In a revealing TrainingZONE article, Sarah Fletcher interviews a number of training consultants about declining literacy skills. The following is a selection of their views:
"Many organisations are having to provide some basic skills training options for staff. In an ideal world everyone leaving school would be fully competent in these areas. But in the real world they are not, and most good employers recognise that it is better to provide these cornerstone skills late rather than not at all."
Graham O'Connell
"Let’s look at the real need curriculum – English, comprehension in the real world, if they want to read books then make that a separate qualification. Let’s keep English real, the practical competence for living."
Mike Morrison
"I teach at a university and many students lack basic skills, including literacy. These are students who have continued in post-16 education, studying A levels and their equivalents, yet still have deficits in basic skills. There is something fundamentally wrong when, after 12 years full time education, many 16-year olds with GCSE grades A to C in English are leaving school with poor literacy skills. Universities are having to meet increasing demands for help with basic skills, and the first year of many degree courses is largely taken up with attempting to remedy these deficits. Employers even complain that some graduate employees are lacking basic skills; this indicates to me that attempts by universities to remedy deficits in key skills are not entirely successful."
Eddie Newall