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National Audit Office report on Skills for Life

In June 2008 the National Audit Office (NAO) conducted a study in to the Skills for Life strategy to assess progress made by DIUS and LSC in improving adult literacy, numeracy and English language skills. The NAO has statutory authority to report to Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which departments and other bodies have used their resources. The report highlighted some significant achievements and also some areas for improvement. The key areas of success were:

  • Meeting and exceeding our PSA targets**
  • Increasing participation and achievement
  • Engaging more employers
  • Engaging more hard-to-reach learners
  • Increasing the diversity of learning providers

The main areas highlighted for improvement included:

  • Not enough take up of Skills for Life through Train to Gain
  • The voluntary sector and a wide range of Government services (e.g. jobcentres) could be utilised more to engage learners in Skills for Life
  • A step change is needed in the provision of numeracy

For more details, please read the summary or full report - details below.

 

To read the NAO press notice, please click here.

To view and download the full NAO report, please click here. [1.2 Mb]

To view and download the executive summary of the NAO report, please click here. [200 Kb]

 

Following the publication of the report, the Public Account Committee - a cross-party group of MPs - held a hearing on Skills for Life with evidence given by Mark Haysom (Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Council) and Stephen Marston (Director General for FE and Skills, DIUS). The full transcipt of the hearing can be seen by clicking here.

Full transcript of PAC Hearing

 

** The PSA targets were for 750,000 achievements by 2004 (met in November 2004), and 1.5m achievements by 2007 (met in February 2007). Since the NAO report was published it has been announced that the 2010 target for 2.25m achievements has also been met, two years early (June 2008). For more information on this, please click here.