Government Skills
The Government Skills, Skill for Life Conference, took place on 27 February 2007 at Westminster Central and was attended by 160 delegates.
The theme of the conference was Skills for Life– Engaging to deliver, emphasising that everyone has a job to do ensuring literacy, numeracy and ICT needs are addressed in central government. It isn't enough to attend a conference once a year all of us need to play our part.
Government Skills used the conference to outline our view that:
Sir Richard Mottram, Chair of Government Skills, gave the opening address by setting the context of Skills for Life against overarching Government Skills objectives and what we aim to achieve as the 25th Sector Skills Council.
The keynote address was presented by Hugh Lanning, Deputy General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union ‘PCS’ and Skills for Life Board member. Hugh underlined the unions' commitment to work in partnership with management to deliver Skills for Life up to level 2 (Level 2 = 5 GCSE grades A*– C). He talked about areas where level 2 skills are needed to function efficiently in the workplace, in areas such as writing complex business reports, giving presentations or understanding and comparing government spending figures. He pointed to the urgent need to address Skills for Life drawing on the example that 53% of Department of Work and Pension staff are below level 2 in maths and 16% are below level 2 in English. Furthermore, 26% of middle management staff and above have maths levels below level 2. He emphasised the need to face the challenge of resistance from middle managers by acknowledging that skills fade occurs amongst government staff just as it does in the private sector. Hugh emphasised the benefits of improved Skills for Life which would lead to higher levels of accuracy and efficiency and boost to staff morale resulting in higher staff performance. He emphasised the benefits of Unions Learning Representatives ULRs in departments engaging with hard to reach learners and providing sensitive and confidential support. He stressed the commitment that employers should give to all staff to be screened and take up learning during work time.
Another presentation was given by Martyn Roads, Education Consultant, who presented two kinds of generic assessment tools that can be used to measure skills levels of staff – Skills Check and the Workplace Initial Assessment Tool which are now available in computer and paper based formats. The extensively trialled tools are now freely available. All delegates received a cd rom version in their delegate packs. Martyn explained the tools are freely available, assess up to and including level II, are based on adult literacy and numeracy standards, and are designed as an integral part of the learning journey. Martyn finished by explaining to delegates how to download the tool from the tools library or order from QIA publications.
If you would like a copy of the BSA-Army Lessons Learnt book (slide of front cover in my presentation), e-mail: enquiries@detsa.co.uk. A pdf file of the book will soon be available on the Basic Skills Agency website www.basic-skills.co.uk [External website].
Delegates had a choice of attending one of six breakout sessions in the morning and another of these in the afternoon. These sessions covered:
The plenary afternoon presentations offered by Martin Rose, from the MoD and Bob Blackman from the Immigration and Nationality Directorate showcased two examples of Skills for Life good practice in departments through using a whole organisational approach and taking on board lessons learnt.
Andrew McDonald, Chief Executive of Government Skills brought the conference to a close by reiterating and encouraging delegates to do three things:
Here follows some of the prototype materials we showcased at the event. If you would like to feedback comments on the conference or the Skills for Life strategy e-mail info@government-skills.x.gsi.gov.uk.
