Skills for life planner

Patricia Langley, professional adviser for support staff, is responsible for promoting skills for life programmes for support staff within Hampshire council. The authority area is large and diverse, with approximately 8,000 support staff working in over 500 schools in areas of high affluence, rural communities and pockets of social deprivation. Patricia develops the termly communication brief. She believes it is vital to include a named contact in order to overcome learners’ anxiety about making the initial contact. The brief is emailed to school leaders, continuing professional development (CPD) co-ordinators and support staff directly, using a distribution list of volunteer support staff contacts.

Initially, the council targeted teaching assistants who needed to gain level 2 mathematics and English qualifications in order to achieve higher level teaching assistant (HLTA) status. The scope of the initiative has now been widened to include site managers, caretakers, cleaners and catering staff. Patricia has promoted skills for life development opportunities within the local authority’s caretaking support service, which provides job-related training and advice on caretaking and cleaning in schools. Officers within the service can now promote skills for life development opportunities to staff directly when visiting schools. Patricia has also supplied HC3S, the company responsible for the majority of school catering in the area, with skills for life promotional information.

She has also set up a skills for life planning group comprising training providers from participating colleges and learndirect. The group meets once a term to share good practice and discuss what training providers can do for Hampshire local authority. The group can also provide Patricia with feedback on the number of learners attending skills for life programmes and achieving national qualifications; information she can then use to plan and promote programmes. For example, if a training provider is experiencing low take-up, Patricia can promote its provision to local schools.

By December 2005, nearly 250 support staff had accessed skills for life programmes. Of these, 80 have gained a level 2 in literacy and 86 a level 2 in numeracy. The rest are currently working towards these qualifications and learner numbers are increasing all the time.

Helen, a teaching assistant, was one of the first people to make use of the skills for life service in April 2005. “Maths!  A small word yet it could fill me with such fear. I struggled with it at school life - I just couldn't grasp what the teachers were saying. It was a foreign language. I began to hate it and would switch off when the subject came up. Then I started working as a teaching assistant in a primary school and I could no longer hide from it. It soon became clear that, if I wanted to work with the children in a positive way, I needed to do something about my fear.”

Helen, along with a colleague who also wanted to brush up her numeracy skills, joined an evening class run by a local FE college. Although apprehensive at first, Helen is thoroughly enjoying the course. “There are seven of us in the class so there are plenty of opportunities to ask questions about anything we are unsure of. The tutor is very patient and will explain things as many times as is necessary. The other people in the class are great. We all enjoy going and have lots of fun learning. It has been so refreshing to learn aspects of maths that I thought I was incapable of doing. Maths is no longer scary: it’s a fascinating subject that I really enjoy now. I wish I had done it sooner.”

Helen can also see the benefits at work. “I can see the different ways in which the children learn and adapt my work to suit their needs. I am developing new skills and gaining confidence every week, and I can pass that on to the children.”