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Department for Education and Skills, 2005
This report is based on data from the 2003 Skills for Life
survey, which measured the literacy and numeracy skills
of 8,730 adults in England. The report looks at the relationship
between an adult's skills, their participation in basic
skills courses, and their earnings and participation in
the labour market. The report focuses on adults targeted
by the Skills for Life policy by excluding those holding
tertiary level qualifications.
Effects on earnings
Literacy and numeracy skills bring large earnings effects:
- Those with Level 1 literacy earn 12% more than those
with Entry level 3. However, the effect for Level 2 over
Level 1 appears to be negligible.
- Splitting the results by gender, there is a 26% effect
for women at Level 1, but a statistically insignificant
9% for men.
- Participating in a basic skills course appears to have
the greatest effect on earnings three or more years after
attending the course.
- People who hold few or no qualifications are those least
likely to participate in a basic skills course. They are
also the group whose earnings are most affected if they
do participate: three or more years later, earnings were
24% higher if they had taken part in a maths course and
12% for an English course.
Effects on labour
market activity
There is a clear association between literacy and numeracy
levels and labour market activity, even when controlling
for other factors:
- For women, literacy is more important than numeracy,
and the effect is largest at Level 1, where they are around
7% more likely to be employed than those at Entry level
3.
- Men with Entry level 1 or 2 literacy are 12% more likely
to be outside the labour market than men at Entry level
3. The correlation with Level 1 and 2 skills appears negligible.
- People with Level 1 literacy are just under 3% more
likely to be employed than those with Entry level skills.
Other factors affecting
literacy levels
- Adults have up to a quarter of a level higher literacy
and numeracy if they have a parent who stayed on in education
after the age of 16.
- Women who have been employed have a third of a level
higher in literacy than those who have never worked.
- Local deprivation has a small but significant negative
effect on literacy and numeracy levels.
- Having a child in the household has a small but significant
positive effect on men's literacy but, surprisingly, not
on women's.
- Ethnicity has a large effect: being from a black or
south Asian ethnic group is strongly correlated with poorer
literacy skills, particularly for women. The size of the
effects is surprising given that factors such as education
and having English as a first language were controlled
for in the study.
- Download the full report (reference RR712), or a summary
(RB712), from www.dfes.gov.uk/research.
- Alternatively, contact DfES Publications, PO Box 5050,
Sherwood Park, Annesley, Nottingham NG15 0DJ Tel: 0845
60 222 60. There is a charge of £4.95 for a printed
copy of the full report.
- For further information about the research contact Richard
White, Skills for Life Analysis Team, DfES, Level 6, Sanctuary
Buildings, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT. Email:
richard.white@dfes.gsi.gov.uk
- More on Skills for Life
J. Grinyer (2006) Literacy, numeracy
and the labour market: Further analysis of the Skills for
Life survey, London: Department for Education and
Skills
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