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COMMITTEE FOR EMPLOYMENT AND LEARNING Report on the Inquiry into Education and Training for Industry (Continued)
7. Key Findings From Inspections of New Deal 1998 - Dec 2000 [Based on the inspection of the work of over 800 New Deal participants, and on interviews conducted with tutors and employers involved in New Deal programmes] 7.1 The introduction of the New Deal employment initiatives for 18 to 24 year olds and for long-term unemployed adults, aged 25 and over, has been a success in many significant areas. Across all of the various options and programmes, most of the participants have benefited from good opportunities to engage in vocational training and/or workplace training. Participants working with local companies are reported by their employers to complete their work efficiently, effectively and to a good standard. The work of the majority of participants engaged in voluntary and environmental projects is also valued highly by the organisations and communities they work for. The majority of New Deal participants take pride in their work, and apply themselves to developing practical and personal skills likely to improve their employment prospects. For many who are long-term unemployed, New Deal represents an invaluable opportunity to re-establish a settled work routine and develop or prove their employment capabilities to themselves, and to prospective employers. 7.2 The benefits to employers of these programmes are set out below: n employers are able to speculate in the employment of additional staff supported by the New Deal subsidy without making long-term commitment to providing employment beyond the period of subsidy; n employers have a prolonged opportunity over the 26-week period of subsidy to observe the qualities and skills of their New Deal employees while training them in the operations of the company; n in a few cases, employers are able to use New Deal employees to test the market place for new products, services and potential growth, with minimal investment in new staff; n the 26-week period represents a good test of the attitude and aptitude of the new employee and his/her suitability for sustained employment. 7.3 The automatic referral of individuals by the Social Services Agency to New Deal programmes, and the subsequent sanctions applied for non-compliance, have reduced the extent of claimants "doing the double" by claiming benefit while working. Staff from T&EA and Consortia have first-hand knowledge of dealing with clients who are quite frank about their efforts to legitimise their previous employment under the New Deal programme. This reduction in the local black economy is clearly of benefit to the competitiveness of many small to medium sized enterprises. 7.4 Other options under the New Deal programme, Full-time Education and Training (FTET) and Education and Training Opportunities (ETO), and to a lesser extent Intensive Activity Period (IAP), offer participants the opportunity to benefit from work placements in their chosen vocational area. However, similar to Jobskills, these placements vary in quality and, for the 18-24 year olds in FTET, they do not always complement the NVQ awards that are identified in participants' action plans agreed with T&EA personal advisers. It is unsatisfactory that some employers/industries appear to demand government employment subsidies without accepting the need for commitment to providing training opportunities for participants/new employees in anything broader than the basic skills required for specific tasks in their immediate workplace. 7.5 In general, New Deal has, since its inception, helped identify a ready support of labour for many local industries and employers. As we move closer towards "effective full-employment", the pool of potential employees available from the unemployment register is diminishing. It is appropriate, therefore, that New Deal programmes, in addition to the initial matching of new employees to employers, also provide opportunities for unemployed people to retrain, develop new skills, and increase their employability in order to compete in the employment market for positions that are suitably matched to the skills and aspirations of each individual. For example, many of the long-term unemployed value the opportunity to make a contribution to a voluntary or environmental project, in turn re-establishing a more normal and active lifestyle through completion of productive tasks of benefit to the local community. It is unreasonable, however, to expect the present New Deal programmes to address the needs of all the long-term unemployed and to 'turn-round' the 'hard-to-help' clients for whom employment remains an unrealistic objective. As numbers on the unemployment register fall, employers need to realise that a hard-core of New Deal participants and long-term unemployed are not job-ready for work without substantial further training. In effect, the personal and social development elements of the New Deal programmes become a more important dimension than it might have been for the more able and more job-ready client. 