David Lammy - Skills for Life - 5th Annual Skills for Life and Work Conference
London - 8 July 2008

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Introduction

I've been asked to talk this morning about the progress we're making on Skills for Life. I'm delighted to do so for two main reasons.

The first is born of urgency. The ability to read and write, to perform mental arithmetic and manage money, is so essential in today's world that anyone who struggles in these areas is at a huge disadvantage - in an office, on the high street, as a parent, as a citizen.

And yet we know there are people in all walks of life - sales assistants, hospital porters, care workers, car mechanics - who are currently scraping by without these skills. Others are unable to find jobs because the availability of unskilled work in this country is in long-term decline.

Quite simply, we're in the midst of a global skills race. Britain has become a knowledge economy that places a premium on high-level skills. Every workplace, every further education college, every university must adapt to this reality, so that our skills base has firm foundations in every area - from basic numeracy to cutting-edge nanotechnology.

My second reason is born of experience, for I've seen how acquiring basic skills transforms people's earning potential, their self-confidence, and their family prospects. I've seen it not just in my capacity as Skills Minister, or as the MP for an inner city constituency, but during my own childhood.

When my mum earned her qualification in secretarial business administration - with help from her union - her life chances, and mine in turn, were vastly improved.

For the sake of our mutual prosperity and the cohesiveness of our communities, we must unlock all the latent talent in our society and enable people to realise their potential.

Skills for Life

I believe that Skills for Life - a name conceived in the Ronseal tradition, because it does exactly what it says - has radically improved the teaching of basic literacy, language and numeracy.

Over the past seven years, we have invested £5 billion in delivering Skills for Life, designing new national standards, curricula, national testing and recruiting an increasingly well-qualified workforce.

As a result, 5.7 million adult learners have improved their skills on 12 million courses - courses based not only in FE colleges, but in waste management sites and bus depots, in libraries and union learning centres.

More specifically, as we recently announced, over 2.25 million adults have now gained first qualifications, meaning we have met our 2010 target two years early. That's 2.25 million more people who've overcome fear, inertia and a host of practical obstacles to make themselves more employable, help their kids with their homework, to establish the habit of learning.

These figures are also a tribute to the combined efforts of teachers, colleges and unions; to the success of family learning programmes, the "gremlins" advertising campaign, to sustained initiatives like Quick Reads. Thank you all for the fantastic effort you've put in.

I'm pleased that the recent National Audit Office report recognised the progress being made - engaging more hard-to-reach learners, convincing more employers of the need to invest in basic skills, increasing provision beyond the traditional classroom setting.

The challenge ahead

Yet the challenge still ahead of us is substantial. In England, an estimated 5.2 million people aged between 16 and 65 would fail GCSE English. An estimated 6.8 million lack the numeracy skills expected of an 11-year-old. Skills shortages at this level may cost the country as much as £10 billion annually in lost revenue from taxes, reduced productivity and the burden on the welfare state.

At the same time, the Government - in its response to Leitch - has set ambitious targets in this area. Our goal is for 95 per cent of adults to have 'functional' literacy and numeracy skills by 2020 - the basis for a decent job and further study.

To that end, we expect to spend more than £600 million per year over the next three years on improving functional adult literacy and numeracy.

Numeracy

Today, I want to dwell on numeracy, for - as the NAO noted - we have made less progress on this front than we have on raising literacy levels.

Arguably the greatest challenge we face is to eradicate the acceptance in Britain of poor mathematical skills - the tendency to dismiss maths enthusiasts as boffins, to treat personal debt arrived at through a lack of basic financial literacy as one of life's natural hazards.

It's a formula for error and inefficiency in any sector when staff cannot manage money or their own time. It puts us at a real disadvantage against countries where there is no cultural squeamishness around numbers.

At an individual level, the National Research and Development Centre has found that men and women aged 30 with poor numeracy were twice as likely to be unemployed as those with competent numeracy. Men were at greater risk of depression; women were more likely to suffer from low self-esteem and to feel they lacked control over their lives.

This is hardly surprising. For the innumerate, any transaction becomes fraught with uncertainty - from the risk of being short-changed to the bewilderment of arranging a mortgage. When telling the time or interpreting measurements is a problem, preparing a meal or taking medicine correctly becomes a matter of guesswork. Without numeracy, we struggle to make sense of the world around us.

