Skills for Life and the Whole Organisation Approach

Skills for Life and the Whole Organisation Approach

survey report

Unionlearn learndirect and the Whole Organisation Approach – a brief summary of activity Unionlearn learndirect (formerly the TUC learndirect hub) are working as a pathfinder on the Whole Organisation Approaches to Skills for Life project. The project manager was appointed in April 2005, though the project itself has been underway approximately 18 months. It has had great successes so far, illustrated by a recent survey completed by unionlearn learndirect centres.

Specific actions that have been helpful when adopting a whole organisation approach include: Introducing the concept of the Whole Organisation Approach and the project plan at national meetings and conducting awareness-raising events before commencing new ways of working, to give people time to assimilate new ideas Working individually with centres across the country, via support visits, to provide hands-on support, linking action planning to adopting a whole organisation approach Introducing a quality improvement system focusing specifically on Skills for Life, where regular monitoring visits by an independent consultant lead to bespoke training and support where needed Organising regional and national training events, with topics including: using the DfES diagnostic assessment; using e-learning to support a blended approach; sharing and transferring best practice; using initial assessment effectively

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Skills for Life and the Whole Organisational Approach

Adopting multiple channels of communication to get the message across, including email bulletins, ‘Hub Brief’ newsletter, telephone support, regional Skills for Life focus groups, national Hub Partners’ Meetings, an interactive website (see below) and one to one support meetings Introducing a new management information system for monitoring learning centre staff qualifications, centre support and monitoring visits, action points, centres’ access to resources and qualified staff Ensuring Skills for Life and the principles of the Whole Organisation Approach have a high profile in the Hub’s business plan and management strategy, for example the ‘Supported Learning Venue Strategy’, with which all learning centres have to comply Creating a joined-up ILP system, which integrates Skills for Life, and records the learner’s journey from initial interview and assessment to planning targets and recording progress and achievement. This has been designed to support the move towards embedded learning in the future, as well as to provide a higher quality record of learning.

Introducing a self-assessment and full Initial Assessment in both literacy and numeracy as an integral part of all learners’ initial interviews and inductions, regardless of the subject they wish to study. In this way, SFL needs are identified early on; the idea of SFL as an integrated and important part of independent learning is introduced to the learner from the start, without giving the impression of a ‘deficit’ or ‘remedial’ approach. This has led to an increase in take-up of SFL provision. Learner responses to this have been overwhelmingly positive.

Creating an interactive website to disseminate good practice, circulate news from the Skills for Life field, share teaching and learning resources, discuss Skills for Life issues, distribute training resources and useful documents, contribute marketing and engagement ideas, share knowledge and provide networking opportunities (using Moodle, an e-learning platform).

95% of centres said they use the site regularly, or when they need to find specific useful information.

Running an embedding learning pilot at Newcastle College Trade Union Learning Centre, which will be rolled out to other centres as appropriate in the future.

Two learndirect modules of ECDL have been mapped to the Adult Literacy and Numeracy core curricula, and supporting documentation has been produced, including: mapping documents, outlining which chapters of each course require which literacy and numeracy skills; guidance documentation, containing specific detail about delivery of embedded learning in this context; assessment grids, which map ECDL course assessments to the assessment of Skills for Life targets; and ‘Quick Guides’ to setting up bespoke diagnostic assessments, to assess only those literacy and numeracy skills needed for a specific ECDL module.

Creating a blended e-learning version of the Level 2 Adult Learner Support Certificate, in order to provide learning centres with a more flexible route to the qualification, taking into account the geographical difficulties and time constraints of staff working in a national hub; and to contextualise the qualification to a union setting Ensuring that Skills or Life development is an integral part of centres’ SARs and development plans. This has led to a consistency of approach across the whole

organisation, as staff are now expected to achieve certain qualifications in relation to Skills for Life. All staff are now aware of what they should be working towards and this is now reflected in most centres’ individual staff development plans. On average, 76% of all staff working in unionlearn learndirect centres have staff development plans which focus specifically on Skills for Life training.

The scale of Skills for Life provision delivered by the organisation across the country has risen over the past year: from 24% of total enrolments in 04/05 to 44% of total enrolments in 05/06.