7.6 Despite substantial efforts to highlight new "in-work" benefits, many of the long-term unemployed remain convinced that they have a more secure financial future on the various unemployment and family benefits. If training providers attached to New Deal Consortia are to address this issue then they either need training in the calculation of these different benefits or they require regular access to advisers who can help clients recognise the financial support and benefits available to less well paid employees. Many clients have a very high and unrealistic perception of the minimum wage they would require to be enticed back into the world of work. While the minimum wage has addressed the lowest wage levels actually paid for a full week's work, for many these pay levels remain well below the level of financial income presently secured by benefit claimants. 8. Key Findings from Inspections of Jobskills 1999-2000 Over the period September 1999 - June 2000, the Inspectorate carried out 18 inspections of Training Organisations (TOs) providing training under the Jobskills Programme. 8.1 Since the introduction of the Jobskills programme, the retention rates and the rates of success achieved by trainees in gaining full awards has improved. Retention is poor in about one-third of the organisations, success rates are excellent or good in about two-thirds of the TOs, and satisfactory in the remaining one-third. 8.2 Progression to further education or to employment is good or excellent in about half of the organisations inspected. 8.3 In just under half of the organisations, the trainees recruited had no formal qualifications on entry to the training programmes. 8.4 Induction programmes are well-planned in about two-thirds of the organisations. 8.5 In about one-third of the organisations, there are no effective procedures for initial assessment of basic skills, and the provision for developing basic and key skills is poor. 8.6 The quality of training and the standards achieved by the trainees in their vocational programme are good in around 80% of the organisations. However, additional units or bridging studies should be developed. These units should be offered where trainees, and the companies employing them, wish to plan for progression beyond NVQs at level 3. 8.7 Procedures for monitoring the quality of work-based training are poor in about one-third of the organisations. In about 70% of the TOs, the staff are appropriately qualified, and good leaderships is provided by the management. There is a high rate of staff turnover in about 16% of the organisations. 8.8 The most significant weakness in the management of TOs is the area of reviewing and evaluating the quality of the training in each of the vocational areas. The review and evaluation procedures do not place sufficient emphasis on retention rates, success rates, and the progress of individual trainees. 8.9 Accommodation and resources are satisfactory in approximately 75% of the training organisations. Where deficiencies were noted, these are mainly in the availability and use of information and communication technology. EDUCATION AND TRAINING INSPECTORATE (ETI) REPORTS PUBLISHED IN FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION FURTHER EDUCATION INSPECTIONS North East Institute of Further and Higher Education Limavady College of Further and Higher Education East Tyrone College of Further Education East Antrim Institute of Further and Higher Education East Antrim Institute of Further and Higher Education Lisburn Institute of Further and Higher Education Armagh College of Further Education Belfast Institute of Further & Higher Education (extended inspection) East Down Institute of Further & Higher Education - Level 3 (Not yet published). SURVEYS/COMPOSITE REPORTS Provision and Standards in NVQ Levels 2 and 3 Programmes in Five Training Organisations Report on Post-16 Provision in Training Organisations Report on Post-16 Provision in Further Education Inspection of Standards and Assessment Procedures in Early Years Care and Education Programmes at NVQ Levels 2 and 3 in Eight Training Organisations Open Learning Access Centres Jobskills Summary Report Survey on Modern Apprenticeships in Northern Ireland Scrutiny of Standards and Assessment Procedures in Hospitality and Catering Programmes at NVQ Levels 1, 2 and 3 in Eleven Training Organisations Survey on Jobskills Access Demonstration Programmes Survey on Provision, Planning and Quality of Monitoring of Workplace Training by Organisations in the Jobskills Programme Survey of College Development Planning Processes and Piloting of Individual Student Learner Agreements in Colleges of Further and Higher Education in NI Survey on Interim Jobskills Access Programmes Survey of new Deal Core Gateway Provision Survey Report on National Vocational Qualifications at Level 3 in Catering and Hospitality in Colleges of Further Education Northern Ireland Open College Network The Rapid Advancement Programme Jobskills Self-Evaluation Inspection (Not yet published) Key skills Resource Centre (Not yet published) Software Engineering Survey (Not yet published) Ulster People's College (Not yet published) Report on Students with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (Not yet published). Effectiveness of use of FEP in staff development Provision for basic skills NEW DEAL INSPECTIONS New Deal Summary Report 1999 - December 2000 (Not yet published) Employment Options in Limavady Lisburn Consortium 18-24 Year Olds: Employment Option in North Belfast and Newtownabbey 18-24 Year Olds: Londonderry Region 18-24 Year Olds: Employment