Improving opportunity Extending the flexibility of provision and its availability in the community will improve access to basic skills learning. BSA and The National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE) have been asked to take forward a £4 million project to support community based organisations in the development and delivery of high quality basic skills programmes and to set up a number of local pilots. The Government is also extending provision for Family Literacy and Family Numeracy (by £1 million) to £7 million next year. This will help to raise standards of language, literacy and numeracy amongst underachieving parents and their children. Access to information and digital technology is another crucial factor in extending assessment and learning opportunities: the 700 new ICT learning centres the Government has already announced for disadvantaged communities, and the University for Industry's (UfI) learning centre network will widen access considerably. Many adults with poor basic skills are in work. We want to make it easier for them to learn basic skills at a time, in a place and in a way which suits them and their employer. We will provide an additional £3 million between November 1999 and April 2001 for the development of new ways of supporting basic skills learning in the workplace. Priority will be given to proposals which involve partnerships between business, NTOs and/or trade unions and which will particularly benefit employees in small and medium sized firms. Over the same period the Union Learning Fund will be boosted by £1.5 million for basic skills developments. Other improvements to workplace provision include: Support for the expansion of the Workplace Basic Skills Training Network, providing training for basic skills teachers in colleges specifically to address the business needs of employers. The BSA have established a workplace pilot in West London. Its aims are to develop models of workplace programmes and explore the use of former business people as brokers between business and providers. UfI are working with BSA to produce workplace based learning materials for introduction by Autumn 2000. We will ensure that unemployed people get the help they need. Currently, systematic screening and intensive programmes of help in basic skills are available within the New Deal 18-24. We will introduce systematic screening for those aged over 25 who have been unemployed for 6 months, to help us identify those who would benefit from the basic skills support currently available. We will also pilot new arrangements for carrying out diagnostic assessments and new programmes tailored to the needs of individual clients. These pilots will help inform decisions about future provision for this group. Two working groups have been set up to consider the basic skills needs of adults with learning difficulties or disabilities and of speakers of other languages. The two groups are due to report early next year. "As part of its mission QCA aims to support lifelong learning and raise national standards. In these circumstances we were pleased to give evidence to Sir Claus Moser’s Working Group on Adult Basic Skills and welcomed their report, ‘A Fresh Start – Improving Literacy and Numeracy’. Equally, we were pleased to be asked by the Minister of State, Baroness Blackstone, to take the lead on developing national standards for literacy and numeracy for adults. We agree with Sir Claus that these standards will provide the necessary foundation on which other aspects of the national strategy can be built. QCA looks forward to making further contributions to improving the opportunities available to adult learners through work on the curriculum, national tests and qualifications.” Nick Tate Chief Executive, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

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