Supporting Skills for Life
Skills for Life (SfL) are essential skills that can help families during their school, work and leisure time. They include functional English, maths and ICT. The Government aims to increase the number of people developing these skills to 2.25 million by 2010 and this target was met two years early. The ultimate ambition is to have 95% of adults achieving functional literacy and numeracy skills by 2020. By functional we mean up to Level 2 (the level of a GSCE grades A – C)). In a Family Learning context these skills may be referred to as LLN (literacy, language and numeracy).
For more information on the Government’s Skills for Life policy visit www.dcsf.gov.uk/readwriteplus
Why are Skills for Life important?
Improving Skills for Life are linked to a range of benefits for both the individual and society. These include:
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increased self-confidence and confidence to support children’s learning
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improving people’s lives by reducing social exclusion
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breaking cycles of deprivation in families
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improving a person’s employability
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improving skills gaps in the labour market
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enabling adults in the workforce to become more flexible and adapt to changing technological and work environments
Skills for Life and Family Learning events
Informal and one-off events such as Family Learning Festival activities are ideal opportunities to support Skills for Life learning, because they aim to be non-threatening, relaxed and fun. Family learning activities that involve Skills for Life can give parents/carers confidence to help their children with their homework and can help motivate them to continue learning and improve their skills.
Updated planning guide
See our updated planning guide, which covers information and advice on planning your Family Learning Festival events
We need you!
As we're all aware, the economic conditions mean that everyone's budgets are stretched. So, we need your help to share ideas with new and existing organisers on how to get the most out of Family Learning Festival events. We'd like you to upload video clips about how to organise an event, your top tips or ideas for activities. If you have footage of event itself that's even better - please get permission from attendees before filming and uploading anything to a public arena.
Once you have your video upload it to www.youtube.com and tag it with "Family Learning Festival" and drop us a line to let us know at flf@cflearning.org.uk
See what we already have on our channel youtube.com/familylearningtelly Need some help on making a video.
Can you transform informal adult learning? Apply for funding!
The Government's new Learning Revolution Transformation Fund is open to bids for projects and activities that support sustainable informal adult learning. It welcomes bids from the public, private and third sectors including organisations from all backgrounds including culture, heritage, nature, sport, health, community regeneration, broadcasting and technology. The closing date for applications is 12 July, so download a prospectus now!
