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Commentary - December 2007

It’s about employment and social cohesion

The Government’s rhetorical shift away from a utilitarian vision of skills is an invitation to think again about the role of literacy, language and numeracy in developing social inclusion as well as employability, writes CAROL TAYLOR

We equip people, families and communities better to understand the world around them and to participate more fully in it. Our vision is not solely a utilitarian one.’ So says John Denham. This is music to our ears. The Secretary of State’s renewed emphasis on social inclusion and cohesion hopefully moves us on from thinking about improving skills only for employment, to thinking about the impact on communities, families and individuals – and to a re-assessment of what the term ‘employability’ really means. It could be said that the previous view was ‘happiness = skills (as determined by employers and the government) + employment’.

So we can think again about the role of literacy, language and numeracy in developing social cohesion as well as employability and employment. The Government’s response to Leitch proposes a new target – that by 2020 95 per cent of the population will have achieved the threshold skills (the level of skills the Government suggests people need to progress and succeed) of a level 1 in literacy and an Entry 3 for numeracy.  This is a fine aspiration but how will we do it? How will we get to the millions of adults in or out of work who have skills qualifications below level 2? Or to those young people who have left school with poor or few qualifications and think that further learning is not for them? Or to parents and children living in poverty, so that we can start to break down what is  sometimes called the ‘cycle of deprivation’?

Within the twin and allied agendas of employment and social cohesion, here are four areas of development which NIACE thinks will be at the forefront of literacy, language and numeracy work with adults over the next few years.

Engagement and progression: how do we engage and retain those who have the poorest skills and are often the hardest to reach? How do we develop a ‘love of learning’ and persistence, such that people will get involved even when everything else that is happening around them is trying to prevent them? Much is known about barriers to learning – but the big question is whether there will be a resourced commitment to learner support and a genuine understanding of the spiky profile of much adult learning. The challenge for policymakers, funders and providers is to help the learners we find it hardest to reach to succeed in spite of life.

Numeracy: numeracy is an overdue area of concern, particularly with the oft-quoted ‘17 million adults who can’t add up’. This is patent nonsense, of course, but shouldn’t deflect us from the fact that there may be 17 million who have more or less difficulty with some aspects of numeracy, and that these difficulties are seriously harming their chances of gaining employment. How can we persuade people that numeracy, or maths, is a subject worth pursuing? And how can we rapidly increase the number of numeracy teachers?

Embedded provision: research (and our own practice) shows us that people learn more successfully when basic skills are embedded into wider learning programmes. Family literacy, language and numeracy is a longstanding example of how this strategy not only engages learners but enables them to progress to other learning and/or to employment. We are now looking at how family literacy can be used as a stepping stone to employability and to employment. However, embedded learning is not a panacea for all ills and there is still a place for discrete basic skills provision.

Speaking and listening: it’s a curious paradox that in the age of communications, we’re apparently getting worse at speaking and listening, and worth reflecting on the fact that Eastern European migrants who have English as a second or third language can take on so many frontline jobs. The challenge for us is to work with young and old, and sometimes across the generations, to nurture these skills – with a huge spin- ff for both employability and for social cohesion. Unions tell us that employees need good speaking and listening skills not only to enable them to do their jobs more effectively but to give them the confidence and skills to speak up in the workplace. And it’s just as important to support the development of people to be effective parents, to share books with their children and support the language skills of the next generation. As Ed Balls made clear, when launching the second National Year of Reading last month: ‘There needs to be “a national revolution” in children’s reading at school and at home’. He recognises that speaking and listening skills are necessary for the development of good reading and writing skills, and that sharing books is the best way of beginning this process.

We know much about the links between basic skills and deprivation. And we know that people with poorer basic skills often don’t join in things, are less likely to vote, to attend parents evenings, to join clubs or community groups, or to engage with different sorts of people. For many millions of people, basic skills are the key to the door of social engagement and employability: ‘Happiness = social cohesion and employability’.

Carol Taylor is Director of the Basic Skills Agency at NIACE

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