Where has all Birmingham's investments got us to?

Over the ten years 1996 to 2006 substantial energy and resources were put behind developments in language, literacy and numeracy across Birmingham as a whole.  This article takes stock of some of these developments and the current ‘platform’ of development across the range of agencies in Birmingham.  This platform is the position from which Birmingham needs to ‘springboard’ to the next set of aspirational levels as most of those same organisations draft out their intentions to 2010, 2011 or beyond.

Learning and Skills push on adult numeracy - Strategy (pdf) - Action Plan 2006-2010 (pdf)

The Learning and Skills Council in the region has formulated its development framework to 2010.  This outlines the priority strands, and mechanisms, for substantially lifting levels of adult literacy, language and numeracy across the region.
The Core Skills Development Partnership advised and supported the Learning and Skills Council in developing this framework and will be looking at its direct implementation across Birmingham.
One specific development has been an explicit set of statements about how adult numeracy skills are expected to be increased.

How will a 'provider' organisation know how well it's doing in implementing the Skills for Life strategy?
There has been a lot of emphasis on organisations becoming much more intelligent in their decision making and the ability to self-assess and the ability to self-improve.  This describes some work to pull out the elements of a capable, intelligent organisation (focusing on adult basic skills aspects) and provides a chart where organisations can self-assess each element scoring 0-5 on some and 0-3 on others where the sum totals of the score gives a 'percentage capable organisation' - Self Assessment Table (xls).

PowerPoint presentation to Shropshire Skills for Life network (2006) - (PowerPoint)

Overview of Skills for Life strategic influence on activity in the West Midlands
An input to Straffordshire University's professional development seminar (2006)

Context for developing further work re ESOL and Asylum Seekers (112k)
This document was written by the Partnership for Birmingham and Solihull Learning and Skills Council. It aims to provide an overview of information for a wider range of partners outlining the position (in May 2005) re:

• the statutory context for ESOL and Refugees/Asylum Seekers
• materials/reports relating to ESOL and refugees/asylum seekers that have been produced by agencies such as Basic Skills Agency, NIACE, other bodies.

[Note: The content may date rapidly over time, and should be read in this context.]

A regional approach to professional development and quality improvement (32k)
As someone who enjoys puzzles it would only be natural to spend some of my time thinking about what would be distinctive or valuable about a regional approach to continuing professional development and pre-service training. If we were aiming for one how would we know when we had got there? What thinking tools can help us on the way? What do we know already and what needs to be thought through at a deeper level?

Professional development of the basic skills teaching workforce, March 2004 (28k)
This short document was produced by the Core Skills Development Partnership as part of its support to delivery organisations in the region and elsewhere in the country. It asks ‘where does responsibility for continuing professional development lie?’ and argues for whole-organisation, planned commitment in a context that, all too easily, can be used for dependency.