Basic Skills Strategy - Skills for Life Workshop by Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit. Any strategy aimed at improving skill levels in disadvantaged areas of the UK must have the improvement in basic skills at the top of the agenda. The creation of the Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit (ABSSU), with a leading role across all Government Departments, establishes a more determined focus on solving this problem. Funding and Planning The short term target is to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of 750, 000 people by 2004;the long term aim is to match the best of other countries and ultimately, to eradicate the problem altogether. To provide the means of achieving these aims, funding has now been increased significantly, from £241million per year to over £400 million per year by 2003/04. Including resources from other Government Departments and the Employment Service, over £1.5 billion is available over three years (2001/02 - 2003/04) to address basic skills needs. This is a challenging task:over 2 million learning places need to be created over the next three years, and there will have to be a major publicity campaign to boost demand. Partners The partners in this endeavour include: Government Departments Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit Learning and Skills Council Local Authorities, Employment Service, learndirect, voluntary and private trainers Partnerships including Learning Partnerships, RDAs, employers, unions Basic Skills Agency, NIACE, ALI, LSDA. Roles and Responsibilities Different agencies have different but very important roles to play in the campaign. The LSC’s tasks include: working in partnership - with Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit regional co-ordinators, with the Employment Service and other training providers planning and target setting funding ensuring flexible learning quality assurance/raising standards - monitoring the effectiveness of provision. The RDAs’ tasks include: ensuring literacy and numeracy are a priority in the region 's skills action plans and regional funding decisions. Learning Partnerships tasks include: helping to identify basic skills needs in their communities helping with local plans helping the LSC to set appropriate targets promoting the importance of basic skills in the community ensuring there is adequate information advice and guidance. The Trade Unions’ tasks include: promoting literacy and numeracy skills to their members offering advice, providing training programmes negotiating training time for employees. Feedback from workshop participants; direct quotes are in quotation marks and italics. Participants' views reflected concerns with exactly how things were to be done. They thought that an important tactic in winning the support of the public and Government alike was to go for quick wins to show early success. Small, voluntary and community organisations Much good work in basic skills is done by small and voluntary organisations working in communities. There were concerns that these organisations might not receive fair and adequate funding. ‘How can we ensure that small organisations who have knowledge and access to potential learners get funding?’ Another concern was that arrangements for including small and voluntary groups might be over-bureaucratic and too demanding administratively. One way of tackling this problem was for the ABSSU and its regional co-ordinators to work through consortia or umbrella groups such as Councils for Voluntary Service or Community Relations Councils. Funding and planning Funding for such small groups required understanding, participants felt. ‘Funding needs to be comprehensive, e.g. include travel costs.’ It was also thought that planning and funding arrangements should take a deeper view of flexibility and risk.‘Flexible learning means flexible funding.’ ‘Planning should include the idea that a risk culture is acceptable.’ It was emphasised that funding must be secure - ’Stop insecurity and constantly changing funds.’ - and transparent. Staffing There was a general recognition of the problems of staffing.‘We’re going to try yet again to hire some basic skills teachers,’ was one desperate comment. Part of the problem can be addressed through building up community capacity and infrastructure, but there can be no substitute for recruiting and training teachers.‘We need to develop high quality basic skills training to deliver this strategy.’ Motivating the clients Many participants raised the question of reaching and motivating the hard to reach. ‘How do we motivate and raise aspirations of potential learners to see the benefits of involvement?’ Small local organisations were seen as likely to have a way to reach potential learners’ peer groups and families. Learning must be tuned to the needs of individuals, for many of whom the prime need is to be sustainably employed. ‘We must offer relevant and meaningful learning to enable people to be employable.’

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