Adult Education
(asked on 5th June 2014) - View Source
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to educate adults in literacy, numeracy and ICT skills.
Skills policy is devolved so this answer refers to policy in England only.
One of the Government's priorities is to ensure that all adults have the level of English, maths and digital skills to help them find and sustain employment, as well as achieving other positive outcomes such as improved health and well-being.
We are implementing a major programme of reform to raise the quality and standards of these vital subjects in adult education which will improve the quality of the teaching workforce, reward the best providers and ensure learners are stretched to achieve the best they can.
We are investing £30m this year and next to attract the best graduates to teach in further education (FE) and to provide opportunities for existing teachers to improve their skills. As part of a £15m bursary scheme between 2013-15 we are offering up to £20,000 to the best and brightest graduates to teach in FE. In January 2014 we announced further measures to improve the workforce including; a golden-hello scheme offering a bonus of £7,500 to maths graduates in their second year of teaching; a recruitment incentive scheme offering £20,000 to providers for taking on a specialist maths graduate teacher; and a subject knowledge enhancement scheme to enable highly qualified graduates who have the skills and aptitude to teach but need to develop some specific maths skills before they start teacher training.
We have put English and maths at the heart of all our major programmes. From 2014/15 all intermediate Apprentices will be required to work towards achieving a level 2 in English and maths and young people undertaking a traineeship will be required to study English and maths unless they already have a level 2 qualification in English and maths.
We fully fund all adults to achieve their first English and maths GCSE as well as other qualifications which help them get to that level. Our reforms to English and maths GCSEs will make them more rigorous and help ensure that young people and adults develop the skills most relevant to employers. The reformed GCSEs will be available for first teaching from September 2015 and our ambition is for them to become the gold-standard measuring achievement at level 2 for all ages and ability levels.
We encourage and support a wide range of different and flexible types of provision so that adults can learn in a way that suits them, for example, learning in the workplace, Community Learning including Family English, Maths and Language (FEML) provision, through traditional college courses and using technology and online learning.
We are making sure jobseekers on benefits have the best chance of finding employment by helping them improve their literacy and numeracy skills. From April 2014, those with poor spoken English which is preventing them from finding work have been expected to train in English, with the possibility of losing their benefit if they choose not to participate. In December 2014, we will launch the 18-21 Work Skills pilot which will test different approaches to teaching and learning and the outcomes of mandating new 18-21 year-old Jobseekers' Allowance claimants with English and maths below Level 2 to English and maths training for up to 16 hours per week, alongside their jobsearch.
We have a substantial programme of research to identify the most effective approaches to teaching and learning. In April, I announced the launch of a new research centre with the Behavioural Rights Insight Team to bring the latest findings from behavioural science to bear on the challenges of improving adult literacy and numeracy.
Basic digital skills are now seen to be as vital as literacy and numeracy, not just for employment but for all aspects of life. The Government's recent Digital Inclusion Strategy set what actions we will take to ensure everyone has these skills. The Strategy can be found at:
For its part, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has committed over £30m over the last 5 years to UK online centres to help more people develop the basic digital skills needed to use a computer, and to get online safely and securely. This has so far helped over 1.25 million people, most of whom were adults, get online. A £1m extension to the current programme will help another 43,000 people to get online. This is aimed at hard to reach groups, many who are socially excluded. We are currently in the process of tendering a new programme with the aim to get another 1million people online in the next 3-5 years.