The Pathfinder experience
Jenny Gartland, director, Thanet Basic Skills Partnership
 

As one of ten Pathfinder projects set up by the Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit at the Department for Education and Skills, the Thanet Basic Skills Partnership has been involved in testing out the new adult basic skills standards, curriculum and national tests.

Our rationale for getting involved was to increase our expertise in basic skills teaching, assessment and testing. Equally, national Pathfinder status would, we hoped, increase the profile of basic skills activity in Thanet.

We were right on both counts. We have trained 51 tutors in the new literacy curriculum and 58 in the new numeracy curriculum. In response to training evaluations, we have been able to organise supplementary training. Literacy staff have requested more advice on teaching grammar.

Basic skills staff at Thanet College and Kent Adult Education in Thanet have developed their expertise through running the first national assessment tests and target skills assessment. We were very pleased with the number of volunteers who decided to take the tests - nearly 150 in all. They, and the staff involved, were able to contribute to the national evaluation and influence future testing. We were able to make suggestions regarding the flexible availability of the tests and how students with disabilities might be enabled to take them. We were also able to experience first hand the courage of students who were keen to take the tests even though many of them found it an ordeal. A number of them were taking a written test for the first time in their lives.

Pathfinder status and the success of many partnership activities has strengthened the partnership and given it publicity and recognition that it might not otherwise have had locally. Local newspaper coverage has been responsible for this in part, but I think much more has been the result of networking, official and unofficial, in the voluntary sector, health sector and in fact all those involved in the partnership. We are now consulted at the planning stage of local developments on how basic skills provision may be incorporated. We have developed a joint strategic plan with Sure Start in Millmead, which we are using as a prototype for work with other voluntary organisations. Kent Maritime Chamber of Commerce is now coordinating an employers' breakfast on our behalf. Employment services in East Kent have now joined our steering group and we have increased the number of partuers that we work with during the course of the Pathfinder.

From the start of the Pathfinder experience we were looking forward to the action research stage. We have been surprised and pleased with the excellent results of a two-week, 60 hours intensive course on IT and literacy. Kent Adult Education in Thanet and Thanet College are both planning residentials around basic skills. Other Pathfinders are trialling incentives for basic skills training and the part withdrawal of benefit from claimants who are diagnosed as needing basic skills training. The support that the Pathfinder money has given to basic skills work in Thanet has meant that we can continue to experiment with confidence.

It has been extremely hard work for all the staff involved but we are beginning to see increased recruitment and achievement on basic skills courses in Thanet. We now have to consider training more teachers to keep pace with expansion. The network of those trained to advise and refer potential basic skills students has increased considerably since all Thanet library staff, community volunteers, employment services staff and Sure Start staff are now trained, with other 'gatekeepers' lined up for training.

We have had considerable help through sharing our experiences with other Pathfinders and being part of networks like the National Literacy Trust's Literacy Partnerships Network.
 

Thanet Basic Skills  Partnership was set up to improve the basic skills achievement of children and adults in Thanet through a community-based multi-agency approach. The partnership is supported by Kent County Council, East Kent Council For Voluntary Service, East Kent Social Services, Thanet District Council, Kent Maritime Chamber of Commerce, The Kent Careers Service and Thanet College. If you would like more information on the Thanet Pathfinder contact Jenny Gartland on 01843 583553 or tbsp@lineone.net. For further information on the Adult Basic Skills Strategy visit www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus.

 
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