There have been significant changes to culture and attitude towards Skills for Life activities across the organisation. Skills for Life is no longer seen as an ‘add on’ activity and has become integral to the organisation at all levels. The stigma that was previously attached to literacy and numeracy provision has been reduced considerably, and it is starting to be seen as everyone’s business. In a recent survey, 100% of respondents said that learners’ awareness of Skills for Life had improved over the past year; 95% said that centre staff’s awareness had improved. All centres said that it is now not just the Skills for Life tutor who sees SfL as their business; in fact, 92% said that most or all their staff now see SfL as their business.

“The project has provided the necessary focus and catalyst for Skills for Life to become infused throughout the organisation. Centres are beginning to see Skills for Life as everyone’s business – I think this is one of the key successes of the project so far”.

Zoe Davies, Skills for Life Project Manager, unionlearn learndirect

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Skills for life Survey, conducted April 2006 89% (31 of 35) of medium centres who were currently live and delivering SfL at the time of the survey responded. 7 link centres responded.

Why adopt a Whole Organisation Approach to Skills for Life?

The survey asked whether centres understood why the hub was adopting a Whole Organisation Approach to Skills for Life: 95% of respondents said they did understand the reasons.

There were many positive comments about what the whole organisation approach means to the learning centres involved, including:

‘The WOA is ‘an integrated and blended system for supporting SfL learners’

‘To link SFL to all aspects of learning, in order to raise its importance throughout everyday life’

‘We are trying to embed skills for life in everything we do, so that it is not a "bolt-on" provision, but something that is the core of our work’

‘Learning for ALL, providing ALL learners the opportunity to progress and achieve qualifications.’

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‘The whole organisation approach, is to reach out to everyone who has skills for life needs.’

‘It is concerned with embedding skills for life into all aspects of learning and involving staff, support workers and ULRs at all levels.’

‘The initiative is is to get all members of all involved organisations to understand, participate and embrace the skills for life agenda, and not to leave the bulk at the desk of the SFL teachers or managers only. It is everyone's business in the organisation’

‘To break down barriers between Skills for Life and other provision’

Skills for Life as everyone’s business: awareness-raising The survey asked about whether, over the past year, the Whole Organisation Approach project has had an effect on awareness of Skills for Life as something that is everyone’s business. The results were extremely positive.

All respondents stated that their learners had an improved awareness of Skills for Life: 100% said that it had improved, and 63% said that it had improved significantly.

The vast majority of centres (95%) said that awareness of Skills for Life had improved for their learning centre staff, with 71% stating that it had improved significantly. All the centres stated that it is now not just the Skills for Life tutor who sees SfL as their business, but other staff as well; in fact, 92% said that most or all their staff now see SfL as their business. A large proportion of these (63%) actually stated that all their staff see Skills for Life as their business, which is an extremely positive outcome.

This may be in part due to training and development: on average, 76% of staff working in unionlearn learndirect centres now have staff development plans which focus specifically on Skills for Life training.

Initial assessments for all The survey asked about the effect of introducing literacy and numeracy initial assessments into all learners’ inductions; both their initial reactions and their evaluation six months later, when the system had been in place long enough to assess its effect.

The initial reaction when the scheme was first introduced was that most centres thought it was a good idea, but a fairly large proportion did not. This was not unexpected, as it was a huge change in the way centres operate during induction and initial interview. 63% of respondents said that they thought it was a good idea from the start, and their comments were positive about the effect they expected it to have, for example:

‘I thought it was generally a good idea to check literacy and numeracy skills to determine the level of skill before embarking on courses that may prove too difficult for learners.’

‘I thought it would give us the chance to offer skills for life to everyone. It meant we could say everyone has to do it and this meant learners would not feel awkward we had asked them. It also meant they could ask to carry on with skills for Life without been embarrassed’.

In contrast, a large proportion, 37%, said they were initially against the idea, or did not know whether it was a good idea or not. The reasons for this included:

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‘Not all learners want to do SfL; the induction period is cumbersome enough already; didn't want learners to feel they were being "tested" when first coming back to learning’

‘We did not want to 'scare' learners away if they were coming to learn other qualifications’

‘It would obviously make induction more time consuming as I wasn't sure if the learners would be keen to do it’

‘I was concerned that people would resent being asked to complete the assessment especially if they had qualifications above level 2’

‘I felt it might frighten off the very people we were trying to attract.’

