A report from Alistair Cunningham, Service Director for Economy and Enterprise, on the level of basic skills amongst people in Wiltshire. This follows the comment in the 2009 Common Area Assessment (CAA) that “too many people in Wiltshire do not have basic reading and maths qualifications. Public services have increased their targets for the number of people getting basic qualifications but it is not clear whether they have met them.”
Minutes:
Alistair Cunningham, Service Director for Economy and Enterprise, presented a report on the level of Basic Skills (amongst adults) in Wiltshire.
This initial report was requested following comments in the 2009 Common Area Assessment that “too many people in Wiltshire did not have basic reading and maths qualifications. Public services had increased their targets for the number of people getting basic qualifications but it was not clear whether they had met them.”
The following points were discussed:
(a) There was significant concern around data quality with respect to Basic Skills, specifically the data submitted by the Skills Funding Agency to support performance management of the LAA/Local Agreement for Wiltshire. There was little confidence in this data or target data and this concern had been escalated to the Skills Funding Agency directly.
(b) Although Wiltshire was within the lowest quartile of the statistics in relation to NI163 (working age population qualified to at least a Level 2 or higher), Wiltshire was performing well in relation to Basic Skills attainment in comparison to regional and national figures.
(c) 27% of Wiltshire’s working age population (approximately 73,000 people) have below Level 2 qualifications. Approximately 2,000 pupils left school in 2009/10 without 5 GCSEs or higher (the benchmark for Level 2), equating to a quarter of the county’s younger population.
(d) It had been thought previously that the overall level of Basic Skills in Wiltshire was skewed downwards by the number of people in the armed services, who tended to have fewer academic qualifications. In reality, those in the armed services often achieve degree-level qualifications as part of their employment training programme.
(e) Work was being done to identify all Basic Skills learning provision currently available in Wiltshire to ensure proper coordination by the Council. However, this was complicated by coinciding with the Coalition Government’s evolving agenda.
(f) A proposal existed relating to joined-up working between Connexions and Wiltshire College regarding pathways for NEETs, i.e. progression routes/opportunities to bring young people back into the job market. This was under consideration by the Wiltshire Programme Board.
(g) A Wiltshire Strategic Economic Partnerships would be established across a local geographic area. Wiltshire Council would work with Swindon and Gloucester, or Dorset & Poole and Hampshire Councils.
(h) Members considered whether the activity to increase Basic Skills in Wiltshire, enabled by receipt of a Performance Reward Grant, would benefit from consideration by a Task Group. As the Grant had only been received in April and the project was due to commence in August it was proposed that the Committee receive an interim report on activities at the beginning of 2011. This report would include details of what work was being undertaken to address the issues of commuter figures (a significant number of Wiltshire residents worked outside of the Wiltshire area) and the shortage of skilled workers in the manufacturing industry.
Resolved:
1. To note the report, including the progress made in improving the level of Basic Skills attainment in Wiltshire and the current and planned activity for maximising and sustaining this improvement.
2. To receive a further report in January/March 2011 on the planned activities of the Performance Reward Grant and an annual report thereafter.