Basic Skills - the key to employability in the 21st century?

Teacher as Critical Analyst

Basic Skills – the key to employability in the 21st century?

Introduction

“To be employed is to be at risk, to be employable is to be secure”
(Peter Hawkins, 1999, The Art of Building Windmills)

In the past few years there have been a number of reports which have brought about important changes and initiatives concerned with raising literacy and numeracy skills. These changes signal the growing importance of basic skills and key skills both to the individual and to the economy as a whole. In this assignment I will start by looking at the basic skills problem. Evidence shows that lack of basic or key skills has major implications for an individual in terms of social exclusion. Moreover, lack of basic skills is a major barrier to employment, training or progression at work and if we are to compete on a global level, we need to have a highly skilled, adaptable workforce. Employability is of significant concern for 2 reasons, firstly, because of its importance to the government’s widening participation strategy and secondly, it is essential for national economic and social wellbeing, thus the concern with employability is inherently linked to the concern with lack of basic skills. I will look at what we mean by employability and how skills associated with employability affect an individual’s chance of finding and keeping work. Furthermore, the change in the structure of employment and the changing work climate has produced a real need for a more able and better skilled workforce and I will discuss how the government’s push for improving basic skills is at the forefront of efforts to meet these demands. I will look at initiatives that have been set up to increase employability, not just for the unemployed but for those adults already in the workforce, half of whom are estimated to have below average basic skills. I will then draw conclusions on what I have discussed.

Background to Basic Skills

Class, educational and employment experience and gender continue to influence the gap between the well and poorly educated. In 1997 Helena Kennedy provided a landmark report which looked at what needed to be done in Britain to close this learning divide and made recommendations on how learner participation might be increased and improved. The report argued that education and training should reach out to excluded groups, ie, those that do not normally participate. These socially excluded groups are characterised by a lack of education, employment and community involvement and failure to acquire basic skills. The report highlighted the fact that further education needed to play a vital role in order to bring about change.

In response to the Kennedy report the UK Government published a Green Paper ‘The Learning Age‘ (1998) which saw learning as the "key to prosperity" and called for a "well-educated, well-equipped and adaptable labour force" to ensure that people can return to learning throughout their lives. This vision of ’lifelong learning’ had been the subject of debate a year earlier when the report ‘Learning for the Twenty First Century‘ (1997) reported:

"The country needs to develop a new learning culture, a culture of lifelong learning for all. It is essential to help...all of its people meet the challenge they now face as they move towards the twenty-first century".

The Moser Report, ‘A Fresh Start’ (1999) first identified that approximately 7 million adults in Britain have inadequate levels of literacy and/or numeracy. The Basic Skills Agency define these basic skills as "the ability to read, write and speak English/ Welsh and use mathematics at a level necessary to function and progress at work and in society in general". The effect of this lack of ‘basic skills’ is two-fold. Firstly there is the knock-on effect on the economy; in order to compete internationally we need a well-educated, flexible workforce. Secondly, on an individual level, if someone is struggling with basic skills then their range of employment and personal options is reduced drastically. The needs of the individual and society in general are linked and the it is recognised that the‘7 million’ problem needs to be addressed if we are to thrive as an economy and at the same time live in a fair, egalitarian society.

The cost of failing to deal with the problem is significant – to the individual, the economy and employers. People with poor literacy, numeracy and language skills tend to be on lower incomes or are unemployed, are more prone to ill health and at far more risk of social exclusion. When taking into account the effect of lower incomes, reduced productivity, poorer health and the consequence of benefits and welfare services, the Skills and Learning Intelligence Module at the University of Exeter found the combined cost to the economy to be in the region of £10 billion pounds per year (Adult Basic Skills in the Workplace, 2002).

The Dearing Report ’Higher Education in a Learning Society’ (1997) made explicit the requirements and expectations of the government, bringing the skills debate to the fore. It promoted the development of key skills and significance of work experience. Since then, however, the discussion has further developed to include the issues of employability and work related learning.

