5 Workplace initiatives
[A] third of all employers are still not offering
any form of training to any of their staff and 38% of employees
say that they received no training over the past 12 months.
[Trade Union Congress][78]
Unionlearn
49. According to Ofsted, employers are still struggling
to find staff with appropriate literacy and numeracy. It highlighted
the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES):
The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES)
2013 Employer Skills Survey, that surveyed over 90,000 employers,
reported that there appears to have been an increased difficulty
finding applicants with appropriate oral and written communication,
literacy and numeracy skills. These core generic skills were all
cited as lacking by greater proportions of employers reporting
skill-shortage vacancies than in the previous survey of 2011.[79]
The TUC also highlighted the 2013 Employer Skills
Survey:
[A] third of all employers are still not offering
any form of training to any of their staff and 38% of employees
say that they received no training over the past 12 months.[80]
Our evidence also highlighted the fact that many
working adults have a lack of literacy and numeracy skills, which
is holding them back, or putting their jobs at risk. The Workers'
Educational Association highlighted this worrying position for
many employees:
Many adults requiring these skills are in employment,
often of a precarious, short term and/or part-time nature. The
co-operation of employers is essential; government should take
the lead in developing (directly or indirectly) strong links between
industry/sector bodies and employers to ensure their needs are
well-understood and embedded in English and maths provision as
well as encouraging Community Learning involvement in LEPs and
similar planning bodies.[81]
50. One organisation that helps both employees and
employers in accessing greater skills is Unionlearn, the learning
and skills arm of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) which supports
a union learning model that has "drawn praise and respect
from all quarters".[82]
Tom Wilson, the Director of Unionlearn, described to us
their work, in relation to adult literacy and numeracy, specifically
in relation to peer-to-peer coaching:
Our union learning reps, of whom we now have
30,000 trained up and down the country, do exactly this kind of
peer-to-peer, 'If we can do it, you can do it'. They are workers
too, so it is dinner ladies teaching other dinner ladies, train
drivers teaching other train drivers, and prison officers teaching
other prison officers—and prisoners too, by the way. That
model of peer-group learning is fantastically successful and very
cost-effective. We have trained, I would guess, around 1.2 million
learners over the last 10 years—probably more; that is a
conservative estimate—at an average cost of £97 per
learner, which is less than 5% of the cost of the typical FE student.
I am not claiming that we do everything; a lot of our learners
will go on to do FE, but is a massive cost-effective programme
that is training over 1 million people. You can ask the question,
'How do we train the next million?' We can do that in five years—much
quicker—and probably at slightly less cost, but not a great
deal less.[83]
He went on to pay tribute to the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills, for the support that the Department has
given to Unionlearn:
Around half of all the learning that unions do
is funded by the taxpayer through BIS; the other half is funded
by unions themselves. The half that is funded by the unions is
growing, because the whole operation is growing. It is enormous.
Around 15% to 20% of everything unions do is now about learning.
That is the way in which they can help their members to get on
at work. A great deal of that is about workers who would otherwise
never get off the churning around of moving in and out of low-paid
jobs, which is bad for them, bad for the economy and bad for their
employers.[84]
While Matthew Hancock MP told us that he worked closely
with Unionlearn because it is able to reach people who cannot
be reached as easily in other ways,[85]
the Government has recently cut its funding for Unionlearn. Tom
Wilson explained the effect of this reduction:
Our funding has been cut by about £2.5 million
so far this year; it could be more. That will directly result
in thousands fewer learners in the workplace than would otherwise
have been the case. I entirely understand the pressures on the
public purse, but I would just like to take this opportunity to
put on record the fact that we do think it is a real mistake.[86]
51. The Government is cutting £2.5 million
from Unionlearn's budget, even though the Minister himself acknowledged
the impressive work that the organisation does in adult skills
training. This is short-sighted financial gain, which goes against
the many positive interventions by the Government. It also sends
out the wrong signal about the Government's commitment to adult
learning. At a cost of under £100 per learner, and bringing
in an extra £4 to £6 additional employer funding for
every £1 of Government funding, Unionlearn is a cost-effective
way of reaching large numbers of learners with the most acute
English and maths needs. This is an area of high impact, which
offers value for money, so we urge the Government to reverse its
decision to cut Unionlearn's funding.