and Self-Employment in the Fermanagh Area 18-24 Year Olds: Fermanagh Consortium Full-time Education & Training, Environmental & Voluntary Options in the South & East Belfast Consortium Employment Options in South and East Belfast North Belfast and Newtownabbey Consortium Newry and Mourne Consortium Newry and Mourne Employment Option Down Consortium Down Employment Option Dungannon Employment Option Coleraine Consortium Coleraine Employment Option North Down Consortium Employment Options in North Down Strabane Consortium Strabane Employment Option Antrim Consortium Armagh Consortium Armagh Employment Option Larne Consortium Dungannon Consortium Employment Programmes in Limavady Carrickfergus Consortium Limavady Consortium Lisburn Employment Options Subsidised Employment Programmes in Antrim Subsidised Employment Programmes in Carrickfergus and Larne JOBSKILLS INSPECTIONS Link Training, Newry Bangor Business Services The Bureau of Training & Employment The Link Works Training & Placement Services Spring Skills, Londonderry Worknet Training Services HOW Systems, Bangor Information Ireland Learning Institute JTM Youth and Adult Employment Agency Larne Skills Development Ltd Ballymena Training Centre Worknet Training Services Oriel Training Services The Travel Training Company MARI Lifelong Learning Centre Jobskills Support Programme at NICOD Training Services Coalisland Training Services Ltd SX3 Training Solutions Stylo Barratt Shoes Ltd The Federation of the Retail Licensed Trade Joblink, Londonderry Brookfield Business School Wade Training Ltd Springvale Training Ltd Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education East Down Institute of Further & Higher Education Provision and Standards
in a range of individual Training Organisations Survey to assess
readiness of Training Organisations to undertake self evaluation
24 May 2001 topWRITTEN SUBMISSION BY: EGSA welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Committee's enquiry. In our response we attempt to draw your attention to the needs of our users and we suggest particular areas where improvement could be made to make best use of existing provision and to improve access to education and training - particularly by those whose participation needs to be encouraged. "In the past, educational guidance for adults has been seen as a minor and marginal activity .. We believe that this has led to a great waste of resources and human potential and that some of the resources committed to providing courses would have been better devoted to developing a closer match between learners and educational provision. The key to the development of the 'learning society' which we will need if we are to manage the economic and social changes of the next decades, must lie in helping adults to recognise their learning needs and find effective opportunities to meet them, while helping the providers of education and training to recognise and respond to those needs". Helping Adults to Learn EGSA's Contribution to Lifelong Learning - "Connecting adults with learning" EGSA is an independent, voluntary organisation which provides independent information, advice and guidance (IAG) to adults interested in returning to learning. While our services are open to all adults, we are particularly interested in those who benefited least from formal education and whose low levels of literacy and numeracy prevent them from making a full contribution to societal and economic development. IAG is the oldest of EGSA's services - dating back to the establishment of the organisation in 1967. Since 1975 we have provided the Adult Basic Education (ABE) helpline for adults who are seeking assistance with Basic Skills. Two years ago, with funding from the National Lottery Charities Board (NLCB) we expanded the helpline service to become the Adult Basic Education Support Service (ABESS) which provides a support service for learners and tutors and offers a voice to learners through the ABESS Newsletter which also aims to keep tutors and other practitioners informed of developments and good practice in Adult Basic Education (ABE); it encourages networking within the sector and across sectors and it provides support for relevant initiatives such as National Year of Reading and the Brookside and BBC Library and Numeracy campaigns. Funding from the Lifelong Learning agenda - 1999 - 2002 - is being used: n to establish the Basic Skills Unit (BSU) which advises government on a strategy to tack poor basic skills. A separate response from BSU is enclosed. n to extend the Information, Advice & Guidance service throughout N Ireland, through the creation of an Information, Advice & Guidance Network led by EGSA. In EGSA's Information, Advice & Guidance Network we will be working to increase the supply of information, advice and guidance for potential adult learners by both increasing our own capacity to deliver services to clients and by linking with partners in colleges, training organisation, community sector agencies and the workplace. EGSA's Guidance Network Area Advisers (GNAA) are based in host organisations but work with all providers of impartial learners in their areas helping them to identify their most appropriate learning options and routes. But they are also building networks of guidance workers who are based in Colleges, Job Centres, training & community organisations and potential partners in community health, rural and work-based settings with whom to share guidance expertise, national standards of quality in guidance and access to EGSA's comprehensive information base. By providing
