Written evidence submitted by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) (ALE0033)

1. The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is an independent non-governmental organisation and charity. Its corporate and individual members come from a range of places where adults learn: in further education colleges and universities, workplaces, local community settings, prisons and in their own homes via ICT. NIACE exists to support all adults to have opportunities to participate in learning throughout their lives. NIACE is particularly focused on advancing the interests of those who have benefited least from their initial education and training. The remit of NIACE covers England and Wales and a separate submission will cover basic skills in Wales.

2. In 2011, NIACE published the recommendations of separate commissions of inquiry it had established on adult numeracy (chaired by Dame Mary Marsh)[1] and literacy (chaired by Lord Boswell)[2]. These are commended to the committee.

“We have a numeracy problem in this country – we are a nation quite happy to admit to ‘being bad at maths’; we see people almost wearing it as a badge of honour, in a way they would never admit to saying they couldn’t read or write... Our Inquiry began from the premise that having adequate numeracy skills is a fundamental human right. This includes being able to make independent decisions on the basis of understanding about many aspects of life such as personal finance. Dame Mary Marsh DBE

Our basic message is that we need to keep up our national investment in adult literacy, not just for economic reasons, but because in today’s world no-one can function fully without good communication skills. We should all be concerned that such exclusion contributes to personal misery and civil dysfunction. The causes are complex and so must be the remedies, requiring attention to pedagogy, a holistic approach to family literacy, and challenge initiatives to tap into the creativeness of society as a whole, while of course maintaining our existing effort through colleges and at the workplace. Lord Boswell of Aynho

International comparisons

3. The publication of two reports from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2013 renewed concerns about literacy and numeracy levels in the United Kingdom. The first-ever Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) in which England and Northern Ireland participated (but not Scotland or Wales), sought to compare the proficiency of adults aged 16 – 65 in literacy (the ability to understand and respond appropriately to written texts but not writing, speaking or listening); numeracy (the ability to use numerical and mathematical concepts) and problem-solving in technology-rich environments. The survey involved more than 166,000 adults in 23 countries and sub-national regions.

4. Also reporting last year was the fifth round of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA 2012 assessed the competencies of 510,000 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science (with a focus on mathematics) in 34 countries (including all parts of the UK) and sub-national regions

5. The PISA survey (15 year-olds) showed that the United Kingdom performs around the average in mathematics and reading and above average in science, compared to others.  When compared with earlier rounds of the survey (in 2006 and 2009), there has been no change in performance in any of the subjects tested. The UK was listed 26th in mathematics performance, but because results are based on a sample, its relative position could be between 23rd and 31st. In terms of reading, it had climbed from 25th to 23rd place between 2009 and 2012.

6. In terms of PIAAC (adult skills), the survey headlines noted that although England and Northern Ireland have been more effective in utilising its most highly skilled adults than many other countries participating in the survey, that there are particularly high proportions of adults in England and Northern Ireland with poor numeracy skills. In addition, there was a strong and positive association between higher literacy proficiency and social outcomes in England and Northern Ireland where parents’ educational attainment has a stronger than average impact on adults’ proficiency in both literacy and numeracy even after taking account of factors such as age, gender and type of occupation. Overall, England ranked 15th in literacy and 17th in numeracy levels of those surveyed.

7. Around 16 per cent of adults aged 16 – 65 scored at level 1 (the lowest PIAAC level) or below in literacy (extrapolated this would mean 5.8 million in total). Some 24 per cent of those sampled scored at Level 1 or below in numeracy (higher than the transnational average of 19 per cent and equating to around 8.5 million adults.  A uniquely distinctive feature of England and Northern Ireland was that people aged 16 – 24 scored lower than those aged 55 – 65.

8. Overall, the United Kingdom has a higher GDP and spends more on education than the average in OECD countries, as well as having higher levels of tertiary education and a lower share of the most socio-economically deprived groups.

9. While the two OECD surveys are a rich source of data, NIACE urges the Committee not to read too much into some of the headlines. In particular the differences of attainment within countries are probably more significant than those between countries – and in England and Northern Ireland, the gap between the most and least proficient adults is larger than in most countries. In addition the results are undoubtedly shaped by the methodology used and may have an element of cultural specificity.