The Army
52. In 2013, around 38% of trainees joining the Army
were assessed with literacy skills below Level 1, and around 38.5%
has numeracy skills below Level 1:
The Army, ALE46
Brigadier Gary Morris, the Army's Director of Educational
Capability, told us of the flexible approach to English and maths
learning that the Army takes. When asked whether specialist teaching
or informal teaching works better, he replied:
We use the whole spectrum and that has got to
be the way forward. At one end, we do have some specialists and
we do target them at the guys who are struggling at the lowest
levels who might need a one-to-one and a particular programme
developed. Around that, we wrap soldiers supporting other soldiers.
They may have gone through the same learning themselves and they
are great instructors who have learnt quite recently, as adults,
how to get through this. We are supporting that with more generalist
teaching staff. We take every opportunity to build into them specialist
support where they need it, and a lot of them can get through
without that one-to-one support. There is a spectrum, though,
that does need that sort of support. In terms of what the Government
can do, it is recognising that we need to be flexible in how we
support those people, as opposed to presuming how we might get
to that end-point because some of them take a lot longer than
others.[87]
53. The Army uses Ministry of Defence in-house provision
(delivered by Army specialists), publicly-funded external provision
through FE colleges, and other providers, such as those that deliver
its Apprenticeship schemes. The Army's written evidence described
the funding arrangements:
Central Skills Funding Agency-Army funding arrangements,
enable the Army to organise contracted external literacy and numeracy
provision. This gives the Army greater 'employer ownership' with
the ability to source provision to meet Army requirements more
closely.[88]
The end results for the Army are impressive, with
the vast majority undertaking support programmes:
It is estimated that around 80% of Army literacy
and numeracy learners undergo intensive provision. The model has
been successful in delivering qualifications at Level 1 and Level
2. 10,703 Functional Skills (FS) English or Maths awards were
achieved through the Army Apprenticeships route during 2012-13.
Standalone provision for Level 1 and Level 2 has consistently
delivered annual pass rates above 87% over the last four academic
years. In 2012-13, this delivered a further 3,879 qualifications.[89]
Gary Morris told us that the Army runs the biggest
Apprenticeship programme in the country, with over 40 schemes,
and he said:
It is a really practical way of getting adults
to learn literacy and numeracy because it is embedded in the workplace.
It is making them practically apply what they are doing. That
is the key; it makes it tangible and real to them, so whether
they are an infantry man, a signaller or a gunner, they have to
apply what they are learning in those subjects to real-life problems
which can be contextualised for their workplace.[90]
54. The Army's provision of literacy and numeracy
is to be highly commended, and it has a good record of delivery.
Although their military training might not always translate into
other organisations, their approach to adult literacy and numeracy,
embedded within functional skills, and contextualised to make
it relevant to the learners' lives, has been shown to be extremely
successful, with tangible benefits for Army personnel. The Government
should acknowledge the fact that a significant part of this success
is the fact that the Army delivers training under Central Skills
Funding Agency-Army funding arrangements, which means that the
Army can organise its own contracted external literacy and numeracy
provision. We recommend that the Government study the Army's methods,
and promotes examples of best practice in other Government-funded
initiatives.
78 TUC (ALE 41) para 4.3 Back
79
Ofsted (ALE 34)
extract Back
80
TUC (ALE 41) para 4.3 Back
81
WEA (ALE 22) para 6.8 Back
82
TUC (ALE 41) para 1.6 Back
83
Q42 Back
84
Q42 Back
85
Q200 Back
86
Q54 Back
87
Q107 Back
88
The Army (ALE 46) para 16 Back
89
The Army (ALE 46) para 17 Back
90
Q127 Back
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