§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of progress in meeting his Department's target to improve adult literacy and numeracy skills. [169738]
§ Mr. Ivan Lewis[holding answer 4 May 2002]: Skills for Life is the national strategy for improving the adult literacy, language (English for Speakers of Other Languages—ESOL) and numeracy skills needs of all post-16 learners, from pre-entry level up to and including Level 2. It aims to help create a society where adults have the basic skills they need to find and keep work and participate fully in society thereby increasing the economic performance and social cohesion of the country.
Following the launch of Skills for Life in March 2001, we have made significant progress towards our Public Service Agreement target of achieving 1.5 million adults with better basic skills by 2007.
We are confident that we have met our milestone of 470,000 achievements by July 2003. We are also on track to meet our interim target of 750,000 achievements by 2004. In terms of participation, from April 2001 to July 2004 an estimated 2.1 million learners will have taken up 4.3 million Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funded basic skills learning opportunities.
§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what public funding has been spent on adult(a) literacy and (b) numeracy in Cambridgeshire in the last five years. [170842]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe estimated total spend on Skills For Life (the Government's strategy for literacy, language and numeracy needs of all post-16 learners from pre-entry level up to and including level 2) and on key skills (essential skills of communication, application of number and information technology), from April 2001 to July 2003, in the Cambridgeshire Learning and Skills Council (LSC) area is set out in the table.
413W
£000 Basic skills Key skills April 2001 to July 20011 610 389 August 2001 to July 2002 2,354 577 August 2002 to July 2003 4,376 345 1The figures for April to July 2001 include costs incurred from August 2000 on learning aims continuing into April 2001. It has not been feasible to obtain comparable figures for periods before April 2001 when the Skills for Life strategy was launched and the LSC was formed, but information shows it was considerably less than at present.
§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what public funding has been spent on adult(a) literacy and (b) numeracy in Oldham West and Royton in each of the last five years. [170908]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe estimated total spend on "Skills For Life" (the Government's strategy for literacy, language and numeracy needs of all post-16 learners from pre-entry level up to and including level 2) and on Key Skills (essential skills of communication, application of number and information technology), from April 2001 to July 2003, in the Greater Manchester Learning and Skills Council (LSC) area is set out in the following table:
£000 Basic skills Key skills April 2001 to July 20011 8,925 2,598 August 2001 to July 2002 15,369 3,586 August 2002 to July 2003 27,258 4,210 1 The figures for April to July 2001 include costs incurred from August 2000 on learning aims continuing into April 2001. From the information available to the LSC it has not been feasible to obtain estimates at constituency level or separate figures by subject without incurring disproportionate cost. Likewise it has not been feasible to obtain comparable figures for periods before April 2001 when the Skills for Life strategy was launched and the LSC was formed, but information shows it was considerably less than at present.