Information, Advice & Guidance for adults, we contribute to the human capital
dimension of the economy, and have a role in
enabling adults to make best use of learning opportunities, thus improving their
individual capability to:- - update existing qualifications; - improve their learning skills; - make effective choices in learning; - gain new qualifications to change vocational direction; - develop their self understanding as an active learner; - understand the factors which are constraints or enablers of their learning; - use effective strategies to progress in learning. Evidence suggests that those who benefited least from early learning are least likely to volunteer to return as adult learners. The benefits of Information, Advice & Guidance when delivered in a user centred manner are to strengthen and enable individuals whatever their role in the economy to become confidence learners with understanding and ownership of their reason for learning. Information, Advice & Guidance are central components of lifelong learning. Since June 1999, in partnership with Broadcasting Support Services (BSS), we have been operating the Learndirect helpline for Northern Ireland. The other way in which EGSA is making significant contribution to the Lifelong Learning agenda is as a funding body in EUSSPPR. Since its establishment in 1996, EGSA's Project Funding Support Unit (PFSU) has allocated approximately £5m to projects throughout N Ireland. Projects funded through EGSA under the Employment Sub Programme fell into three categories:- n community based guidance n Basic Skills provision n learner support A full list of projects funded through EGSA is enclosed with this response. The aim of the organisation is summarised in the phrase used as EGSA's "strapline" - Connecting Adults With Learning. By connecting adults with learning, EGSA makes a strong contribution to the promotion of social inclusion and the development of the N Ireland economic base. The needs of EGSA's users EGSA's services are widely available and it is difficult, therefore, to neatly categories our users. While many are unemployed, their qualification base ranges from none to postgraduate or professional qualifications. A large number might be classed as under-employed; others are employed in short-term, insecure posts. Many of our users are interested in learning for reasons not related to employment - eg to help them understand and assist with, their children's school experience and curriculum or as a means of reintegrating in society following a mental health problem. While learners with these particular motivating factors may not initially be interested in employment, they may at some future point - and it sufficiently encouraged - be prepared to join the workforce so it is important that the Committee pays attention to their needs as their potential contribution cannot be underestimated. Just as there is a wide range of users and motivating factors for learning, there is also a need for a wide range of learning provision and a corresponding difficulty in categorizing it. However, there are common needs which, if satisfied, could make a major contribution to widening participating in learning and to the role of learning in N Ireland's societal and economic development. Research has shown that the major barriers to learning can be summarised as follows:- Time, Cost, Lack of Appropriate Information and Advice, Lack of Confidence and Inconvenience. Initiatives in the Lifelong Learning agenda currently underway will make a significant impact to remove - or at least lower - those barriers. However, these need to be supported and sustained. We ask the Committee to pay particular attention to the following:- 1) There are many barriers, including attitudinal, to adults who need help to improve their literacy skills, but cost should not be one of them. We suggest the desirability of support for Basic Skills provision, to make it free at the point of use. 2) There is an issue of sustainability for the work of small voluntary and community based organisations which support adults at local level, and which provide accessible first stage learning opportunities. The combination of EGSA's IAG Network as indicated on page 2 and the learndirect helpline should clarify learning choices and demystify the "learning maze" of courses, qualifications and providers. IAG Network membership will include statutory learning providers, community based organisations - which include learning among their services, eg Taughmonagh Community Forum, Magherafelt Women's Group - and individuals and organisations whose primary function is not the provision of learning, eg rural community associations, local enterprise agencies. Many of these are providing access points for potential learners but, due to lack of secure funding, much of the good work they have been funded to carry out under, for example, EUSSPPR, will not be sustained. We urge the Committee to recognise the valuable role played by such organisation in the provision of education and training. 