Essential Skills Awareness
Job Centre Plus Advisers
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Learning outcomes
• To understand what is meant by ‘essential
skills’ and what level of ability this means
• To be aware of the scale of need, nationally
• To be aware of the impact of poor essential
skills on the individual
• To consider your role in supporting essential
skills development, including screening and
referral
• To consider ways in which you can positively
‘sell’ basic skills development to clients
essential skills professional development and resource centre
What are ‘essential skills’?
• ‘The ability to read, write and speak in
English and to use mathematics at a
level necessary to function and
progress at work and in society in
general. In other words, essential skills
are: reading, writing, speaking and
listening and number.’
• IT became a ‘basic skill’ in 2003
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Skills for Life Strategy
•Strategy launched in 2001 to address the issues
discovered in the national survey
•7 billion spent by Government so far
•‘Gremlins’ campaign has been one of
the key strategies in getting adults to
consider any skills gaps they might have.
essential skills professional development and resource centre
The levels
Key skills/NVQ
Level 5
National Curr
Essential skills
Level 4
Level 3
GCSE (A-C)
Level 2
Level 2
NC Level 4/5
Level 1
Level 1
NC Level 3
Entry 3
NC Level 2
Entry 2
NC Level 1
Entry 1
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Very low skills – entry1/2
BOB DYLAN
Appearing at the
BIRMINGHAM
NEC
on
29TH November 2003
at 7.30 pm
Tickets:
90p
75p
How much change from
£2.00?
£35.00 £40.00. £50
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Low skills – entry 3/level 1
SALE
ONE THIRD
OFF SUITS
For children over 12
and adults take two
5 ml doses three
times a day.
10% OFF
JACKETS
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Level 2 numeracy skills
The sandpit is round with a radius of 1.5m and a depth of 0.2m.
What is the volume of sand needed to fill the sandpit?
a)
b)
c)
d)
0.18m3
1.35m3
1.80m3
6.75m3
Question from the Level 2 National Test
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Functional
literacy and numeracy
What literacy and or numeracy
skills did you use from getting
up this morning to arriving at
work?
essential skills professional development and resource centre
The role of Job Centre Plus
• Screening of all clients
• Foundation Employability (Entry 1-2) and
Employability Skills Programme (Entry 3Level 2)
• Basic Skills training through New Deal (1824)
• Referral to relevant training providers
essential skills professional development and resource centre
What can you do?
• You play a crucial role as a ‘frontline worker’
in engaging adults who may have difficulties
with literacy, language and numeracy.
• You could make all the difference, in terms of
encouraging them to talk about their skills
and thinking about what might be the right
path for them.
• Advisers are in different job roles with
different clients – so the approach may vary.
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Adviser roles
How do the clients differ in terms of their
background, abilities and priorities, in your
particular adviser area? What might be their
barriers to learning? And their strengths or
motivations?
•
•
•
•
•
New Deal
New Claimants
Lone Parents
Restart
Incapacity Benefit and Disability
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Screening informally:
spotting the signs
• Avoidance strategies
• Asking a friend
• Getting aggressive or frustrated when
asked about skills
• Arriving late or missing appointments
• Being unsure about time
• Difficulty filling in forms
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Bringing up the subject
• Treat essential skills just like any other
training need, in a matter of fact way
• Don’t use the words ‘basic skills’
• Talk about ‘improving skills’ rather than
‘problems’
“These other
JCPlus
customers have
had success…”
“It’s your right
to learn and not
your fault you
need to develop
your skills…”
“Adult
programmes are
different from
school…”
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Turn negative comments
around
“Basic Skills
sounds
really
babyish!”
“Assessment?
Sounds like a
test to me…I’m
not doing that!
“My English
is too bad –
they
couldn’t help
me!”
What else might a client say?
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Useful websites
• Read Write Plus – Skills for Life
www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus
• Skills for Life Improvement Programme
www.sflip.org.uk
• National Research Development Centre
www.nrdc.org.uk
• National Skills for Life Survey 2003
www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/0405/040520.pdf
essential skills professional development and resource centre
Essential Skills Professional
Development and Resource
Centre
www.warwick.ac.uk/go/esc
S.Hattersley@warwick.ac.uk
essential skills professional development and resource centre