All told, people lacking both basic literacy and numeracy generally opt to tackle their problems with literacy first. According to our research, addressing numeracy is more daunting.

What we're doing

The Government is helping adults escape the frustration and misery of poor numeracy in several ways.

In March, we launched the national numeracy campaign. You've no doubt seen the television adverts featuring hand-based characters. In the first three weeks of broadcast, the helpline received around 10,000 calls, with a further 20,000 people visiting the campaign website. The adverts will return later this month, and we're considering other approaches such as partnerships with supermarkets and a focus on issues around children's homework.

We're also looking to build demand for skills in the workplace through the Skills Pledge, through Train to Gain, and the right to request time to train - and I'm extremely encouraged by the progress in this area. The number of employees working for organisations that have signed up to the Skills Pledge has now exceeded four million. Close to 45,000 employees have embarked on free Skills for Life courses since their employers identified skills shortages with help from Train to Gain brokers. Indeed, both literacy and numeracy are now available as stand-alone qualifications in Train to Gain, as well as being embedded in vocational programmes.

Work by DIUS and DWP, meanwhile, to integrate employment and skills will support those looking for work. From 2009/10, new Jobseeker's Allowance and lone parent Income Support claimants will receive basic skills screening - with referrals, where necessary, to local provision. Skills health checks will similarly be available through the new Adult Advancement and Careers Service, for which pilots begin this Autumn.

In terms of providers, the new separation of literacy and numeracy targets will ensure a greater focus on the latter. We will expect all colleges to screen their literacy students for numeracy skills needs, but, above all, no learner should complete a Government-funded course at Level 2 without their basic skills being assessed and addressed.

To lead those courses, we're encouraging more qualified teachers to support adults contending with unhappy memories of their school days. We have extended existing incentive schemes, including £9,000 bursaries and £4,000 "golden hellos" to attract more numeracy trainees. We are funding the development of accelerated and "top-up" routes into Skills for Life teaching, to ensure greater flexibility for candidates from different backgrounds.

I will shortly be launching a plan for numeracy that encompasses all this work, and sets out how we will build capacity - not just in basic skills but at every level.

Regional variation

There is variation, of course, in the penetration of Skills for Life both regionally and across different industries.

In geographic terms, however, what's important is that each region is adopting an approach according to its own economic profile and the needs of learners.

In the capital, the London Skills and Employment Board, chaired by the Mayor, will launch its strategy later this month, which the LSC will then implement.

Elsewhere, Regional Skills Partnerships are bringing together Regional Development Agencies, local authorities, Jobcentre Plus, the LSC and others to identify priorities and making the system more responsive.

We are also working with partners at the local and sub-regional levels though Local and Multi Area Agreements. Again, the point is to move away from one-size-fits-all to a more flexible approach.

Benefits to business

For individual employers, the benefits of accessing Skills for Life are unambiguous. Norfolk County Services, a facilities management company, has seen its fortunes turned around since it identified that some 70 per cent of its staff lacked basic skills. Since 2002, and with full union support, almost half of the workforce have now accessed training, from area managers on down. Recruitment costs have been slashed, employee satisfaction is up.

At Ford's engine plant in Dagenham, meanwhile, there's been a 33 per cent increase in production volume, allied with a 22 per cent reduction in energy consumption since the implementation of its Skills for Life strategy.

It's our job to get more companies like npower and Boots - more public services like the armed forces and the NHS - to tackle their shortages in basic skills. We must get this message across using publicity campaigns, via Sector Skills Councils, through the UK Commission on Employment and Skills.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would simply stress that the drive to improve literacy, numeracy, and English language proficiency in our country is just one part of a much broader skills mission.

We need to produce world-class engineers and programmers, designers and doctors - of course. Yet Skills for Life is just as critical to the overall strength and competitiveness of our workforce. Alongside the education that goes on in our schools, it's the platform upon which the rest of our skills base rests - particularly given the shifting demographics of our working population.

At the same time, basic skills are fundamental to a healthy society and an effective democracy. In constituencies like mine, I believe, there are five ingredients to success: effective parenting; high quality education; decent long-term employment; strong communities; and an aspirational culture. When Skills for Life really works, its impact is felt in each of these five areas.

So I urge you to continue supporting Skills for Life - it's a force for good in so many ways. I thank you for everything you do already, and for your kind attention this morning.