ORACY ALL-PARTY PARLIAMENTARY GROUP – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (YUN0074)

Youth Unemployment Committee inquiry

Introduction

1. This submission is from the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). The Oracy APPG is chaired by Emma Hardy MP, with vice-chairs Tom Hunt MP, Ian Mearns MP, Andy Carter MP, Rachel Hopkins MP, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, Baroness Blower, Marion Fellows MP and Tan Dhesi MP. The secretariat is provided by education charity Voice 21.

2. The content for this submission is drawn from the final report of the Oracy APPG’s Speak for Change Inquiry which was published in April 2021.[1] The Inquiry’s aim was to improve the teaching and learning of oracy (spoken language skills and ability) in schools. The Inquiry investigated the provision of oracy education in the UK, assessed its impact, and identified actions to enable all children to access the benefits of oracy.

3. Oracy is defined by the APPG as our ability to communicate effectively using spoken language. To speak eloquently, articulate ideas and thoughts, influence through talking, listen to others and have the confidence to express your views are all fundamental skills that support success in both learning and life beyond school. Oracy is not just any talk happening at school. It is purposeful classroom talk which develops children’s speaking and listening skills, and enhances their learning through the effective use of spoken language.

Summary

4. Oral communication skills are strongly desired by employers and there is demand for a stronger emphasis on oracy (oral communication skills) in education from business and employers. Young people need more than good grades to secure jobs and thrive in employment – they need to perform well in interviews, network, collaborate and have the confidence to share their intellect and ideas with colleagues and customers. With the rise of automation and AI, it is the uniquely human qualities central to oracy that will have sustained value in the competitive global economy.

5. There is a link between poor oracy (oral communication skills) and unemployment. The absence of a good oracy education hampers children and young people’s long-term opportunities and capabilities, with disadvantaged children and young people experiencing the most detrimental effects. Only half of young people (52%) believed they left or will leave school/education with the oracy skills necessary for future success in further education, training or employment, compared to 72% of young people who are full-time students or working.[2]

6. The imperative to narrow gaps in educational outcomes, growing concern with regards to young people’s wellbeing and mental health, changes in the employment market, increased awareness of unheard voices in society and the impact of the Covid -19 pandemic on children’s education amplify the need to prioritise oracy education now and ensure it is seen as a necessity in our education system.

7. The current status of oracy in the education system does not fully reflect its value and importance to children and young people’s outcomes in school and life. The lack of focus and emphasis on spoken language across educational policy and currency in the qualifications system and the pressures to meet external accountability targets disincentivises schools and teachers from giving it the attention they feel it deserves.

8. There is a concerning variation in the time and attention afforded to oracy across schools, leaving the development of many children and young people’s oracy skills and abilities to chance. This is largely due to a disconnect in expectations and understanding of oracy in the National Curriculum that results in patchy provision of variable quality.

Challenges:

●       What are the main challenges facing employers in the labour market today?

●       What barriers do they face in recruiting young workers?

●       What are the main challenges facing young people seeking employment today?

Employers want good oral communication skills

9. In evidence to the Oracy APPG’s Inquiry, business leaders and recruiters continually expressed the high value employers place on oral communication skills. This is reflected in surveys of skills demands in which employers consistently rank verbal communication skills very highly. For example, in a recent City of London Corporation and Nesta survey of 100 employers, oral communication skills were rated as the top transferable skills by employers.[3] Communication was also identified as one of the top 8 skills that employers rate as an ‘Essential Need of the Career Readiness Competencies’ in the National Association of Colleges and Education, Job Outlook Survey 2019.[4]

“You cannot be recruited if you cannot speak effectively. [These skills] are a passport to work – a fundamental requirement – as important as the oxygen we breathe when it comes to opportunity in the future.”[5]

“Employers are not only interested in degree classifications and subject knowledge, but also graduates’ ability to communicate, problem-solve, work in teams, present or pitch and so on.” [6]

“Employers need staff to be able to, with confidence, articulate information clearly and coherently, to extract key details from conversations and to be ready to present a case to peers and colleagues. Leaving compulsory education without adequate spoken and communication skills is a serious blight on young people’s lives and a major handicap when they’re looking for work.” [7]

Oral communication skills are among the top workforce skills gaps identified by employers

10. Despite this clear and strong demand, evidence suggests that the education system is not adequately developing the essential oral communication employers require. A 2016 survey by the CBI and Pearson found that 50% of businesses were not satisfied with school leavers’ skills in communication, compared to 32% for literacy and 29% for numeracy.[8] And a 2018 LinkedIn study on the skill gaps in the workforce found oral communication skills emerged as the biggest skills gap by a large margin.[9]

The link between poor oral communication skills and unemployment

11. Research undertaken by the Centre for Education & Youth and the University of Oxford highlight the link between poor oracy skills and unemployment. Unemployed young people were around twice as likely as those in employment or full-time students to feel that their schooling did not give them sufficient oracy skills for success in later life: Only half of young people (52%) believed they left or will leave school/education with the oracy skills necessary for future success in further education, training or employment, compared to 72% of young people who are full-time students or working. Two thirds of young people who are full-time students (67%) or working (69%) believed their schooling/ education helped them develop good oracy skills, compared with less than half (47%) of unemployed young people.[10]

