Skills for life planner

“The first step is to engage employers in addressing skills for life across their whole workforce,” explains Mark Adams, the council’s adult basic skills co-ordinator. Representatives from the council work with employer leadership teams to identify and analyse training needs.

“Employers often fail to appreciate the benefits of developing skills for life,” explains Mark, “which is why it’s important to explore people’s understanding. It’s not just about being able to read and write but includes other generic skills such as being able to listen and communicate effectively. When a manager realises that crucial tasks such as participating in meetings or reporting on health and safety issues require skills for life, they become a lot more engaged.”

Where possible, the council tries to embed skills for life in other programmes. For example, catering staff are given the opportunity to complete a level 1 literacy programme as part of their nutrition qualification. Training is delivered at a convenient location, making the best use of local venues. Recognising that it can be difficult to release a whole catering team for training at once, the council organises training in clusters, taking a few individuals from each organisation at any one time.

The council also offers a ‘Communication skills in the workplace’ programme for catering staff. The programme runs over a week during the school holidays. Before the most recent course, the training provider carried out an organisational needs analysis with the managers of the 14 attendees. This included shadowing a group of staff to experience their workplace at first hand. Learners were also interviewed before the course to find out their educational background, aims and barriers to learning. Computers were used as a medium for delivery and practice, although ICT was not the focus of the learning.

Julie, a cook at a secondary school, took part in the programme in 2005. Since then, she has taken evening classes in numeracy at levels 1 and 2. For her, skills for life has opened up new career opportunities. “I’ve been promoted at work, so I now have management responsibilities. Gaining a qualification in maths has made me feel more confident. I am better able to manage time sheets and can adjust recipes accurately in response to changing demands for school meals”. Julie now promotes skills for life numeracy qualifications to her colleagues.

June, an early morning cleaning assistant, has also benefited from the course. “The course has increased my confidence greatly. When I saw that there was a vacancy at the school for a charge-hand cleaner/lunchtime supervisor, I applied straight away and the school was keen for me to take on these roles. I also feel much more confident with the children that I work with. I feel I can relate to them more. I am very pleased with myself and so glad that I did the course.” 

The council has also worked with a local infant school and a local junior school to support 20 mid-day supervisors through a course entitled ‘Training in literacy and numeracy’. After engaging the headteachers and gaining their endorsement, most supervisors agreed to take part in the 30-hour course. Fifteen two-hour morning classroom sessions were delivered in the junior school’s ICT suite and a spare room in the infant school office. Five learners achieved national qualifications and others have progressed on to courses such as ICT and further skills for life courses.

An ongoing action plan has been developed to ensure that the council continues to successfully address adult skills for life across the borough workforce. The council has recently signed up to the new national Get On local government award.