NIACE helping to transform workplace culture Wednesday, October 15, 2008 - 16:16

Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, attended her first Public Sector Workplace Seminar on Thursday, 9th October, as Patron of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE). This successful event highlighted the work of NIACE’s Public Sector programme which is funded by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).

The seminar featured key speakers from the British Army, the Ministry of Defence (MOD), Her Majesty’s Prison Service (HMPS) and the Health Sector, all of whom have been working closely with NIACE. Each organisation has signed a Skills Pledge and has made a commitment to developing the literacy, language and numeracy skills of their workforce. 

Delegates were invited to take part in discussions about how they could inform their own organisations’ workforce development agenda and how NIACE might support them in taking it forward. The event also provided the platform for the launch of the report on Phase 1 of the Longitudinal Study (link to story 2) of the impact of basic skills improvements in the UK Armed Forces.

Similar positive results can be seen in other organisations that have partnered up with NIACE too:

HMPS is responsible for 126 of the 137 prisons in England and Wales and it employs approximately 50,000 staff. Through its partnership with NIACE, a Test the Prison campaign has been designed to enable HMPS to build a better picture of the level of skills amongst staff and to lead to more effective skills development support. Test the Prison is a one day event that has so far been delivered at over 20 prisons and has reached over 3,000 staff. The campaign concludes in March 2009 and crucial to its success is the partnership between HMPS, the Prison Officers Association and NIACE.

Derbyshire Constabulary serves almost one million people and employs almost 4,000 staff. It has been working with NIACE since June 2008 and is about to embark on a pilot project which aims to assess the basic skills needs of staff, raise awareness of basic skills issues among those responsible for training delivery and develop a Fast Facts booklet to assist staff in report writing and statement taking.

Skills for Health and NIACE have cemented their partnership by signing a Memorandum of Understanding which recognises the advantages of collaborative working to maximise learning and participation. NIACE has supported Skills for Health in writing content for the literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) part of their website and together they have developed an employability skills matrix for the health sector.

Lynn Carpenter, NIACE Senior Assistant Director for Literacy, Language and Numeracy, said:

“NIACE is committed to the development of Workplace Learning and this seminar was an excellent way for organisations to share the great progress they have made and for others to gain an insight as to how we can help them take their development agendas forward.”

She continued,

“Our work with the British Army speaks for itself in terms of what we can offer organisations. The Basic Skills Agency and now NIACE has worked with the British Army since 2000 and has developed an innovative and effective basic skills policy that complements the Army’s operation and fits around the demands of Service life. This work has been supported by specialists, seconded from NIACE, and embedded within the Army. The embedded model proved to be so powerful that we have now begun a similar partnership with HMPS.”