Skills for Life

Workplace Learning

Skills for Life

mechanic The government’s Skills for Life strategy has developed a whole learning infrastructure for the teaching and learning of literacy, language and numeracy – otherwise known as basic skills. There are national standards which describe literacy and numeracy skills at different levels. The aim of the standards is to specify the full range of skills required for an adult to communicate and apply numeracy confidently, effectively and efficiently. The government expects all adults to achieve a minimum of Level 1 in literacy and Entry Level 3 for numeracy. On a practical level, anyone whose skills are below Level 2 is likely to struggle with day-to-day skills such as working out interest rates, budgeting or reading different types of information. However, everyone is different and each person has strengths and areas for development which will vary within a level or across levels. For example, a person may be confident at reading but find spelling difficult or be highly numerate but unconfident with many literacy-based skills.

A new Skills for Life Strategy refresh/delivery document, Skills for Life: Changing lives - [PDF[ (opens is a new window), published in March 2009, updates the original strategy from 2001 and demonstrates how all the World Class Skills reforms will improve the delivery of Skills for Life. It sets out a new focus on improving people's employability, a strategy for raising demand for literacy, and particularly, numeracy skills and proposals to develop flexible and responsive Skills for Life provision.

Literacy skills cover reading, writing, speaking and listening. It is essential that adults are confident in their ability to communicate effectively in the workplace. This includes feeling confident in using the phone, interacting with colleagues, filling in forms and being able to read a variety of texts.

Numeracy skills include manipulating numbers – adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, measuring, estimating and understanding diagrams, graphs and charts. The basic principles of mathematics are essential for people in the workplace to understand the principles of budgeting, stock control and understanding statistical information.

Language support - some employees may not speak English as their first language and will require specialist language support. It is important to recognise the strengths of these members of staff and ensure their skills are not overlooked due to language barriers.