‘I was not sure what to expect, increasing our workload.’

‘I thought it would turn people away, but I was wrong’ However, six months on, most centres (82%) said that it has had a positive effect on their provision. 18% are as yet undecided what effect it has had, but none of the centres felt it had had a negative effect. There were many comments about the positive effect it is having on learners in most centres, including:

‘I thought – here we go another initiative. But it has been very interesting to eat my words and

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Skills for Life and the Whole Organisational Approach

now I'm a firm believer in ensuring that the learner has the best advice on courses – so IA's give an indication to this for us’.

‘Having supported learndirect learners for a number of years there have been many learners who have struggled with their IT course. Often, it has been the element of Maths or English that they are struggling with rather than the technical/practical parts. If this had been identified using Initial Assessment, this would have helped the tutors to support them quite differently.’

‘I have not had any animosity regarding sitting the assessment and it provides an invaluable opportunity to offer further SFL courses and gain some information relating to the learner's ability’

‘There is no way of knowing which learners withdraw from courses due to SFL needs, by treating all learners the same we take away the stigma of SFL’

‘It has become the norm’

‘It has worked really well as the IA has offered support to learners if required and captured learners who may not have previously come forward for SfL.’

‘Learners are interested in their results. More interest in national tests. Improves confidence before learning.’

‘It has made many people see that they may have SfL needs they'd not considered before.’

‘Most learners welcome initial assessment when it is explained in the context of their progression and success. Learners are achieving better results in tests and our retention rate has increased.’

There remain some reservations from a small proportion of centres, such as:

‘Some learners, especially older ones, do not wish to tackle the assessments if they are there to learn about computer skills. This can be a turn off for them. After sitting through the induction, some accept doing the IA as beneficial, some would rather get on with the course they are interested in. All our SfL learners can see the logic in doing the IA to start their learning journey’

‘Whilst those we have enrolled haven't objected to doing an assessment, there's no way of knowing who we've frightened off.’

‘It is fine for SfL learners. Some IT learners have been interested in addressing their literacy and numeracy skills, some have been annoyed at being asked about their literacy/numeracy skills.

It can make the process of induction longer especially for IT learners as it can be a couple of sessions before they can get on and start what they came to do.’

The effect of introducing initial assessments into inductions on learning centre staff has also been predominantly positive. Although there were one or

two negative comments, such as ‘[It has] slowed us down’ and caused an ‘increase in paperwork’, the majority made positive comments, including:

‘Definitely makes all staff more aware, they all feel part of the SfL process.’

‘It means I now have a springboard with which to promote the SFL courses and opportunities’

‘Everyone is aware of Skills for Life and now see it as part of the provision.’

‘…tutor time can be spent with the learner in a more productive way.’

‘Staff feel more confident supporting learners when their level of need has been identified.’

‘It has increased the length of time that it takes to complete registration and enrolments but has raised staff awareness of SfL issues. Staff now feel more confident that they are enrolling learners on courses at the correct level for them.’

‘It has helped all centre staff become more aware of the SfL process. Staff have gained in confidence in using diagnostics with learners and have begun to accept that SfL is equally important as ICT for the centre.’

‘From a staff perspective, IA saves time [and] aids motivation because they know they can start teaching at [the] right level.’

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The effect of introducing SFL initial assessments on take-up of SFL courses and qualifications was also significant. Although a small minority of centres said that it had had a ‘neutral impact’, or had made ‘no difference’ or ‘increased it marginally’, the national figures speak for themselves. The scale of Skills for Life provision delivered by the organisation across the country has risen over the past year: from 24% of total enrolments in 04/05 to 44% of total enrolments in 05/06 (1st April-31st March). Comments included:

‘We are capturing learners who may not have come forward to progress with numeracy or literacy but they feel comfortable to discuss and take forward their learning once the support has been discussed regarding SfL ’

‘We have learners change their mind from interest in following IT learning to being surprised about their current level of both Maths and English and pursue learning for GOLA [National Tests].’

