Written question asked by Caroline Dinenage (Conservative) on Wednesday, 23 January 2013, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 1 February 2013. It was answered by Matt Hancock (Conservative) on Friday, 1 February 2013 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Basic Skills
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the implementation of the literacy and numeracy proposals made in his 2011 New Challenges, New Chances report.
[139935]
- Answer
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In the last spending review the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) secured continued funding of English and maths courses for adults who lack these basic skills. Provisional data for the full 2011/12 academic year show that there were 788,600 learners (aged 19+) taking an English qualification and 778,500 taking a Maths qualification, and we are now funding GCSE English and maths qualifications for adults from the 2012/13 academic year.
New freedoms and flexibilities have been put in place whereby FE colleges and providers have a single Adult Skills Budget which enables them to respond to learner and employer needs locally.
New unit-based English and maths qualifications that are tailored to the differential needs and learning patterns of adults are now available. These qualifications provide the necessary rigour and flexibility to support progression from lower levels towards a GCSE or other training.
New pilots are under way which are seeking to determine how providers can be funded on the basis of the skills gained by their learners, to incentivise providers to maximise skills acquisition.
As set out in ‘New Challenges, New Chances’, BIS is raising demand for maths improvement working through stakeholders rather than using a top-down approach as has been the case with previous campaigns.
In addition, BIS is undertaking a new programme of research and evaluation.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 139935; 557 cc970-1W
- Session
- 2012-13
- Subjects
- Literacy Numeracy
- Link
- View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2013-11-19 11:12:18 +0000
- URI
- http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2013-02-01/13020137000181
- In Indexing
- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2013-02-01/13020137000181
- In Solr
- https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2013-02-01/13020137000181