3) Unemployed learners should not be disadvantaged. ILAs will make a significant contribution to alleviating "cost" problem and the student finance review will, we hope, include measures to assist adults to overcome the problem. We draw Committee's attention to those adults who are engaging in formal learning while claiming Jobseekers Allowance or Income Support: closer co-operation is required between the relevant government departments to protect learners' eligibility for benefits while improving their employment prospects through study and the acquisition of qualifications. Others experiencing problems are those who are unable to afford to complete the National Vocational Qualifications they began under New Deal once they become unemployed. 4) The developing links between providers of learning and those concerned with employment and economic development are crucial. Accurate information about skills shortages should be widely available and should be circulated to learning providers and to those whose role is to support and promote learning. We believe there is value in greater co-ordination between the expectations of employers and the provision of training opportunities through Government programmes. Closer co-operation between providers and employers would be mutually beneficial and we believe that employers should be given every encouragement to develop the potential of all their workforce. Sharing of information and expectations will assist providers to tailor courses to meet demand: eg at present demand is high for courses which offer HTML & Java programming. There is now good potential to work closely in vocational areas on curriculum development drawing on the strengths of government, FE Curriculum development, the world of employment, learning providers and services which guide and advise potential adult learners. We hope that our comments will be helpful to the Committee's enquiry. We welcome the opportunity to meet the Committee and to provide any assistance to members in their consideration of this and other issues.
November 2000 topWRITTEN SUBMISSION BY: The Basis Skills Unit welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Northern Ireland Assembly's Committee for Higher and Further Education, Training and employment consultation on Education and Training for Industry. Established in 1999 within the Educational Guidance Service for Adults (EGSA), the Basic Skills Unit acts as an advocacy and advisory body to promote and develop quality basic skills learning opportunities for adults. One of the key developments in the Lifelong Learning Agenda, the Unit works closely with other initiatives including New Deal, Ufi / learndirect and EGSA's Information, Advice and Guidance Network. The Unit promotes and raises awareness of the needs of adults with literacy and numeracy difficulties. It provides support to practitioners and providers and acts as a funding body for developing basic skills learning opportunities in the voluntary/community sector. Guided by the Basic Skills Committee - a sub-committee of EGSA's Management Committee - under the Chairmanship of Richard Sterling, Chief Executive of Coolkeeragh Power Limited, the Unit has provided Government with a strategic framework for immediate action. The Basic Skills Unit has also recently published the 'Raising our Sights' document, which clearly sets out a long-term strategy for tackling the poor levels of literacy and numeracy amongst our adult population. (Copies of the document are enclosed with this response.) Vision: To make adult basic skills a key priority for everyone in Northern Ireland In the Basic Skills Unit's response we will attempt to draw evidence from a range of sources including the 'International Adult Literacy Survey' date, 'Strategy 2010', the 'Final Report of the National Skills Taskforce' and the 'Report on In-Company Training, Responding to Ireland's growing skills needs' amongst others. The Context: Some 24% of the adult population aged 16 - 65 were found to be performing at the lowest level of prose literacy ability as defined by the internationally agreed measurement instrument of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). Whilst not significantly different to levels in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland or the United States, Northern Ireland fared badly in comparison with other countries including Sweden and Germany. By no means a homogenous group, adults with basic skills difficulties are engaged in a range of everyday life activities. Whether in work, seeking employment, economically inactive or within our student population, the Adult Literacy Survey in Northern Ireland found statistical evidence of poor levels of literacy and numeracy attainment. Some 19% of adults within our workforce and a further 36% of the unemployed performed at level 1 - the lowest level -in the document literacy scale. In real terms, some 48,000 adults within our workforce have difficulty in understanding and extracting information from a batch order, a memo or indeed a simple graph. Mr David Blunkett MP stated at the Literacy Task Force conference in 1997: "Illiteracy carries economic costs as well as personal problems. The report 'Literacy and Training and their Impact on the UK economy' by Ernst and Young, suggests that illiteracy costs business and Government £10 billion a year." Poor levels of literacy and numeracy disadvantage individuals in accessing and contributing to the socio-economic