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Home What is Rapal? RaPAL Journal Resources Publications Conferences & Events Management Group RaPAL Advocates Join RaPAL Contact	Resources Further Information This page offers you some facts and figures about ALNE in the UK, and directs you to a range of resources and agencies that you can contact for further information Resource Centers Journals Useful Contacts Skills for Life Policy in England Estimating the Extent of the Need for ABE Statistics on ABE Provision in England Resource Centres Adult Basic Skills Resource Centre c/o Young Help Trust 23-31 Waring Street Belfast BT1 2DX Phone: 01232 560120 Fax: 01232530016 E-mail: adultbasic@unite.co.uk Basic Skills Agency Resource Centre Institute of Education Library and Media Services 20 Bedford Way London WC1H OAL UK Access to all BSA publications and many other sources referred to in this chapter is provided by the agency's website: http://www.ioe.ac.uk:library/bsa.html. Journals Adults Learning Published by the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester LE1 7GE. Basic Skills Agency Newsletter Free from the Basic Skills Agency, ADMAIL 524, London WC1A 1BR, U.K. Language Issues National Association for Teaching English and Other Community Languages to Adults (NATECLA). Write for subscription rates to: NATECLA National Center, South Birmingham College, 520-524 Stratford Road, Birmingham B11 4AJ, U.K. Literacy Today £14 per year from National Literacy Trust, 59 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6AJ, U.K. Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) Journal Studies in the Education of Adults Published by the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester LE1 7GE. Useful Contacts For information on England and Wales: Basic Skills Agency (BSA) The BSA is the national agency for basic skills in England and Wales and is supported by the Government. This site contains information about the Agency, along with basic skills news and events and details of programmes on offer. http://www.basic-skills.co.uk/ Campaign for Learning (CfL) is a national charity. It was created to champion the causes of life long learning. Take a look at the site to find out more. http://www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk Department for Education and Skills National Strategy Unit The main source of information and advice on all aspects of the Skills for Life strategy. Website: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus/ The National Research and Development Centre (NRDC) is dedicated to conducting research into adult literacy, numeracy, ESOL and ICT. On this site you will find information on Web site: Research and development projects Research reports and reviews Latest e- newsletter Online discussion forums - Register to join in. Listings of news and events Practitioner research and other resources Web site: http://www.nrdc.org.uk National Reference Point for Skills for Life professional development (NRP) http://www.lluk.org/nrp/ Tthe NRP has been established to offer a specialist information and advice service to those interested in professional development opportunities related to literacy, numeracy and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). It is already an important source of information for existing teachers, learning support staff and those with responsibility for their training, as well as a useful resource for those considering joining the profession. For more details contact Zoe Vipond at zoevipond@lluk.org For information on Northern Ireland: Adult Literacy and Basic Education Committee (Northern Ireland) Contact Hilary Sloan 344 Stranmills Road Belfast BT9 5ED Ireland Phone: 0213 268 2379 For information on Scotland: Learning Connections Communities Scotland 27/29 Palmerston Place Edinburgh EH12 5AP Website: http://www.lc.communitiesscotland.gov.uk where you can register for Learning Connections' monthly e-newsletters. Also worth visiting are: http://www.aloscotland.com, http://www.adultliteraciesonline.com, and http://www.thebigplus.com. Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers P.O. Box Stoke on Trent ST6 6DR England Web site: http://www.fwwcp.mcmail.com For links with writers' groups and community publishing projects around the country: Learning Skills Development Agency Regent Arcade House, 19-25 Argyll Street, London W1F 7LS Switchboard: 020 7297 9000 Fax: 020 7297 9001 For further information about LSDA or any of its activities please contact our Information Services team: Tel: 020 7297 9144 Fax: 020 7297 9242 Email: enquiries@LSDA.org.uk Web site: http://www.lsda.org.uk, for access to policy information and downloadable publications. Learning SKills Council National office Cheylesmore House Quinton Road Coventry CV1 2WT Tel: 0845 019 4170 Fax: 024 7682 3675 Web site: http://www.lsc.gov.uk, for access to policy information and downloadable publications and links to local LSCs. Lancaster Literacy Research Group c/o Institute for Advanced Studies Lancaster Universit Lancaster LA1 4YL UK Web site: http://www.literacy.lancaster.ac.uk London Language and Literacy Unit (LLU+) Southwark College Southampton Way London SE5 7EW UK Web site: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/lluplus/, for publications on ESOL, numeracy and family literacy National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) 21 De Montfort Street Leicester LE1 7GE UK Web site: http://www.niace.org.uk, for publications, news and events and policy commentaries. National Literacy Trust 59 Buckingham Gate London SW1E 6AJ UK E-mail: contact@literacytrust.org.uk Website: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk, for a web site database and information service. Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) Web site: http://www.rapal.org.uk/ UNISON Centre 137 High Holborn London WC1 IV6P UK For information on trades union education. NetworkWorkplace Basic Skills CSET Department of Educational Research Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YL UK Write First Time Archive 1975-1985. Contact the Librarian Ruskin College Oxford University An Oxford student-published newspaper. Skills for Life Policy in England Moser Report Adult Basic Education in England developed from the adult literacy campaign in the early 1970's. A period of major change in further and adult education and training was initiated by successive conservative governments, bringing ABE closer to vocational education and training in colleges and bringing issues of accountability and quality to the forefront. Since the present labour government came to power in 1997, it has put in place a new framework for developing Lifelong Learning. This has been followed by a review of the field of ABE, carried out by a consultative group led by Claus Moser. The group reported in 1999, recommending a National Adult Basic Skills Strategy. On November 5th 1999 the government announced its first response to these recommendations including some funding. A number of "Techical Implementation Groups" were set up to put the strategy into practice. In Autumn 2000 the new Strategy was put out for consultation. Summary of the main points from the Moser Report, which can be found at http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/mosergroup/index.htm The Moser Report Recommends a National Strategy for Adult Basic skills with 10 elements: National targets An entitlement to learn Guidance, assessment and publicity Better opportunities for learning Quality A new curriculum A new system of qualifications Teacher training and improved inspection The benefits of new technology Planning of delivery The targets it suggests: Reduce % of those with poor basic skills by 50% by year 2010 (IALS estimate of 7 million people need help) Double the number of those receiving help to ½ million by 2002 Expansion of trained teachers from 4,000 to 15,000 ft. equivalent The release of substantial government funding to pay for these developments. For the government response to date go to Better Basic Skills and Read-Write-Plus Estimating the Extent of the Need for ABE It is notoriously difficult to estimate the extent of the need for adult basic education. Statistics from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) indicate that the proportion of the population with basic skills difficulties is smaller in England than in the United States, but it is still a major issue in terms of public perception (OECD, 1997). The IALS measures literacy along three dimensions of literacy - prose literacy, document literacy, and quantitative literacy - at five levels. About 22 percent of the U.K. population scored at the lowest level on all three dimensions. There are, however, methodological reasons for treating these results with caution (see Hamilton and Barton, forthcoming). The United Kingdom is fortunate in having some major longitudinal cohort studies, which have been used to collect data on adult literacy and numeracy. Recently these studies have included interviews and formal tests as well as self-reports of difficulties with reading, writing, and numeracy. Bynner and Parsons (1997) report some research using the National Child Development Study (NCDS), which has followed more than 17,000 people born in the United Kingdom in one week in 1958. This research took a representative sample of 2,144 cohort members at the age of thirty-seven. Just over 1,700 cohort members completed interviews and undertook eight literacy and numeracy tasks designed to test everyday literacy and numeracy skills of increasing difficulty (four levels). The results revealed that 19 percent of those tested scored at the lowest literacy levels, 1 or 2, and 48 percent scored at the lowest two levels on the numeracy tasks. In contrast, a much lower percentage, only about 15 percent of the cohort, reported that they had problems with reading, writing, spelling, or numeracy. Most of these problems were concerned with writing or spelling, for example, when completing a job application form. If we take even this very conservative estimate, of 15 percent of the adult population reporting basic skills difficulties, it suggests that around 6 million people in the adult population believe that their basic skills are not adequate to meet the demands of everyday life. The International Numeracy Survey, comparing the basic numeracy skills of adults age sixteen to sixty in seven countries (the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, Australia, and Denmark) found that U.K. respondents performed the least well; only 20 percent accurately completed all twelve tasks. Overall, the U.K. respondents achieved an average of 7.9 correctly completed tasks, while all other nations in the survey achieved an average of 9 or more (BSA, 1997b). "Comparisons between the skill and educational capacity of our workforce with those of our principal competitors quickly established that, broadly speaking, our workforce was worse educated and worse trained than our competitors" (Atkinson and Spilsbury, 1993, p. 9). An ALBSU survey in 1989 estimated that about 500,000 people in England and Wales who did not speak English as their native tongue needed help to speak, understand, and read or write English (this is less than 1 percent of the total population). Forty percent of the non-native English-speaking population said they could read and write English only a little or not at all. Almost 30 percent said they had real difficulty understanding or speaking English. Statistics on ABE Provision in England Statistics to be posted in due course.
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