12. A report of the APPG on Social Mobility has shown that children who have poor language and communication skills at age five are twice as likely to be unemployed aged 34.[11]Furthermore, researchers have found that children who had normal non-verbal skills but a poor vocabulary at age 5 were more likely to be unemployed in adulthood. And a study of unemployed young men found that 88% had some level of language difficulty.[12]

13. Skillsbuilder’s latest report has sought to establish the value of essential skills in young people’s employment outcomes: “There is evidence of a wage premium of around 15% or £3,400 per year for full-time workers aged over 19...This wage premium is substantially increased in cases where young people report confidence in applying their essential skills in a range of scenarios. In this case, the wage premium for those individuals rises to £10,200.”[13]

Progression in further education and training

14. Teachers, employers and young people themselves are united in recognising how oracy skills support young people’s transitions into further education, training and employment.

“In our mission to hire and train diverse talent, we also need to consider that prior oracy education (or lack thereof) may not have prepared apprentices for employment success.” [14]

“Oracy skills equip young people to make the most of their educational experiences, to develop the skills needed for the future, for success and satisfaction in their work, and for life in general by helping them develop life skills and supporting confidence and access.” [15]

Improving children and young people’s oracy can support closing the disadvantage gap and improve social mobility

15. Research consistently finds that children from low-income families start school with lower language levels than their more advantaged peers: of the children who persistently experienced poverty, 75 percent arrive at school below average in language development. Around 50% of children in some areas of deprivation begin school with delayed language.[16]

“Children with poor life opportunities are impacted most by poor focus on oracy in education.” [17]

16. Currently gaps in language development between more and less socio-economically advantaged children tend to widen rather than narrow as children progress through school.[18] The gap between children from disadvantaged areas and their peers cannot all be attributed to the preschool years. Analysis of data from the Millennium Cohort Study identified that even if children from disadvantaged backgrounds do well in vocabulary tests at age 5, they are almost as likely to have below-average reading ability at age 7 (50%) as those children who had below average vocabulary at age five but who had never experienced poverty (52%).[19]

17. In research on the non-academic barriers to elite professions, the Social Mobility Commission found that strong communication skills are important for improving social mobility and workplace opportunities. The Commission identified ‘soft’ skills as a barrier to social mobility and emphasised the importance of spoken communication skills.[20]

“Ultimately oracy, communication, articulation: these are all elements that are really driven by the element of social capital. … [I]t seems to us that social mobility is a key part of the success of young people. That is largely driven by their ability to communicate, especially in the workplace, [and] how to sell themselves to employers.” [21]

Young people’s and teachers’ views on the importance of having strong oracy skills

18. When surveyed, young people put oracy on a par with reading and writing. 75% think oracy is ‘very important’; 78% say the same for literacy. However, young people believe that schools do not prioritise oracy highly enough: more than 7 in 10 (71%) of young people said their school prioritised literacy and numeracy ‘a lot’, but less than a third (32%) said their school prioritised oracy ‘a lot’. This stands in sharp contrast to the extent to which young people feel schools should prioritise oracy. Nearly 8 in 10 young people (78%) said schools should prioritise oracy ‘a lot’.[22]

19. 79% of secondary state school teachers (almost 4 in 5) think that developing their students’ confidence and competence in spoken language would make the students more employable.[23] Another poll of almost 5,000 teachers commissioned by The Careers & Enterprise Company found that teachers now think that workplace skills have a higher value than academic qualifications in preparing school and college leavers for the post-Covid world of work.[24] Almost three quarters (74%) said skills such as teamwork and public speaking will equip pupils to secure a good job.

Primary and secondary education:

●       Does the national curriculum equip young people with the right knowledge and skills to find secure jobs and careers?

●       What changes may be needed to ensure this is the case in future?

●       What lessons can be learned from alternative models of education and assessment?

There is a concerning variation in the time and attention afforded to oracy across schools

20. While some schools give oracy a high priority, many schools are not even meeting the statutory requirements for spoken language. This leaves the development of many children and young people’s oracy skills and ability to chance. Research shows how the development of spoken language skills requires purposeful and intentional teaching which is sustained throughout their schooling.

