pick the right answer from a multiple-choice paper. They are embedded in Apprenticeships, acknowledging their importance in all vocational areas. Literacy now includes the development of speaking and listening, left out in the cold by the previous method of assessment.
However, there was a sting in the tail, feedback from the adult pilots suggested that learners dropped a level in the transition from Skills for Life to Functional Skills as they were more challenging. So, on the one hand, they provided adults with the skills and knowledge that everyone agrees is needed but on the other, they are more challenging to achieve. In a NIACE survey of Skills for Life and Community Learning provision earlier this year, funding was cited as one of the three top challenges and to increase the funding of Functional Skills was one of only three of our recommendations. So the news announced by Matthew Hancock yesterday, that funding will be doubled, is very welcome indeed. We’ve come a long way in two decades with some re-cycled – or ‘vintage’ – ideas along the way; but to me, it feels as if we’re heading in the right direction and, in this instance, our voice has been heard.
