Basic skills support
Liz Clague
 
The keySKILLBUILDER system developed by the West Nottinghamshire College offers interactive computer-based assessments to help further education students improve their basic skills. It will be linked to the new adult core curriculum as part of the drive to raise adult literacy standards. Liz Clague, programme tutor for adult basic education, reports.

Local statistics from the Basic Skills Agency indicate that levels of functional literacy and numeracy in the area served by West Nottinghamshire College are well below the national average. Mansfield is an area where mining and textiles used to be the main source of work. This clearly impacts not only on our dedicated basic skills courses, but on the whole college provision because students enrolling on mainstream courses may not have the basic literacy and numeracy skills required. Our basic skills and key skills strategies therefore provide a major focus for our services.

Over the last few years, we have invested a lot of time in finding solutions to the many problems associated with providing appropriate learner support. Our keySKILLBUILDER system is a product of this and is now being used by around 400 colleges and training providers nationally. It offers interactive computer-based diagnostic assessments which generate individual action plans for each student, including the maximum mark available for each skill; the actual mark achieved; recommended action and cross-referencing to keySKILLBUILDER workbooks. These provide a robust starting point for teaching. For less self-confident students, a paper-based assessment is available. Across the college, we provide diagnostic assessments for all full-time students with potential literacy or numeracy needs within their first two weeks so that appropriate support can be provided.

So that we can respond to a broad range of needs, we have developed a comprehensive framework for Additional Learning Support (ALS). This helps students who are disadvantaged in a range of ways (through disability, social situation, psychological issues etc.), but, particularly, literacy and numeracy below Level 2. Support may be provided through one-to-one sessions with specialist tutors; in small groups (from a 1:4 to 1:8 staff-student ratio), or within a course, where a specialist joins a class to work with individual learners. The process is reviewed regularly to ensure quality of provision and the development of new approaches. A key focus this year is the integration of the new adult literacy and numeracy core curricula.

A vital part of bask skills provision is the student's Individual Learning Plan (ILP), ensuring a truly learner-centred approach. It comprises:

• an initial interview with, and assessment of, each learner
• the negotiation of learning goals within an agreed time-scale
• a breakdown of the steps to be taken by the student to reach his/her goal, with emphasis on the skills to be learned
• a schedule of regular reviews to monitor progress and re-negotiate goals

All basic skills practitioners follow a similar process but ILPs do vary in character depending on the context. The new adult core curriculum is very detailed in nature and will necessitate some standardisation.

This new curriculum is intended to provide teachers with "a comprehensive framework to help identify and meet each person's individual learning needs, including examples of teaching strategies they can use" (Malcolm Wicks, MP, recent Minister for Lifelong Learning). It is intended to be to post-16 basic skills what the national curriculum is to schools and improve the quality of teaching and learning.

A key part of the National Adult Basic Skills Strategy has been the creation, nationally, of 10 pathfinder projects to pilot the new curriculum, national basic skills tests and implementation strategies. West Nottinghamshire College is part of the Nottinghamshire Pathfinder Project. So far, the project has run 10 regional three-day basic skills intensive training events on the adult core curriculum, to be followed by further Basic Skills Agency events for tutors delivering six hours or more of bask skills per week. Almost 200 tutors have been trained so far.

From September onwards, we hope to pilot extension activities to explore the best models for embedding the new curriculum into provision and to extend range, quality and quantity.

There is much to do and still much to learn, but there has never been such an exciting time to teach basic skills. One of my daughters recently said to me, "Don't you have an exciting job? You never know what you are going to be doing." I remind myself of this when it all gets a little too exciting.
 
 

Liz Clague is a Basic Skills Agency regional trainer who delivered the national three-day basic literacy intensive training. For more information on keySKILLBUILDER call 01623 627181 ext 5127.

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