News archive 2009

Workplace literacy schemes too short to improve skills

26 Nov 2009, PR 257/09

The Government's Skills for Life initiative has not significantly improved literacy or the economic performance of participating companies, despite what policymakers believe. These are the findings of the UK's first study of basic skills learning in the workplace by an academic at King’s College London.

The £5 billion Skills for Life programme is based on the assumption that an improvement in literacy and numeracy will increase people's earning potential, as well as their productivity and employability. However, according to Professor Alison Wolf of King's College London who led the study workplace basic skills courses are having little impact, in their current form. The study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

'It is clear from our research that policymakers are mistaken in expecting immediate and major effects on productivity,' says Professor Wolf, Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, Department of Management.

Professor Wolf believes that one of the main reasons for the failure of the initiative is that courses were simply not long enough. While school children receive over 200 hours of direct instruction every term, over many years, participants on the Skills for Life courses received, on average, a total of 30 hours teaching.

No legacy of workplace training

The study also showed that the workplace does not support formal learning. Firms and public sector organisations find it hard to fit classes in with work patterns and are unable to provide the long-term stability necessary for effective learning.

Indeed, the study finds that the Skills for Life strategy has left no permanent legacy of workplace training. None of the employers who received free on-site courses continued them after government funding ended. 'If the productivity gains were as obvious as the government has claimed, this would be very short-sighted of them,' says Professor Wolf. 'In fact, there were no big obvious gains.'

A year after students had taken the Skills for Life course; statistically there were no significant improvements in literacy for English-speaking employees. Some of those, who went on to develop their skills as part of their normal job, did improve, while participants whose work continued to involve minimal use of literacy did not. Indeed, Professor Wolf notes that people's jobs can be far more important for boosting literacy skills than a short formal course.

However, the study also found that employers were not particularly concerned about their employees' literacy skills, and increased productivity was not something that either employers or learners expected. Instead, one of the broader benefits of the course was that it boosted workers' confidence. A significant number of participants went on to do further courses. More than half said that they read more, and three quarters felt differently about education as a result of the course.

'Both adult learners and their employers have a far more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the workplace than does the Skills for Life strategy,' concludes Alison Wolf. 'Ministers keep announcing that huge numbers of people have 'improved their basic skills' because of Skills for Life. They need to realise that attending a short course, or collecting a certificate, does not mean that people have necessarily learned anything.'

The research team is explaining to policy-makers precisely how current funding and entitlement rules stop adults with poor basic skills from obtaining the extended tuition they need and suggesting ways in which the problem might be addressed.

Notes to editors

King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2009) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

'Enhancing 'Skills for Life'
This release is based on the findings from 'Enhancing 'Skills for Life': Adult Basic Skills and Workplace Learning' funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and carried out by Alison Wolf from King's College London and Karen Evans from the Institute of Education at the University of London.

Methodology: the project was a longitudinal one, and explored the impact on learners and their organisations of government-funded workplace programmes designed to increase literacy skills. 567 learners and 53 workplaces were involved. The reading and writing skills of participants were tested at the start of their courses, a year, and two years later. On all three occasions, in-depth information was gathered about jobs, education, attitudes to work, and aspirations. The study also measured how people felt about themselves as learners. At the same time, managers and training managers, union learning representatives and course tutors were interviewed. A sub-set of 10 sites and 64 learners were studied in greater depth.

Economic and Social Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2009/10 is £204 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peers review. This research has been graded as 'Outstanding'. http://www.esrc.ac.uk/




Further information
ESRC Press Office:
Danielle Moore, Tel: 01793 413122, email: danielle.moore@esrc.ac.uk
Jeanine Woolley (Tel: 01793 413119, email jeanine.woolley@esrc.ac.uk

King’s College London:
Alex Bevis, Tel: 0207 848 3238, email: alex.bevis@kcl.ac.uk

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