‘The effects have seen an increase in learners taking up Basic Skills and ESOL courses, as well as a slight increase in other courses.’

‘It has increased awareness and take up of SfL courses’.

Support and training around Skills for Life Skills for Life support visits:

‘…little impact on course up take, but a positive impact on achievement as learners put onto the right course.’

Support visits are offered to centres as part of the quality monitoring process, and to support the work around the Whole Organisation Approach project; they are arranged at the point of need, with some centres having received more than one and some not having needed any so far. 29 of the respondents had had a support visit around Skills for Life. Most centres (89%) found the visits useful, while 6% (2) stated that it was not useful, 3% (1) said that it had a negative effect and another 3% (1) stated that they were unsure of the effect.

This is, in the main, a positive result. While there will always be some friction caused when trying to implement new ways of working, most centres have found they have got a lot out of their support visits.

Comments have included:

‘The support and guidance was useful in that we have changed process in recording development and supporting learners.’

‘Very supportive visits.’

‘Increased take up of sfl courses and qualifications’

‘We have now achieved 58% SFL funding and 110 test – need I say any more’.

‘The effect has been dramatic with a significant increase in take up of courses and qualifications.’

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‘helped improve structure, content and organisation of learners files on and offline.’

‘We welcome the audits and find out were we need to improve, it also nice to see where we are doing well.’

‘We were able to voice any concerns we had and were given support and advice on all issues. The requirements for test conditions in the centre were clarified and help was given on improving our confirmation notes and SMART targets. It helped to know that support and advice was there whenever we need it.’

‘…every visit is a positive experience and I always learn something new to carry out/implement on their departure.’

‘SFL tutor and staff gained a better understanding of why the processes in SFL are so important and felt more confident in dealing with SFL. I believe sharing good practice throughout the hub can only improve the provision we provide to learners’

‘We have had excellent help ... As a new SFL L4 tutor this has been invaluable and delivered in a very professional and helpful manner. Staff training to L3 have made similar remarks.’

Other comments were:

‘Most of the stuff covered was quite high level and technical and only really related to level 4 support, so we probably didn't disseminate it to other centre staff as well as we might have.’

‘I felt the visit was not supportive in the main, some parts were useful.’

‘Even without the SFL visit, I feel the centre is capable of dealing with issues.’

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General hub support visits

‘Course Reviews’ were not being used as much.

As part of the exit strategy for the Skills for Life project, it is planned that hub support staff will receive training to enable them to take up the role of supporting and monitoring Skills for Life once the Skills for Life team have reached the end of their tenure. The survey asked whether centres felt that hub staff were currently able to fulfil this role. The results confirm that there may be a need for this further training.

There was a need for development in this area. Most centres (76%) felt that if the ‘Sharing Good Practice’ area was contributed to more by centres, it would be much more useful. Centres felt that all the other sections would also be more useful if there was more contribution, with the highest scores going to the ‘Shared Teaching Materials’ and ‘Recommended Teaching Resources’. The fact that the ‘News’ section is not being used as much as other sections shows that this needs to be developed, as it has the potential to be one of the primary ways for centres to keep up to date with Skills for Life issues.

50% of centres feel that hub support staff are able to deliver support around Skills for life issues, while the other 50% either do not know, or think they are unable to. However, 78% felt that current support and monitoring visits do give them useful information around Skills for Life, which is in itself a positive figure.

Comments around the Skills for Life website have included:

68% of users stated that they would find a new and improved ‘Sharing Good Practice’ area useful. This would enable centres to share a more interactive experience, for example to discuss Skills for Life issues, discuss the usefulness of case studies and provide networking opportunities (both regionally and nationally). A new interactive site has been set up as a result, using Moodle, an e-learning platform.

This is due to be launched at Skills for Life focus groups taking place in May and June 06. This event will enable centre staff to have time to explore the website when not under the pressure of work in the centre. The site will contain more information, as it is able to be updated easily; and there is the opportunity for centres to discuss individual learndirect courses as part of the discussion forums, which may mean more people contribute to it.

‘A great site... a really useful resource!’

