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. ”