As the new year sees people thinking about a career change, many adults may be putting their chances of finding a job at risk due to poor reading, writing and numeracy, according to the Department for Education and Skills' 'Get On' campaign.
The 'Get On' campaign found that 28% of adults - as many as ten and a half million people in England alone - could not read a train timetable well enough to work out what train they needed to catch to be on time for a potential job interview. Even more worryingly, one in ten adults could not spell the word apply in the sentence I want to apply for this job correctly, and 12% could not spell the word writing in the sentence I am writing to you about the vacancy.
Ivan Lewis, Minister for Young People and Adult Skills, said of the findings:
Many people who struggle with reading, writing or numeracy think that they can get by with no-one noticing, but these statistics show how much these problems can affect their lives.
Up to 3.5 million UK workers have reading, writing and maths difficulties, which can pose real problems for people wanting to progress up the career ladder. In addition, poor basic skills cost UK businesses nearly 5 billion per year, and the UK economy as a whole 10 billion per year.
I would urge anyone who would like to brush up their basic skills to call 0800 100 900 and find out more about the thousands of free courses available that can help them to 'get on' in life. Young people can also speak to their Connexions adviser for more advice and information.
The 'Get On' campaign aims to raise awareness of adult basic skills issues and encourage people with numeracy and literacy problems to sign up for training which can help them. A key part of the government's Skills for Life strategy, launched in March 2001, the campaign aims to raise skills levels in 750,000 adults by 2004 and of 1.5 million adults in total by 2007. In the year from April 2001 to March 2002, 156,000 adults demonstrated
their improved skills by achieving a national award, and over one million basic skills courses were started by learners keen to 'Get On'.
Literacy problems holding job hunters back.
Ivan Lewis, Minister for Young People and Adult Skills.