John Hallsworth

The Centre for Employment Initiatives (CEI), Eccles/Manchester

Good morning, my name is John Hallsworth from the CENTRE FOR EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVES. We are the partner in Great Britain for the SOKRATES project. In my talk I would like to tell you something about CEI, who we are and what work we do. That is to say a bit on how the government has reacted so far and then give you a summary of the Moser Report which has defined very decisively how people in England think, what ways forward there are and what possible approaches there are to a problem which is really very difficult in Great Britain. However I know from discussions with our other partners that this problem also exists in the rest of Europe. I would also like to say something about the future, where we could go from here and finally I would like to say something about the contribution this project has made to the improvement of basic skills and basic education and then go a little into how we in Great Britain have contributed to this project.

The CEI, the CENTRE FOR EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVES is in Eccles, Manchester. We are an economic, social and political research counselling centre, non-profit and we are regarded as a CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE for employment initiatives. We work in a range of topics and areas, but concentrate on small and medium-sized companies. We have a lot to do with the development of basic education and basic skills and the development of lifelong learning also concerns us. I have the feeling that lifelong learning is still more of a word and we haven’t really put it into practice yet. What does this really mean for people? We can talk about education from the cradle to the grave but how does this help people to develop their own lives and their own potential so that they can contribute to the society in which they live? We are very much devoted to the setting up of a civil society and the development of basic education and basic skills is, we feel, a basic components of this. We have talked about low basic education, about people who are having to adapt to the changes in the global market. If not everyone has this ability because of his or her education and the ability to take on these changes then a number of people will exist who are socially excluded from this process. This will have an effect on society, solidarity and stability. Projects with which we have been involved in the field of basic education and basic qualifications are for instance, projects on reading and writing skills at work. I must however say that this is not quite as well-established in Great Britain, as Monika Tröster has indicated, there are however examples of basic literacy and numeracy skills being built on and developed at work.

The question is, however, one of how we can design this as a lasting whole not so that trainers and teachers come in and carry out training sessions and leave the place of work again, but rather how a programme can be set up at the workplace where people can build up these skills at work and where the employees themselves carry out this training so that others can benefit from their experience. Furthermore we have been part of programmes for basic education and skills for adults and young people. This is always a big challenge, to make sure that the training programmes are also accepted. That is regardless of method and learning or patterns which exist. We are engaged in developing training material for a number of school and vocational training schemes, mainly connected with basic education and basic qualifications. What I can say about the state of basic education is that every fifth adult in England cannot read or write properly, is functionally illiterate. This is a relatively high number of people who are not able to act and function in normal life, at least not at a level at which they could make a significant contribution. If we take numeracy skills, the problem is even greater. If we don’t have well-trained workers in England then this will influence our chances of being economically successful. The government has recognised this. As well as this there is the problem that basic skills education in England has been marginalised, it is not mainstream, it is not the main issue for many educational institutions and I have to say that teaching basic education and basic skills has very low status in comparison to other institutions. Many simply do not regard it as important.

As well as this it is expected that every trainer in a programme devotes him or herself to teaching basic skills. This will not happen, because of course each trainer only does his part of the curriculum, that is, they have people in the group who get no benefit from this programme because they cannot really take part and this will continue to be the case. And also I think that there is a certain stigma attached to those people who try to improve their basic skills, not necessarily as a problem for the individual but the attitude exists that something is not quite right with them and there will only be a few who speak up and say "Yes, I can’t read write or deal with numbers very well." Very few of us would be brave enough to admit this and above all those who realise that they have a problem are the last ones to come forward and say "This is my problem, I want to do something about it". Just finding out where the real needs of the individuals exist is a big challenge to start with.

In a changing society which applies to England and to the whole of Great Britain, a lack of basic education makes things difficult or inaccessible. If the economy, industry changes, or if the global market changes, then for most of it is really a daily struggle to keep up with this or at least to cope with the changes. But those with little basic education are even less able to cope with these changes, to develop their capabilities appropriately, whether these are computer skills or other job-related qualifications which they may need for their work. So we have a group of people with little basic education and if nothing is done here then they will become even more marginalised and excluded. And as has been said already, a real problem will exist for the solidarity of a society and the ability of a society to provide each member with chance of learning and keeping a job.

