Parliament Report on Basic Skills - NIACE responds Thursday, January 29, 2009 - 14:49

Government investment to improve the basic skills of adults has been impressive but should now target the least confident learners during the economic downturn.

This is NIACE's headline response to the Public Accounts Committee report, Skills for Life: Progress in Improving Adult Literacy and Numeracy - [PDF]  published on Thursday 29th January 2009.

NIACE commends the Committee's recommendations for:

• more interdepartmental cooperation to promote learning opportunities to the most disadvantaged learners 
• public services like health and housing to champion learning opportunities to improve basic skills 
• an increase in outreach work to tackle lack of aspiration and a poor national learning culture 
• valuing and monitoring the benefits of involving those learning at lower entry levels who find it difficult to achieve a qualification; and 
• undertaking a follow-up to the 2003 Skills for Life survey as soon as possible.

Carol Taylor, Director of Language, Literacy and Numeracy at NIACE, said:

"The investment that has gone into improving the literacy and numeracy skills of the population has had a significant impact.
However this is not the time to stop; those people with the poorest skill levels will be those who struggle the most during a recession. We have to accept that it is the responsibility of all of us that all our adults and young people have the skills they need to cope in the 21st Century."

Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said:

"Skills for Life has been a substantial success, well over two million adults have got a first qualification. Yet the Committee is also correct in saying that the scale of the job that remains to be done is dramatic. We shouldn't be surprised that an education worth having cannot be secured on the cheap."
"The biggest challenge is in combining opportunities for progression with serious access for the poorest and the most excluded people. The temptation, when budgets are short, is to work with those that have the shortest journey to achieve a qualification.
"The biggest impact on poverty reduction and intergenerational success comes from working successfully with adults with lowest levels of numeracy and literacy."