What is Employability?

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What is Employability?

There are various interpretations of the term employability. If there is some disagreement about what employability is, at least it is a bit clearer what employability is not; ie, it is not the same as employment. Employment refers to having a job, whilst employability, or being employable, refers to the qualities needed to maintain employment and progress in the workplace (Lees, 2002). Fundamentally then, employability is about learning – learning how to learn – and employability is not a product, but a process (LTSN Generic Centre).

Knight and Yorke (2003) define employability as "a set of achievements, understandings and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen careers“ and Lees (2002) concludes that employability is a difficult concept to define "much more complex than the relatively restrictive key skills agenda focused on by Dearing“.

However, other studies point out that traditional definifitions of employability “concentrate overmuch on the attributes and motivations of the individual, at the expense of a consideration of some of the wider environmental factors that impinge on the individual’s ability to take up employment“(Report of the Taskforce on Employability and Long Term Unemployment, p. 21, 2002). I think this wider definition is important because the issue of employability is not just one of knowledge, skills, motivation and personal attributes but also one of the the barriers to work, such as travel or childcare. The Taskforce identify a range of interconnected factors such as personal attributes, managing in the labour market, personal circumstances and structural aspects, all of which widen the definition of employability.

If basic skills are the building blocks for further learning and more advanced skills, they can be fundamental to other forms of learning and development that is relevant to the workplace and the labour market in general. Lack of basic skills therefore will be a barrier to any form of progression in the workplace or the labour market more generally. Hence, they will directly affect employability.

The Changing Labour Market

Changes such as rise of flexible working patterns, rise in part-time employment and rising female employment (especially in service industries) have seen the development of a much more flexible labour market in which employment patterns change quite quickly, the knock-on effect of which has important economic and social implications.

The labour market is constantly evolving and this has implications for everybody involved in the world of work. Because the nature of the economy changes it is expected that structural changes in the pattern of employment take place but one of the main long term structural changes in recent years has been the shift from manufacturing to services industries. There has been a long decline in manufacturing employment in the economy and an increase in service sector employment. Technological change has meant that many jobs that, in the past, required few skills are themselves becoming more demanding in skill terms, the result of which is that those people who are poorly skilled or whose skills are redundant in a modern economy will keep experience difficulties in finding and keeping work.

Therefore, much of the reason behind the current need for better basic skills lies in changes in the workplace itself. Jaine Chisholm-Caunt, Director for the Workplace Basic Skills Network explained this: “We do not have so many low-skilled jobs any more. Take a person who has been working in manufacturing for 30-40 years and who left school with no qualifications...over that period the job has changed. Computers have been brought in, new kinds of quality standards which mean the employee may have to get NVQs as a minimum qualification. That person might now have to hold team meetings and communicate with clients...“ (New Statesman, 2004).

Initiatives to increase Employability

There is no doubt that lack of basic skills is a signigicant barrier for a large number of those seeking work. Currently it is estimated that roughly a third of unemployed people in England have literacy, language and/or numeracy needs that prevent them from finding and keeping secure work. From April 2001 the Employment Service has been screening clients for basic skills needs. Following the screening, those who may have a basic skills need are offered the opportunity of an independent assessment. Following that, those who need it may be referred for basic employability training or basic skills provision. Initiatives such as ’New Deal’ are part of current government strategy to get people back to work, including training and job preparation. The emphasis here is very much on work or education activity. New Deal offers either a subsidised job, work and training with a voluntary or environmental group, or studying full time for a qualification, thereby enhancing employability skills.