10. NIACE believes that the key lesson from the surveys is that a significant number of young people in the UK complete eleven years of initial compulsory schooling without achieving the levels of literacy and/or numeracy that will enable them to succeed in a complex modern society. Higher levels of inequality in literacy and numeracy skills are associated with greater inequality in the distribution of income and the consequences of this go beyond the labour market and affect other aspects of well-being. In all countries there is a correlation between those with weak literacy and numeracy and those reporting poor health and less engagement with civil society (as indicated by involvement in volunteering, level of belief in the effectiveness of the political process and levels of trust in others).

Data in England

11. The primary source of current information about literacy and numeracy in England is the 2011 Skills for Life Survey, commissioned and published by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. This was designed to maintain comparability with an earlier survey (the National Baseline Survey of Adult Basic Skills) produced by the then-Department for Education and Skills and reporting in 2003. This survey was based upon a sample of 7,230 interviews and 6,049 assessments of skills of adults aged 16 – 65. In addition to literacy and numeracy, these surveys also cover ICT skills.

12. The survey found:

• 57 per cent of respondents achieved a Level 2 (equivalent to GCSE grades A* - C) or above in literacy, a rise of 13 percentage points since the 2003 survey (when it was 44 per cent);
• Fifteen per cent of respondents achieved Entry Level 3 (to the national school curriculum equivalent for expected attainment at age 9 – 11) or below in literacy (an estimated 5.1 million adults aged 16-65);
• Only 22 per cent of respondents achieved a Level 2 or above in numeracy, a decline of 4 percentage points since the 2003 survey (when it was 26 per cent);
• Almost half (49 per cent) of respondents achieved Entry Level 3 or below in numeracy (an estimated 16.8 million adults aged 16-65);
• Almost one quarter (24 per cent) of respondents achieved Entry Level2 or below in numeracy (an estimated 8.1 million adults aged 16-65).

What is the Government doing to help adults improve their reading, writing and maths skills?

13. In England, during the academic year 2012/13:

• a total of 1,049,600 adults participated in government-funded English or maths provision (a fall of 3.1 per cent from the previous year);
• 765,800 adults participated in English provision (a fall of 2.1 per cent from the previous year);
• 748,200 adults participated in maths provision, (a fall of 3.1 per cent from the previous year)[3].

14. A UK Commission for Employment and Skills survey[4] in January 2014 noted that there has been an increase in the proportion of skill-shortage vacancies reported resulting from a lack of communication skills (e.g. oral communication – 41%, up from 37% in 2011), and basic skills (literacy skills – 34% up from 28% in 2011, numeracy skills – 26%, up from 24%).

15. While the total cost of provision for the 2012/13 year is not yet available, during 2011/12 the Skills Funding Agency spent £370m on English and maths provision (£190m on English and £180m on maths), This covered discrete provision, functional skills within apprenticeships and activity embedded in Community Learning and Foundation Learning. In 2008 the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee estimated that the total public investment in post-16 literacy, language and numeracy during the period 2001 – 2011 would be in the order of £9 billion[5].  The majority of this going to achieve Level 1 and 2 qualifications rather than Entry Level qualifications.

16. Current funding levels maintain a principle established with the introduction of the Skills for Life strategy in 2001[6] and maintained by successive governments, despite financial austerity, that adult literacy and numeracy provision below Level 2 should be free to learners and locally accessible. NIACE supports this principle absolutely. Whether the amount of funding is sufficient to tackle what is such a signfificant, deep-seated problem is more questionable. It is understandable that the instinct of governments will be to prioritise investment in schools but doing so should not be at the expense of millions of adults who have been failed by the school system in the past.
17. The most recent changes to policy and practice were set out by Government in the December 2011 paper New Challenges, New Chances.[7] They included:

1. ending the funding uplift for literacy (a premium intended to incentivise providers to offer certain types of provision) while retaining (at a rate of 1.4 x the unit of resource) for Entry Level numeracy;
2. piloting how providers might be funded on the ‘distance travelled’ by learners rather than the attainment of qualifications (in order to overcome provider’s understandable behaviour in prioritising learners from who they can get quick successes rather than those furthest from success);
3. fully funding GCSE English and Maths qualifications from September 2012;
4. recognising the differential learning patterns of adults by enabling Awarding Organisations to create standalone units that provide the rigour and flexibility to support progression (including to GCSE);
5. requiring apprenticeship providers to support progression to Level 2 English and Maths through Functional Skills or GCSE qualifications;
6. embedding screening by Jobcentre Plus advisers of the English and Maths needs of benefit claimants;
7. further commitments to  assessing and meeting the literacy and numeracy needs of offenders.

