Government reaches adult skills target

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1.6 million people have gained their first “Skills for Life” qualifications in literacy, numeracy and language, meeting the Government’s interim 2007 target.

Further, the figure includes achievements by over 138,000 offenders.

Minister for Skills, Phil Hope MP, announced yesterday that since the launch of the Government’s “Skills for Life” strategy in 2001, 4.7 million adults have taken up 10.5 million “learning opportunities”. It is estimated that as much as £10 billion a year is lost in taxes and lower productivity from adults who fail to achieve basic literacy and numeracy levels. In addition, the Government estimates that 98% of jobs are closed to people with basic skills “below Entry level”.

Mr Hope said: “Meeting one of our major skills targets is fantastic news and I would like to congratulate all the learners and staff across the country whose hard work has made this possible. Over 1.6 million adults have improved their skills and transformed their lives, taking vital steps towards better employability and social inclusion”.

He added: “Our “Skills for Life” strategy has been a huge success since it was launched in 2001. We introduced the first national learning infrastructure for adult skills, including national curricula and standards for literacy, language and numeracy. Our Get On campaign ““ featuring the well-known Gremlin characters ““ is one of the most well known Government campaigns ever produced. It has raised awareness of the basic skills issue, tackled the stigma around admitting problems in literacy and numeracy and encouraged thousands of adults to improve their skills”.

Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Council, Mark Haysom, noted: “This is a significant milestone for the Government, the LSC and all our partners, and a credit to all 1.6 million learners. We should all be rightly proud that our collective efforts to meet this initial target milestone have paid dividends. It is now vital that this momentum continues so we stay on track to achieve the 2010 target”.

“This is really good news for all those adults who now have the skills to do their job better and the real chance to progress and improve their lives and their career chances”.

For more information on the Skills for Life strategy, call 0800 66 0800.

Vijay Pattni.

What do you think of the Government’s adult skills strategy?

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Related FE News articles:

Short Courses Pull Adults Back Into FE ““ 13/02/07

“Nation Needs Vocational Education” ““ 18/01/07

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