Training events Skills for Life website A Skills for Life website has been developed for hub centres, to disseminate good practice, circulate news from the Skills for Life field, share teaching and learning resources, distribute training resources and useful documents, contribute marketing and engagement ideas and share knowledge. 95% of centres said they make good use of the site; frequently (16%), regularly (26%), or when they need to find specific useful information (50%). The mostused parts of the site were: ‘Shared Teaching Materials’, ‘Recommended Teaching Resources’, and ‘Useful Documents’. ‘Useful Websites’ and ‘Sharing Good Practice’ were also being used fairly well. The other sections, ‘News’ ‘Marketing & Engagement’ and

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‘…Its the time, there isn’t much time left to look at this great web site, when running a centre.’

‘it's very good and clear.’

‘I feel that the SFL team are doing an excellent job.

The website is very well set out with plenty of information.’

‘should be more user friendly’

‘Needs more information on the site’

‘More course reviews of learndirect courses.’

Training events delivered as a result of the project have had a positive effect on centre staff and centre provision. Not all centres have had staff who have attended all the sessions, which is an ongoing issue when trying to organise training events. Although training takes place in 4 regions, it is not always possible for centres to attend on the specified days.

All training materials are subsequently made available via the website, but not all centres make use of this facility.

92% of centres had staff who had attended ILP training, and 82% had cascaded this to other staff in their centre.

71% had attended the DfES Diagnostic Assessment training, and 63% had cascaded this to other staff in their centre.

63% had attended a SfL focus group on developments in Skills for Life and 34% had cascaded this to other staff in their centre.

37% had attended a SfL focus group on creating elearning resources using Word, PowerPoint, etc and 21% had cascaded this to other staff in their centre.

71% had attended a workshop on SMART targets and all of these, 71%, had cascaded this to other staff in their centre.

As to the usefulness of these events, most centres (95%) said that these events have translated into the adoption of new or improved working practices, with 55% stating that they have translated into some new or improved working practices, and 39% stating that they had translated into the adoption of a significant number of new or improved working practices. (2 respondents did not give any answer.)

Centres would like to see all of the events repeated, in particular the DfES diagnostic assessment training (66%) and the SfL focus group on creating e-learning resources (63%). Suggested future training events were accepted as being relevant, including: a focus group around sharing / creating resources (58%), a focus group on sharing best practice (53%)and UfI’s training on taking learners from ‘Engagement to Achievement’ (47%). Other suggestions from centres include: ‘How to attract and encourage those with real literacy & numeracy problems and not just those who require 'brushing up' of those skills’; ‘I would like to see the Hub offer the Diagnostic assessment to all

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centre staff not just sfl tutors’; ‘individual training sessions, eg. on teaching spelling, reading, dyslexia issues’; ‘A centre managers forum for discussing how to bring additional funding for learning…’ and ‘Delivering SFL to high quality and also becoming sustainable’.

As a result of this, future training events have been planned, including a focus group on sharing good practice at the end of May and in June 06, where the new website will be launched and the results of the survey will be disseminated. Over the next few months, we will deliver the DfES diagnostic assessment training again, and offer this to level 2 staff as well as level 3 and 4; we have added a forum on the new website around funding and sustainability, and another on marketing and engagement; we will run another focus group on creating e-learning resources; and we will consider running sessions on individual issues such as teaching spelling.

Comments around training events included:

‘…we are far more knowledgeable talking with the SfL tutor and the learners around SfL’

‘improved learning plans, higher standards re learner management. Awareness of DDA and impact on centre’

‘Improved SAR development plan. Improved skills for life provision due to accurate diagnostics.

Improved relationship with the HUB’

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‘Once again the training we receive only help's the centre to improve and to find a wider resources other than Learndirect’

‘We have a greater understanding of the DfES Diagnostic Assessment and are able to support learners. Similarly the ILP training helped staff fill in the relevant parts of this form. The workshop on SMART targets has helped train ULRs in Link centres as they were having difficulties creating SMART targets’

‘We are now more confident when completing ILPs and are managing to make our targets SMART(ER). We now feel more confident about using the DfES diagnostic assessment which we feel is a superior tool.’

‘SMART targets have been the biggest demon.

These are getting easier due to the work carried out on the training course.’

