The challenge of establishing sustainable workplace ‘Skills for Life’ provision in the UK: organisational ‘strategies’ and individual ‘tactics’

Abstract

Drawing on longitudinal data from the ESRC-funded ‘Adult Basic Skills and Workplace learning’ project (2003–2008), together with recent findings from research undertaken under the auspices of the LLAKES research centre (Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies), this paper seeks to explore the key factors that facilitate and inhibit sustainable ‘Skills for Life’ (literacy, numeracy and English for speakers of other languages) workplace provision in the UK. We draw on the metaphor of a social ecology of learning to explore the inter-relationships between individuals and groups at policy and organisational level and combine this with Michael de Certeau’s theoretical work on quotidian social practices in order to cast light on the diverse ways in which ‘Skills for Life’ provision has been put to use by learners. The paper argues that the ‘Skills for Life’ national strategy has generated a complex ‘ecology of learning’ at policy level, whereby a byzantine and shifting funding landscape, with its concomitant bureaucracy and strong emphasis on target-bearing qualifications has militated against long-term sustainable provision. Those organisations that have managed to sustain provision have generally succeeded in integrating ‘Skills for Life’ courses within a broader ‘ecology of learning’ whereby there is both support and formal recognition for such provision within the organisation as a whole.

Keywords:

• Skills for Life
• workplace learning
• funding
• sustainability
• United Kingdom

Acknowledgement

Funding: This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC Award RES-139-25-0120 and Award RES-594-28-0001).

Notes

1. See OECD (1997) for a description of the IALS data on which the Moser Committee based its recommendations. More recently, the ‘Skills for Life’ Needs Survey of 2002/03 produced a lower indication of those adults who struggle with literacy, with an estimate of 5.8 million people below Level 1 (Williams 2003).

2. Comparable literacy initiatives were also launched in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Although this paper focuses primarily on England, our project sample included two sites in Scotland and therefore reference is also made to the literacy strategy undertaken in this country.

3. Almost two-thirds of the learners were male with an average age of just over 40. Almost all of these individuals were in permanent full-time employment at the time of the interview. The average length of employment with the current employer was almost eight years.

4. The follow-up research component of the LLAKES project began in the summer of 2009 and was completed by May 2010. The data gathered for this paper, therefore, relates to ‘Skills for Life’ policies up to the election of the Coalition government in May 2010.

5. Employers underwrote participation in paid working time. All sites incurred organisational costs, not least in negotiations with line managers over shifts; many provided equipment and furnished teaching space.

6. See Evans and Waite (2008, 2010) for an analysis of the interweaving of ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ learning opportunities related to workplace ‘Skills for Life’ provision.

7. This research also found that courses that continued over the long term (after initial funding had ceased) shared the common features of: ‘an internal champion who had decision-making power or knew how to influence those who did, a well-identified internal issue or problem, and evidence that the programme had helped to address that issue’.

8. In Scotland, local authorities receive block grants under the Scottish Adult Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, and have a major degree of control over their own priorities.

9. To work towards the Leitch targets, the (Learning and Skills Council 2008) agreed the following PSA delivery plan with DIUS. From August 2008 until July 2011 (3 years): 597,000 people of working age to achieve a first Level 1 or above approved literacy qualification and 390,000 to achieve a first entry Level 3 or above approved numeracy qualification (LSC fact sheet 12).

10. A report published by the Commons Public Accounts Committee heavily criticised Train to Gain, claiming the scheme had been ‘mismanaged’ since its launch in 2006 (BBC News at Ten Thursday, 21 January 2010).

11. See also Coffield et al. (2007, 730) who reveal, on the basis of their TLRP-funded research into the functioning of the Learning and Skills Council, that ‘Sustainability – after the short-term funding ended – was a serious concern for ULRs and managers’.

12. Finlay et al. (2007, 239) have similarly commented on the negative impact of initiative funding on sustainability: ‘reliance on initiative funding creates problems for sustainability when the source dries up or when all the learners eligible under the rules of the particular initiative funding stream have used up their entitlement’.

13. ‘Skills for Life’ Materials for Embedded Learning have now been developed for a wide range of vocational areas. http://rwp.excellencegateway.org.uk/embeddedlearning/index.cfm