18. NIACE welcomed many of these measures but noted at the time:

“While GCSE-level standards may be desirable for those under the age of 19, the GCSE curriculum is NOT the most appropriate one for adult learners. A GCSE in English is not a literacy qualification, so those adults who completed their initial education with weak levels of literacy need something more appropriate. Similarly, the GCSE mathematics curriculum is absolutely not a proxy for the numeracy skills required by most adults and those who require them to be numerate in the workplace.”[8]

19. While appreciating the Government’s commitment to using GCSE as a benchmark qualification, NIACE is unconvinced that the curricula are ones which will motivate the full range of adult learners to participate. For many adults with low levels of literacy or numeracy, GCSE (or CSE/O-level) is too often associated with failure and negative experience of school. What is more important is that literacy and/or numeracy are embedded into the teaching of other vocational skills which the learner believes will enhance their employability or job security and are made relevant to the learner through context and motivation.  While GSCE may play a part in sifting young labour market entrants, some employers are sceptical that good GCSEs in English and maths really do provide the functional literacy and numeracy skills needed in the workplace. Furthermore, for adult job applicants, experience may be more significant than qualifications. Rather than risking an overfocus on a particular qualification, the important thing is to give learners the confidence and motivation to address the weaknesses that hold them back and this may be better achieved by allowing them to accumulate credit more gradually for modest increments of achievement.

20. Finding an effective approach to literacy and numeracy screening of benefit claimants has proved challenging for Jobcentre Plus. NIACE recently met with BIS and DWP officials to explore new and more effective approaches. NIACE’s own BIS-commissioned report into Helpful approaches to the delivery of English and maths provision for unemployed adults (2013) reported that in many areas providers and Job Centres work together, often in creative ways, to ensure that benefit claimants with literacy and numeracy needs get the support they need. There is however a need for the Skills Funding Agency to scope the size of need and potential demand for English and maths skills provision from JCP customers, Work Programme participants and others to identify whether this demand can be matched by current provider capacity and funding. The report also showed that despite skills conditionality arrangements, a large proportion of JCP referred job seekers do not attend their initial appointment with skills providers.

How can Government can make sure that adults have the right skills which can help them find a job, which in turn will help the country, and more widely?

21. Learner motivation is central to the task of raising adult literacy and numeracy levels and public policy should acknowledge that ‘one size fits all’ approaches will be of limited effectiveness. This is apparent in the differing social attitudes towards literacy and numeracy weaknesses. The former may often be kept private, with learners using sophisticated strategies to conceal the extent of their difficulties. There is however relatively little stigma attached to admitting to poor levels of numeracy.

22. Motivation to learn can be sparked by different drivers at different points in the lifecourse. While qualifications may motivate some, particularly in early working life, employability or progression in employment will motivate others – as will the experience of parenthood. For many adults the desire to better support their children is a powerful prompt to raising their own levels of literacy or numeracy. For this reason NIACE strongly advocates family learning activities which involve children and adults learning together with adults developing their own skills as well as their children’s learning. Family learning offers a realistic hope of breaking the transmission cycle of disadvantage between generations and further recommendations are given in the NIACE report Family Learning Works (2013), a report of a commissionchaired by Baroness Howarth of Breckland[9]. At present responsibility for family learning falls between the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education leading to a lack of synergy in government which can frustrate the desire of  adult teachers, school teachers and the staff of childrens’ centres and Surestart centres to work together.

23. For adults in work or seeking work, employer support is another powerful motivational force to improve literacy and numeracy skills. The Armed Forces Basic Skills Longitudinal Study[10] shows the success of the Army in developing the skills of recruits with relatively low levels of educational attainment. The key to this lies in demonstrating the relevance of the learning to performance in the work-role. Other large employers including the Ford Motor Company, have also invested successfully in raising the literacy and numeracy skills of their workforce – and Union Learning Reps and Community Learning Champions play a significant role in offering peer support to encourage their colleagues to take up opportunities. There are, however fewer examples of innovative practice among smaller employers and one of the challenges of Traineeships and work placements is to demonstrate the application of literacy and numeracy in work roles to people who have not seen the value in improving their skills. And for employers, the certification of learning is of lesser interest than it is to providers of learning or Government.

