These are the conclusions from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee:

1. Despite the Department spending £5 billion between 2001 and 2007 on trying to improve the levels of literacy and numeracy, England still has an unacceptably high number of people who cannot read, write and count adequately



2. Even if the Department achieves its 2020 ambition, the nation's skills levels will only be raised to a level currently achieved by the top 25% of OECD member countries



3. The Department has made far less progress in strengthening numeracy skills than literacy skills and still has an enormous amount to do to raise the skills of those with poor numeracy skills to a competent level



4. Lack of up to date information on the skills of the population nationally, and by region, means that the Department cannot be sure that its programmes are equipping people with the skills that the UK economy needs to remain competitive



5. There are fewer numeracy teachers (under 6,100) than literacy teachers (over 9,300), although the Department plans to increase the number of numeracy teachers



6. Although potential learners come into contact with different public services, very few take up skills learning



7. Only one in five offenders with very low levels of basic skills had enrolled on a course that would help them. This represents a major lost opportunity to help a sector of the population with substantial literacy and numeracy needs



8. Take up of Skills for Life courses through Train to Gain, the Government's main initiative to increase employer involvement in training, has been lower than expected

Page 3 - Summary

Page 5 - The Committee's recommendations to the above conclusions

Page 7 - (1) The size of the adult literacy and numeracy problem

Page 9 - (2) What is being done and the scale of the future challenge

Page 13 - (3) Reaching more learners

The Commission's final report provides practical approaches to building communities' own capacity to reduce tensions and create opportunities for more integrated and cohesive societies.

The report urged the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to review the way it plans to allocate funds for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) over the coming academic year to ensure there was adequate provision.

The report, by the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, entitled "Our Shared Future", added that employers in England needed to do their bit to help their migrant workers settle in by meeting the costs of English classes.

The commission said it had "heard loudly and clearly" the concerns about changes to ESOL funding, announced in October last year, and recognised that the government was caught "between and rock and a hard place" trying to find the money to meet increasing demand for courses.

"But our consultation suggests that it remains the case that vulnerable communities are being left without the English skills they need to get by," the report said.

A collection of case studies illustrating examples of local good practice, produced alongside Our Shared Future, is offered as a companion piece to the local messages in our report; it is hoped that these will promote creative ideas on how to take our recommendations forward.

This report sets out findings from an initial survey of training for teachers, trainers and tutors on courses which lead to national awarding body (NAB) qualifications for specialist teachers of literacy, numeracy, and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL).

The survey was completed between January and July 2006. Inspectors evaluated the NAB provision in a small sample of colleges. Almost all the trainees were already employed as fulltime or part-time teachers within the further education sector, typically in further education colleges, adult and community learning, work-based learning, or prisons.

The initial findings from the survey appear to show that the training on the NAB subject specialist courses has many strengths, in particular the extent to which trainees are supported by subject specialists throughout their training. This enables trainees to make good progress in improving their subject-specific teaching skills. However, based on the relatively small sample contained in the survey, the courses also appear to show areas for development similar to those found on generic initial teacher training awards. In particular, this relates to the clarity and strength of formal mentoring arrangements for trainees.

On 13th November 2006 over one hundred people attended the 'London Strategic Unit for Learning and Skills Workforce - One Year On' Conference at the Arsenal Emirate stadium.

The day provided input from national and regional key agencies together with focused practical workshops on regionally coordinated activity to professionalise the workforce.

A prime purpose of the conference was to highlight the challenges and priorities for the professional development of the teaching and training workforce and to launch the London Region Skills for Life Workforce Development Action Plan.

The annual review of NRDC research and development provides insights and evidence on a wide range of issues such as engaging the hard to reach, the composition of the Skills for Life workforce, and how learning affects earnings.

Here is the link to the Plenary presentations and speeches, Morning and Afternoon Workshops and papers from the 3 National Skills for Life Conferences held during November 2006 in:

• London, QEII - 3rd November
• Birmingham, ICC - 21st November
• York, Royal York Hotel - 27th November

Bynner and Parsons' summary report is the latest in a series drawing on data from the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohort studies, which have followed up individuals throughout their lives.

It provides answers to some fundamental questions such as “What happens to adults whose skills improve?” “How strong is the link between parents' and children's literacy and numeracy levels?”

Embedding literacy, language and numeracy in post-16 vocational programmes - the impact on learning and achievement, by Helen Casey et al.

This is the report of a recently-completed research project that has highlighted the striking benefits of embedding literacy, language and numeracy in vocational courses.