Programmes such as Sure Start seek to support children and their families and can act as a bridge for parents into education, training and employment and often work in socially deprived areas. In particular they promote the employability of parents, defining employability as “the capacity to gain and keep a job, to cope with changes at work and in the wider economy, and the ability to get a new job if necessary“(Improving the Employability of Parents in Sure Start Local Programmes, 2004). Sure Start state employment has a direct impact on incomes, thereby lifting families out of poverty and research suggest this can have significant effects on children’s mental health, behaviour and social integration. There is also evidence to show that children with employed parents do better at school and therefore improve their own learning potential.

The Government’s ’Learning to Succeed White Paper’ (2000) highlighted the need to develop the skills of Britain’s workforce. More recently the government acknowledged the vital role skills play in an individual’s chances of success:

“.. A skilled workforce is also important for the wider health of the economy and for UK employers – improving productivity and increasing prosperity. Adults in the workforce with low skills must be supported to develop their potential if we are to increase productivity and tackle social exclusion”. (Developing skills in the UK workforce, 2002)

Indeed besides literacy and numeracy there are other basic skills that are now considered to be equally as important in the workplace. These ‘key’ skills are sometimes referred to as ‘workplace basic skills’ and include communication skills, competence in basic IT and ‘soft’ skills such as teamwork, customer care, attitude and adaptability.

It is estimated that around 8 million members of the workforce have ‘low’ skills, that is, skills below the level 2 standard. This means the UK has a record worse than any other European country. Across Europe around 10% of the population falls into the low skills category; in Britain the figure is over 20% and while over 30 per cent of those in employment in the UK have low skills, this compares to only 17 per cent of workers in Germany (Institute of Education, 2003). Those with higher levels of skill receive significantly more training than those at lower levels. According to the National Skills Taskforce, when surveyed, 19 per cent of employees qualified to level 4 (degree equivalent) had received training in the last four weeks compared to 8 per cent of those qualified below level 2. People employed in small firms also receive less training than those employed in large firms (Developing Skills in the UK Workforce, 2002). Consequently then, low skilled workers are more likely to receive less training than their more highly skilled colleagues.

A report by the Adult Learning Inspectorate suggests that although work-based training has improved, those with the fewest skills to start with are getting a “uniformly raw deal“ and that provision for the 5 million adult learners was “inadequate“. David Sherlock, Chief Inspector of Adult Learning, expressed concern over findings that the lowest-skilled members of society are the most likely to receive a bad learning experience and that this “routinely fails them to achieve their goal of economic independence“ (BBC News, 2004).

Learning to Succeed also (2000) pointed out that everyone needs access to education and training and skills development opportunities and emphasised the need for a “commitment to mainstreaming equal opportunities throughout policy making, implementation and service delivery“.

Employers have not historically seen basic skills as their responsibility, despite the fact that basic skills problems cost UK employers an estimated £4.8 billion each year and that in improving their skills, employees can have the best possible chances at work.

The Workplace Basic Skills Network has been at the forefront of developments in basic skills and states that the central and overriding principle that emerges from its reasearch and analysis of several hundred case studies is the importance of delivering basic skills workplace learning holistically, that is when literacy and numeracy are seen as part of an organisation’s overall development initiatives, not as a kind of ’remedial’ training for poorly performing staff. Historically, they claim in the UK, basic skills have been offered as a ’bolt-on’ provision, separate from other training but focusing on worker’s shortcomings can reinforce a culture of individual blame and responsibility when really the responsiblity is a shared one.

A survey by the Association of Colleges found the assumption “that the acquisition of skills has to happen in schools and colleges“ is still prevalent. The LSC is reponsible for all post-16 education and training outside universities, including further educaiton colleges, work-based learning and adult education. A recent survey by the LSC found that a lack of motivation and their own failure to train staff were reported by almost a third of bosses. A total of 2.4 million workers were classed by their employers as not being fully proficient in their current job – equivalent to 11% of the total workforce (BBC News, 2004).

