Skills for Life
The IDeA is running a national Skills for Life campaign, supported by the Skills for Life Strategy Unit (SFLSU), part of DIUS (Dept. for Innovation, Universities and Skills), and in partnership with trade unions and other stakeholders.
The Campaign is entitled “Get On Local Government”.
The aim is to raise the demand among local authority employers to take a more proactive, sustained and strategic approach to workplace basic skills.
The business case
It is estimated that:
230,000 Local Government employees (11% of the workforce) are below level 1 in literacy (below GCSE English Grade G)
780,000 Local Government employees (40% of the workforce) are below level 1 in numeracy (below GCSE Maths grade G)
The cost to the country of poor literacy, language and numeracy skills is as high as £10billion per year
Employers could save £500 per employee per year by supporting their employees to improve their basic skills
The GO Local Government Award
The “GO Local Government Award” is a key element of the Skills for Life strategy.
It aims to identify best practice nationally and encourage local authorities to sign up to the Get On Campaign. The award activity is a staged process with the Chief Executive and an Elected Member making a firm commitment on behalf of their authority, followed by a period of up to 9 months during which a formal action plan must be produced.
The Award pack has been sent to the Head of HR of every authority in England, and since the initial launch widely distributed to partners and other key contacts in authorities.
Skills for Life DVD
The EOLG produced a DVD that was launched at the beginning of June 2005, again to all Heads of HR and then to partners. The DVD can be used as a training tool within local government. It highlights the LGE’s campaign to the end of phase 1, has a section on support available to engage with the SFL agenda, and has a range of case studies including one from a private sector company (SERCO) from whom many authorities procure services.
A second DVD by EOLG was launched in June 2006. This contains pdfs of the National Local Government Strategy, the GO Award pack and a Champions booklet.
Update
The IDeA have now set up a skills for life Community of Practice on their website. It provides information on the GO campaign, updates on Skills for Life Initiatives and is a forum through which to share best practice
Links to other projects:
1. SEEDA project: Embedding Skills for Life in Local Government
SEEDA have allocated funding to a number of Authorities in the South East to help them develop Skills for Life initiatives. A dissemination event is being held on 28th March for these Authorities to share learning and best practice.
2. Contextualised Level 2 Certificate in Learner Support
Having successfully attracted additional funding from DfES, the EOLG contracted the Network for Literacy, Language and Numeracy to contextualise the Level 2 certificate in Learner Support (both Literacy and Numeracy) for local government, following which the qualifications were piloted. Further details are available 
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Links and contacts
Skills for Life Strategy and the GO Award, contact Freda Grant at freda.grant@idea.gov.uk or 07917 831745
SEEDA Embedding Skills for Life in Local Government, contact Gary Johnson at Step Forward Consultancy on 01825 769409 or garypjohnson@aol.com
The Network for Workplace Language, Literacy and Numeracy, visit www.thenetwork.co.uk
For reports, case studies and strategy documents, visit www.idea.gov.uk/skillsforlife