21. Despite what is included in the current National Curriculum on spoken language (primary and secondary), oracy education is not being consistently or comprehensively provided in our schools. Less than half (46%) of primary teachers and a quarter (23%) or secondary teachers reported being confident in their understanding of the ‘spoken language’ requirements outlined in the National Curriculum. Only 14% of classroom teachers felt that their school was meeting the spoken language requirements of the National Curriculum to a ‘great extent’.[25]

“If students do not acquire this language at home, school is their second chance. If they are not getting it in school, they are not getting it. Oracy, therefore, is not just an educational choice but a moral imperative.” [26]

22. The importance of oracy education in schools is compounded by evidence showing that young people from less well-off backgrounds are less likely to have access to the benefits that enrichment activities outside the classroom can bring, such as debating, volunteering and the performing arts. Secondary schools with the lowest proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals are twice as likely to offer debating clubs as schools with the highest (70% compared to 35%). Where schools do offer opportunities to develop these skills, there are also disparities in the take-up of activities with pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds less likely to take up extracurricular activities than their better-off peers (46% compared to 66%).[27]

The Covid-19 pandemic has widened the language gap

23. The pandemic has widened the language gap across all ages and increased the imperative to act now in order to narrow gaps in outcomes. Two thirds of primary teachers (69%) and nearly half of secondary teachers (44%) say school closures had a negative effect on the spoken language development of students eligible for pupil premium, compared with 1 in 5 teachers for their most advantaged pupils. Concern about the negative impact on spoken language is consistent between Reception and KS1 teachers (71%) and KS2 teachers (63%) highlighting that despite the importance of early intervention to develop children’s speech and language, this is not only an early years issue.[28]

The lack of assessment of oracy/ spoken language in education

24. Spoken language has no currency in statutory assessments beyond the Early Years Foundation Stage and Modern Foreign Languages. Whilst the Oracy APPG inquiry heard a spectrum of views as to whether oracy should be formally assessed, and the potential role that oracy could play in formal assessments of other areas of learning, there was general agreement that the absence of currency and accountability undermined oracy’s status and value.

“[If oracy] is an important curriculum objective, and it is in England, then you know it should be mirrored in a way in which learning outcomes are being examined. And I think that will have a backwash effect on the learning activities.” [29]

25. A significant proportion of submissions to the Inquiry highlighted the implications and impact of the downgrading of the spoken language element of the English Language GCSE from a component of the overall grade to a standalone endorsement and separate grade that carries little significance. Whilst contributors to the Oracy APPG Inquiry acknowledged the limitations of the assessment, their concern centered on the signal that its removal had sent regarding the importance of oracy, for both students and teachers in terms of time allocation, focus and motivation.

26. At present, students in England give a prepared spoken presentation for their GCSE English Language assessment, whereas in Northern Ireland, for example, there are three controlled assessment tasks: an individual presentation and interaction, a discussion and a role play, which contribute towards 20% of the final grade. In Wales, the English Language GCSE has two tasks: an individual presentation and a group discussion, which contribute towards 20% of the final grade. In Scottish National 5 English, students are required to either prepare and give a presentation or take part in a group discussion.[30]

27. The desire for a more significant overhaul of statutory assessments was expressed by some contributors to the Oracy APPG Inquiry. In 2019, the Association of School and College Leaders’ (ASCL) Forgotten Third Commission said that a “working group representing the Department for Education, Ofqual and the professional associations should be established to introduce a Passport in English to replace the current GCSE English Language”.[31] They explained that the qualification would be taken by all students ‘graduating’ from school/college into the workplace or higher education and should include a “significant oracy component.” Those advocating for reform of our whole approach to assessment and accountability argued that the disruptive effect of the Covid-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to rethink the approach to enable the inclusion of a broader range of skills such as oracy which could serve to rebalance the curriculum from a narrow set of academic achievements.

What needs to change

28. The Oracy APPG is calling for a shift in emphasis on oracy in our education system which:

i) Raises the status and priority of oracy education

ii) Sets out shared expectations for oracy across schools

iii) Empowers and equips teachers and schools to develop their students’ oracy skills

iv) Includes children’s oracy as a key pillar of any education recovery plan and long-term vision to address educational inequality.

29. Key recommendations:

●       The Department for Education (DfE) should develop non-statutory guidance to support schools to embed the statutory spoken language requirements within the National Curriculum which sets out clear expectations for oracy teaching and learning, including a learning progression for students.

●       DfE should ensure catch-up investment is extended and better targeted towards speech and language development, beyond the Early Years funded programme. Guidance for schools on how to spend the recovery premium and pupil premium should emphasise the evidence on the role of oracy in closing the attainment gap and improving outcomes for pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, and advise schools on how they can support children to develop their spoken language skills and ability, including recommending evidence-based interventions that support this.

●       DfE should recognise the ongoing importance of oracy and language development beyond the early years by fully integrating oracy into all policies relating to literacy, pupil premium, social mobility, area-based initiatives, teacher development and school improvement.

●       Ofsted should develop training and guidance for inspectors on how to inspect schools’ oracy provision and make clear through communication with schools that oracy is valued at inspection.

●       Ofqual should reinstate an improved form of the spoken language assessment as a contributory element of the GCSE grading, reviewing the best means of assessing spoken language at GCSE to ensure assessment at this vital stage is fit for purpose.

●       DfE should ensure funding is available for schools to access high-quality continued professional development for oracy which can be used to share training and resources across schools, and extend the remit of English hubs beyond Year 1 with oracy as a key support area.

21st July 2021