This has not gone unnoticed. In December 2004 Gordon Brown announced a shake-up of work based training as part of a package designed to improve adults’ poor basic skills, which he complained were Britain’s “achilles’ heel“(Guardian, 2004). He told MPs: “Today 30% of employees have very low skills or no skills at all...for decades, low skills have been our achilles’ heel as a modern economy....“. He pointed to a new “brokerage“ service to enable employers assess employee training needs to run alongside the government’s core offer of giving employees who lack basic skills paid time to train for a first level two qualification.

In my own practice we have spent a considerable amount of time and effort working closely with local businesses and local government in providing skills for life courses.

At Walkers crisp factory we opened a Skills for Life centre which later became a Learn Direct centre. Learning then involved employees’ families, the local community and schools who could use the centre to draw people into the learning culture. Learners could access additional support from tutors and it is now an accredited test centre. It uses innovative ways to attract learners such as using digital cameras or shopping on the Internet – these involve using skills such as estimating image sizes, calculating money and filling in online forms. Many benefits have been seen by the company – 2003 saw their lowest ever absence rate of 4.1%.

We also run the ’Push Ahead project’ for Durham City Council employees. The project began by targeting the Environmental Services Department - all employees were given a questionnaire to survey their learning needs. Union Learning Reps delivered and collected the questionnaires and offered help in completing them. Due to this level of help, the return rate was over 95%, much greater than we expected. The questionnaires were analysed to ascertain which course had been most requested and those requiring basic skills were interviewed. Dyslexia screening was also offered to those who felt they needed it. A series of 4 hour tasters was provided – with topics such as Understanding your Payslip, Budgeting and Report Writing. A 10 week Brush up your English and similar maths course then ran. We now run various IT courses and as word has spread, the take-up rate has increased significantly. Courses often take place between 4-6pm, sometimes starting with a coffee break as workers arrive straight from shift and the council pays 1-hour overtime per 2-hour course and offers transport home to those who need it.

The crucial thing about this project was that Union Learning Reps were instrumental in breaking down barriers and offering 1-1 support. They offered a direct connection between us, Community Education as a provider, and the workers who initially perceived us as something of a threat. The Learning Reps set an example to the workers by doing the courses themselves and on one of the courses I taught, stayed on after their own course ended to offer assistance and support to new workers coming in.

Conclusion

Low levels of basic skill are strongly associated with low levels of educational attainment, routine, low paid occupations and higher levels of social deprivation. Basic skills are the foundation for other forms of learning relevant to the workplace and the labour market more generally. There is no doubt that lack of basic skills significantly contribute to worklessness. More generally they can lead to social exclusion. Those who lack basic skills are also more likely to lack key skills which employers regard as relevant to the workplace, skills such as communication, basic IT, attitude and adaptability. Lack of basic and key skills can undermine personal motivation and confidence, and thus further limit the employability of individuals.

The priority is to improve the skills of those groups where literacy and numeracy needs are greatest and where they can make the most impact including the unemployed and benefit claimants, low skilled people in the workforce and other excluded groups.

Up to half of the estimated 7 million adults with literacy and numeracy needs will be in jobs, coping well because of the knowledge of the job and the experience they have built up over the years. A further difficulty comes with the changes that people are increasingly expected to face at work. With the introduction of new working practices and new technologies, the level of skill required is becoming greater and people with poor basic skills can find it more difficult to adapt. Many organisations have an ‘embedded’ approach where the course on offer is, for example, ICT but all the time the basic skills of the learner are being observed. Those who need it can be offered help as appropriate. Schemes aimed at improving basic skills for the least qualified staff are far more likely to succeed where the course is advertised as vocational training rather than labelled as basic skills.

Therefore, basic skills are inherently linked to employability but employability is not restricted to the unemployed, it is essential for those who are employed continue to develop their skills to maintain their employability in the 21st century.

Interagency co-operation is essential in dealing with the problem. Organisations such as Jobcentre Plus, the prison service, employers, trade unions and community initiatives can identify individuals with lack of basic or key skills and encourage them to take action.

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