The government’s attitude in England tells us that something dramatic must happen, that it is not enough to say we have a problem here. This is very ingrained and the government has seen that only if we bring about dramatic fundamental changes, will we be able to improve anything here. This means, the government has said we need really dramatic fundamental measures of high priority to be able to reduce the numbers of adults with little basic education. From November 1999 to April 2000 the government provided £16,000,000 for improvements to the quality and the access to education. The question is what effect these measures will have and here I come back to what Professor Nuissl has already said, unfortunately we don’t always get the funds we need or deserve or should get for basic education. But we should definitely see what success these dramatic measures do have and really prove that they work.

Now a few remarks on the Moser Report. This is a report presented by a working group chaired by Sir Claus Moser. I am pleased that one member of this group will be in the panel discussion this afternoon. Obviously I can’t tell you everything that is in the report but I will try to summarise briefly these points which are relevant to our project. The Moser report presented a national strategy for tackling the problem and I think this is important. A lot of good work has already been done, very importantly trainers are involved but the whole thing was not very well co-ordinated. This means that the recommendation to the government says that a national strategy is necessary. We must establish national objectives to approach the problem not only in order to better qualify the trainers, the training staff, but also to improve the programmes available to those people with little basic education. Furthermore, according to the report, we need a national campaign to increase participation. We know that this is a problem, we know that people rarely come forward themselves but we must make access for these people easier so that they can get into a learning situation, wherever this may be. That means also thinking about where we offer these programmes. A lot is being done here, not only in traditional courses, in colleges and universities but also locally in towns and communities in order to come to where the people are and not just to put them in some institution, in some organisation which represents a blockade, a barrier for the learning process in itself and finally we must extend and improve the possibilities and their justification.

All this taken together can improve the quality of life for the individual and improve chances of getting a job. If we can achieve this then we will have a workforce which is better prepared for changes and challenges in the future. The Moser Report also suggests how this could be done. What is interesting is the potential at the workplace. A colleague from the British Trade Union Organisation USDO worked with me and thought about what role they could play by calling on all trade union members to get involved and work together with employers to find out how training could be done at the place of work. This is a very difficult struggle, a difficult process but if it says in the Moser Report that a role is assigned to employers, then I hope we will see this kind of activity more in the future. And so to the future in general. The Moser Report has basically identified three main steps. First we must lay a solid foundation, the structures already exist for this, they are just scattered about all over the place and we have to put them together to make a whole so that we really have a national foundation on which we can build. For this we need a gradual change in the participation and also a change in that which is achieved in the learning processes. We must ensure that we actually reach those people who often fall through the net. We may have a structure which is very tightly-knit but still some people fall through it and this is what we have to prevent. Apart from this we need innovation, innovative approaches for offering education and also improved partnerships, co-operation between those who are involved in learning.

To finish off, I would like to present the work of the British group in the Socrates project and outline those contributions to the project which we could make in future. We have set up a national group of practicians, mainly in the Northwest of England, for instance with colleges like Thameside College and the University of Derby. They are concerned mostly with the national aspect and contributions to this project. But we also involved people who work in community groups, for instance for town councils, who really bring the programmes to the people, who carry responsibility for publicising the programmes within the cities. What we have done throughout the whole project was to play our part when it came to increasing awareness for basic education and related themes. The project helped to provide guidance and orientation for the training staff. I think many of us have also been trained as trainers but then when you stand in front of a class for the first time and have learners in front of you think "I wish I knew what to do now" and that is where we come in. We hope to give new trainers a little guidance in dealing with certain problems which confront them in everyday life. What makes sense is picking out good European practices. If people from various countries get together and exchange ideas then we see where we are similar but also where the differences lie. What can then be identified in a process like this is this good practice whether in Germany, Italy or wherever else in Europe and we must develop and continue to develop this approach in our learning programmes so that they really work over national borders. And finally I think we have laid the foundations for future work. A project like this should not just come to an end, there is no natural end for project work like this. There is always somewhere one can go, a next step which can be taken from the present step. We have laid the foundations in this project and can build on these in the future. That’s all for now. Thank you for your attention.