§ Mr. SimmondsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding will be made available for basic skills training for adults in each year from 2003 to 2006. [154974]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisSpending Review 2002 ensured that we are able to continue to support the Skills for Life strategy to enable 1.5 million adults to improve their literacy and numeracy skills by 2007. Over £1.6 billion has been made available to deliver the Skills for Life strategy for the three years to 2005–06 across Government Departments.
§ Mr. SimmondsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many adults he plans should participate in basic skills training in each year from 2003 to 2006; and what the figures were for each year from 1997 to 2003. [154975]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe following table shows the number of adults participating in basic education in the Further Education sector from 1997 to 2001.
Learners (Thousand) 1997–98 158 1998–99 182 1999–2000 270 The number of learners participating each year in Skills for Life programmes since the launch of the strategy in April 2001 are shown in the following table.
Learners (Thousand) 2000–01 449 2001–02 655 2002–031 664 1Includes an estimated component due to incomplete enrolment data. We expect this level of participation to continue enabling us to meet our targets of improving the skills of 750,000 adults by 2004 and 1.5 million adults by 2007.