24. A further priority for Government lies in supporting the learning of marginalised, excluded and disadvantaged groups. Examples would include provision for offenders (who have disproportionately low levels of basic skills) and for homeless people, exemplified by a project supported through the Skills Funding Agency’s Community Learning Innovation Fund and run by the St Mungo’s charity which offers an embedded education programme within three hostels in South London.

25. No less important than reaching excluded groups is maintaining local accessibility and diversity of provision. Given the ‘freedoms and flexibilities’ that have been introduced by Government it is not clear where responsibility lies for ensuring that wide access toliteracy and numeracy provision is secured in any given locality. Should existing providers decide to re-orientate their offer or cease provision there appears be a risk that areas could be left without accessible provision.

What are the best ways to help adults learn how to read, write and do maths—through formal education providers or in a different way?

26. Teacher training and supply are of critical importance in helping more adults to read, write and do maths. The announcement, on February 5th 2014, that up to £20m will be made available to encourage maths teachers into further education colleges indicates that this is recognised by Government. There is however, a concern that this is prompted only by the need to have teachers available to support young people re-taking GCSE maths rather than including the development of teachers for adult numeracy in community-based settings. In addition to initial training, there is of course a need for the continuing professional development of literacy and numeracy teachers.

27. While believing that qualified teachers represent the most effective way to raise levels of literacy and numeracy, not all provision has to be delivered in college classrooms. Adults returning to learning and with poor experiences of school often find community-based provision less intimidating when taking their first steps. In addition there is room in literacy and numeracy provision for trained volunteers to assist learning. Peer support in the form of union learning representatives and community learning champions is also effective in helping reduce perceived barriers to access.

28. New technologies have considerable potential to enhance teaching and learning in literacy and numeracy (indeed NIACE would argue that ICT is a basic skill in its own right). While blended learning, digital signposting and new Apps (such as NIACE’s own Maths Everywhere App[11]) will have a part to play in enhancing outreach, access and achievement, NIACE does not believe that they can replace or substitute for the face-to-face support offered by skilled teachers.

29. NIACE’s own work conceptualises literacy and numeracy as part of a Citizens’ or Life Skills Curriculum which also includes English for Speakers of Other Languages, digital, civic, health and financial capabilities. NIACE sees these as a set of inter-related capabilities and research evidence suggests that embedded approaches to literacy and numeracy teaching improve learning outcomes: learners have more positive attitudes to the value of basic skills learning and are more likely to gain a qualification (Casey et al., 2006). It also emphasises the impact that poor basic skills, in particular poor numeracy , can have on a whole range of personal, social and economic outcomes. The Esmee Fairburn Foundation is funding NIACE to develop such an approach through pilot projects and the auditing of provider curriculum delivery content against QCF and current pathways offered by Awarding Organisations to establish the feasibility of funding a broad-based Citizens’ Curriculum offer.

Conclusion

30. All adults need to be proficient in literacy and numeracy to play a full part in democratic society as well as a modern economy. UK governments have made a sustained, strategic and significantly-funded commitment over several parliaments to help adults who did not acquire these skills in their initial schooling. Depsite this the scale of the problem remains too large.  NIACE offers the following three recommendations for the future:

1. Maintain (and consider increasing) levels of public investment to support the adult entitlement while also increasing the effective use of existing resources through better join-up between the policies and programmes of departments of state (especially BIS, DWP and DfE);
2. Prioritise the extension of family learning initiatives involving literacy and/or numeracy, with the aim of making them an integral part of school strategies to raise children’s attainment ;
3. Incentivize employers to invest in raising the literacy and numeracy of their employees, apprentices and trainees in order to increase productivity and competitiveness.

31. NIACE remains ready to assist the Committee in its Inquiry.

Alastair Thomsom

Principal Advocacy Officer

National Institute of Adult Continuing Education

6 February 2014