Minimum Core – What is it?

Three separate, but connected elements Personal, social and cultural factors influencing literacy, language, numeracy and ICT development. Development of your own literacy, language, numeracy and ICT skills Embedding the development of functional skills into your teaching

Minimum Core development will be developed and demonstrated by: Dedicated sessions throughout the course Via your ILP Via session plans and observation

It’s OK to have difficulty with number but not OK to find reading a challenge

TRUE It is socially acceptable to say “I’m hopeless at maths” but people who have difficulty reading and writing are generally embarrassed to admit it.

Poor literacy has a greater effect on low economic well-being for adults than poor numeracy

FALSE  Poor numeracy rather than poor literacy has found to be a greater influence on low economic well- being

Very few adults can be described as illiterate

TRUE Very few adults cannot read at all. More have difficulty with writing

5% (1.7 million) adults in England have literacy levels below that of a 7 year old child

TRUE This means they have difficulty understanding short straightforward texts on familiar topics and in obtaining information from short documents

Up to 30% of army recruits have have literacy or numeracy skills at levels at or below those expected of an 11 year old.

FALSE  Up to half of the 12,000 people recruited each year have literacy or numeracy skills at levels at or below those expected of a primary school leaver

True dyslexics have difficulty distinguishing some letters or numbers eg b-d 6-9

FALSE  This is a feature demonstrated by only some dyslexics

Three years after attending a basic maths course, adults are likely to earn 13% more than matched individuals who have not attended a course

TRUE By the third year of study the former learners had an average annual take home pay of £558 more than in the first year.

All dyslexics have some problems with organisational skills

TRUE Although the degree and the way this manifests itself will differ

Free tuition helps increase the number of adults enrolling on Level 2 courses.

FALSE  Survey completed by the ALI found that free tuition did not help any college to enrol more adults on level 2 courses.

The training of some FE teachers is being held back by their inability to read, write and use ICT properly.

TRUE Ofsted found that some trainees were “constrained by weaknesses in their literacy and numeracy which meant that many were unable to address errors in student assignments. ”