‘Training on ILP has led to improved SfL ILPs. Learners ILPs are now more specific to them and incorporate SMART targets. DfES diagnostic training has led to increased use of the tool’

Staff qualifications

New simplified hub policy documents

There has been a large number of qualifications undertaken by centre staff this year. Within the centres who responded,

The survey asked what impact centres feel the introduction of new, simplified versions of the Hub policies has had on learners’ understanding of those policies.

37 have taken Module 1 of the Adult Learner Support Certificate (even before the availability of the new Hub online version of this qualification)

28 have taken the full Level 2 Adult Learner Support Certificate

22 have taken the Level 3 Subject Support Certificate

63% said that it had had a positive impact, 32% said it had had no effect at all, and 3% (1) said that it had had a negative impact. 1 did not respond.

This shows that is has, in the main, been a positive development – however, there may be a need to introduce some other way of improving learners’ understanding of the policies, perhaps by introducing a quiz that is given to the learner some time after their induction to test their knowledge.

32 have taken the Level 4 Subject Specialist Certificate

90 have taken the ULR 3-day training on ‘Skills for Life and the Union Role’ (which is similar in content to Module 1 of the Adult Learner Support Certificate).

‘We, as a learning centre are using the DfES Diagnostic much more effectively and are now on the verge of having or first in house testing.’

‘Gives an idea how things can be improved given enough time and resources’

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Conclusions The first phase of the Skills for Life project has provided the necessary focus and catalyst for change.

There has been gradual progress towards Skills for Life becoming a key part of the organisation’s operations. Staff working in learning centres have worked hard to implement new practices and have made a real difference to the status of Skills for Life within their organisations.

Centres understand the reasons behind the adoption of a Whole Organisation Approach to Skills for Life.

There have been significant changes to culture and attitude towards Skills for Life activities across the organisation. It is no longer seen as an ‘add on’ activity and has become integral to the organisation at all levels. The stigma that was previously attached to literacy and numeracy provision has been reduced considerably, and it is starting to be seen as everyone’s business. This is one of the key successes of the project so far.

The effect of the introduction of initial assessments as part of learners’ inductions has been overwhelmingly positive, leading to enhanced awareness, improved learner support and greater take up of Skills for Life learning opportunities.

Skills for Life support visits, where bespoke training and support is carried out by the project team within individual learning centres, have had a positive effect; and these, coupled with training events carried out regionally and nationally, alongside the hard work and dedication of centre staff, have led to the adoption of new and improved working practices.

A need for further training has been identified, which is planned to take place over the rest of the life of the project.

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The website has been a positive development, giving access to useful information. A need for development here has also been identified, part of which is already underway. The new interactive site will be launched in May and June 06.

The work carried out as a result of this project needs to be continued once the Skills for Life team have left.

As part of the exit strategy for the Skills for Life project, it is planned that hub support staff will receive training to enable them to more confidently take up the role of supporting and monitoring Skills for Life.

The next phase of the project will concentrate on embedded teaching and learning, and continue the training and development work begun in the first phase. The success of the project so far is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the learning centres involved.

Zoe Davies, Skills for Life Project Manager, May 2006 ‘The Whole Organisation Approach to Skills for Life is a positive and significant step forward for unionlearn's learndirect provision. Unionlearn is committed to seeing how the lessons learned through this pathfinder project can be applied and rolled out through our new organisation to ensure that Skills for Life underpins all we do. Unionlearn is committed to becoming an exemplar “whole organisation” in Skills for Life. We are delighted with the successes of the pathfinder project so far, and look forward to seeing exciting developments in the future.’

Liz Smith, Director, unionlearn

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Contact Zoe Davies Skills for Life Project Manager – unionlearn learndirect zdavies@tuc.org.uk Cheryl Noble Skills for Life Project Worker – unionlearn learndirect cnoble@tuc.org.uk unionlearn learndirect office TUC Commercial Union House 39 Pilgrim Street Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6QE

Useful Websites unionlearn learndirect Skills for Life www.unionlearn.org.uk/centres/index.cfm?mins=67&minors=67 Whole Organisation Approach www.woasfl.org learndirect website: www.learndirect.co.uk