3B:What is 'success' in meeting the needs and interests of learners?

A college with a longstanding and very successful partnership with the local LEA has worked with it to develop a highly effective family literacy scheme. The parents and children work independently but they also work together and parents in particular are very interested in the ways that their children are developing through the scheme. Teachers have therefore developed a joint ILP that belongs to the family rather than to the individual child or adult. This recognises the ways that families will work together to support individual progress. Parents are very pleased to be closely involved with the improvements made by their children. The teaching team has also found the adults to be increasingly ambitious for their own learning. They are happy, for example, to make reading books with their children but they want to settle down to serious study when they’re on their own.

People in the Travellers’ community can be particularly hard to reach. One college has linked up with its local Sure Start team and drives up to the caravan park in a double-decker bus to offer learning alongside play facilities. Skills for Life learning has to fit with personal aspirations. There is a tradition of casual, seasonal work that doesn’t demand literacy and numeracy skills. Many young men are happy to continue to work in this way so the team hooked many of them into learning through their need to pass the driving theory test.

In a different context, many inmates embark on learning while in prison but don’t continue on release. One inner-city probation service worked with the local college to make sure learners could pick up where they left off and continue to progress. Although distance and travel were not a problem, they found these learners were very reluctant to study in the college itself. They didn’t feel ready to take that step. The college simply moved the learning into the probation office where everyone felt much more comfortable. Some of the learners now spend some time in the college itself but still work with the original group.

In a third case, a Community Learning Programme was developed in conjunction with the Youth Service and targeted at vulnerable and disaffected young people not in education, training or employment. Most have disrupted schooling and would not go near a mainstream course. Literacy and numeracy skills are embedded in personal development activities and delivered in a local pub.

Volunteer schemes offer real opportunities for Skills for Life learners to apply and build their developing skills, as in the following examples.

Dimitri is a 17-year-old ESOL learner originally from Kosova. He has achieved his Millennium Volunteer award through 200+ hours of working with the Police Community Liaison team.

Sandra is an 18-year-old learner who is improving her literacy, numeracy and language skills on a Level 1 vocational programme. Through the Millennium Volunteer programme, she helps pupils at her local primary school with their reading. She has received a day’s training with a local organisation called Reading Together.

Shazia is a 21-year-old learner who has dyslexia. She is studying on a discrete literacy, numeracy and language skills course at her local college. Recently, Shazia volunteered to help in a local school for children with special needs.

Construction sites in London are employing an increasing number of workers from Eastern Europe. The poor language skills of these workers are a risk to health and safety and are certainly a barrier to promotion. One college’s Trade Union Studies Centre is working with unions and construction companies to provide ESOL course activities that focus on reading and writing for health and safety purposes and on speaking and listening for workplace interaction. An important part of the workplace interaction element is about tackling racism and this has been built into the course.

Employers are not the only potential partners for colleges setting up workplace programmes for literacy, numeracy and ESOL, as the following example shows.

The Union Learning Fund provides government money to support workplace learning. Union Learning Representatives advise and encourage their colleagues to take up learning opportunities. One Trade Union Studies Centre based at a college works with Union Learning Representatives from the Civil Service union, PCS. The Baseline course was developed in partnership with the PCS for cleaners and security staff at the Natural History Museum. It uses form-filling and simple report-writing tasks that are actually required of workers at the museum to develop their literacy skills. Laptops are provided and learners also use some of the learndirect literacy modules. Learners find that their studies are highly relevant and that they help them with day-to-day tasks.

One college has appointed three Skills for Life Workforce Development Co-ordinators to work alongside their established employer training wing. These are people who come from a customer service or project management background rather than teaching. They bring a range of partnership-building and liaison skills and are able to open doors and make the first ‘pitch’. They work closely with Skills for Life specialists and are trained to help employers understand their workforce Skills for Life needs and all the ways that businesses and employees can benefit from training. The college offers tailored training and ready-made programmes from help with stocktaking to preparation for NVQ. Almost one-third of the Skills for Life offer is now delivered on employer premises.

Another college has recently appointed a workplace Basic Skills Manager. This new postholder will take on an existing portfolio of employer-based work. Much of this is working with very small employers in fast-changing and sometimes vulnerable employment sectors. The college has found a high level of Skills for Life needs in the companies it partners through the Employer Training Pilots. It recognises that this is an important growth area and feels it is investing for the future.