17 December 2004
A senior MP has predicted that the government's ambition to improve adult literacy and numeracy skills will be an 'uphill struggle'.
Public Accounts Committee chair Edward Leigh said that, although the Department for Education and Skills had met its 2004 'Skills for Life' target — to increase the skills of 750,000 people — maintaining the standards would be a challenge.
'For example, the shortage of trained teachers limits capacity and there is still a great deal of variation in the quality of training,' Leigh said.
He was commenting on a National Audit Office report, published on December 15. Some 26 million people of working age have literacy and numeracy levels below those expected of school leavers. The government has committed £3.7bn to changing this through the Skills for Life strategy, launched in 2001.
But the NAO report warns that compliance with the 2010 target would require a further 1.5 million people to achieve a nationally recognised qualification, many of whom will be hard to reach. It recommends more flexible learning packages to attract people.
The DfES also needs to do more to involve employers and the voluntary sector in Skills for Life.
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