benefits that can be obtained within a community. Those with poor levels of basic skills are most likely to be in the lowest income brackets, in receipt of social security benefits, unemployed and with lower levels of educational achievement. Adults with basic skills needs are not only participants within our workforce but they are also consumers within our economy. In a new era of peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland it is all the more important that everyone has the opportunity to have a stake in our community and to share in its future growth. The stabilising economic climate and continuing inward investment provide opportunities for greater participation in our workforce. The impact of globalisation and the emergence of the knowledge-based economy underpin these aspirations. 'A well-qualified workforce is a key determinant in attracting inward investment, promoting innovation and fostering indigenous economic growth. This is increasingly the case as modern economies move towards "knowledgebased" industries' (Strategy 2010, 1999). The e commerce revolution and the growth of tourism, financial and personnel services inevitably demand further skills of our workforce. Greater emphasis on communication and numeracy is inevitable and people are required more and more to utilise and apply these skills. The IALS survey alluded to this in its main findings when it stated: 'Even in those occupations with poor average proficiency levels on the three literacy dimensions, substantial proportions (a third to a half) of workers were regularly required to undertake activities that required reading skills'. What is even more striking is that the increased usage of these skills helps to improve and enhance an individual's proficiency. The adult literacy survey went further to suggest that: 'Generally, those that reported engaging in literacy activities at least once a week as part of their job demonstrated higher literacy skills on each dimension than those who reported engaging in these activities less frequently', (IALS, 1998). Literacy and numeracy skills are the essential building blocks that enable people to engage and progress with learning, they are the essential skills that help people access jobs and improve their prospects when in employment. Getting a job and the prospect of better employment are the main reasons that adults cite when seeking information about basic skills learning. The Basis Skills Agency for England and Wales qualified this fact in their recent survey into what motivates adults to seek basic skills. The MORI poll highlighted that 17% of adults would take up a learning opportunity if they could get a job and a further 13% to perform better at work. The unemployed adults of today will increasingly become the employed workforce of tomorrow. Greater co-operation between agencies that cater for the training of the unemployed and employers is imperative in ensuring that adults receive consistent learning opportunities. Access to basic skills learning when an individual is unemployed is limited and insufficient and quite often ceases if an individual secures employment. Only 6% of those participating in adult basic skills provision in 1999/2000 were in New Deal programmes. The voluntary/community sector successful in engaging those most disadvantaged experienced major upset as funding cycles came to an end and provision was markedly lower than in previous years. Current Provision: Throughout the past year the Basic Skills Unit, in association with a number of organisations and agencies, carried out widespread surveys on the landscape of provision within Northern Ireland. The baseline figure of participation within adult basic skills programmes within the last year was 5500, a far remove from the 250000 adults that require help. The surveys also revealed that basic skills provision is patchy; it lacks coherence and co-ordination and is constrained by the unstable funding culture that prevails in Northern Ireland. 'Good standards of literacy and numeracy are increasingly becoming important for jobs where they were not previously required. Significant numbers of those in the workforce, and of new school leavers, have low levels of literacy and numeracy. This will restrict the capability of many companies to improve their performance.Lower unemployment levels mean that they become an issue for a considerable number of newly employed people', (Report on In-Company Training, Responding to Ireland's growing skills needs, Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, 2000). A small-scale research of some 1700 workplaces undertaken for the Basic Skills Unit by Envision consultants, through the assistance of Business in the Community, found that 71% of employers did not offer basic skills training of any kind. Closer inspection of this statistic did not reveal a 29% picture of provision but rather a lack of understanding and confusion as to the nature of basic skills learning. Alarmingly a high percentage of employers screened out any potential basic skills difficulties and a further 47% did not think it necessary to offer basic skills training of any kind. Of the 20% return figure from the Envision survey some 91% of returns came from the SME sector. The owner/manager business will increasingly become marginalised if flexible provision is not catered for. |