Guidance tools to support motivation

Guidance measures are a vital part of successful basic skills policies because they enable learners access, choose, engage and persist in the type of learning provision that is most adequate to their needs. Adults with basic skills needs present a very diverse competence profile and they are likely to have less than positive experience from learning. Guidance is therefore important to ensure motivation and to create a clear picture of the type of training they need. Both in terms of employability or permanence in the labour market and in terms of avoiding exclusion in times of swift societal change it is an imperative to provide optimal support measures to this specific target group. 

Read more about how lifelong guidance measures can contribute to the successful implementation of basic skills policies in an EPALE blogpost written by Graciela Sbertoli. 

GOAL, Guidance and Orientation for Adult Learners (2015-18), was a European policy experimentation project financed under the Erasmus+ Key Action 3. GOAL aimed to develop or expand guidance and orientation interventions for low-educated adults in six countries: Belgium (Flanders); Czech Republic; Iceland; Lithuania; the Netherlands, and Slovenia. The GOAL project aimed at developing national guidance services centred on the needs of low-educated adults, with the objective to increase the participation of this target group in further education and training. They did so through different national schemes piloted during the project. The Dutch GOAL pilot focused specifically on the assessment and referral of adults with low literacy levels. The Dutch Reading and Writing Foundation developed a Literacy Screener (Taalmeter), an online tool which could be used to quickly and easily identify adults in need of basic literacy training. The project contributed to training the staff involved in the screening and promoted the integration of basic guidance services into the working procedures of the provider organizations. One of the pilot projects connected the use of the screen test to employment services.

Initiatives from Euroguidance

Read about four interesting initiatives addressing skills and career guidance from the Euroguidance network! As you read, you may consider how such programs could benefit your work. 

Erasmus+ Project: Competence Kaleidoscope 

The main objective of the project is to develop, pilot and disseminate a new method of competence mapping which will benefit the target group of socially disadvantaged people and in consequence will improve their situation on the labour market. The socially disadvantaged face various obstacles on labour market and therefore cannot participate fully in social and professional life. This project brings together organizations widely experienced in working with the afore-mentioned target group. Each organisation supplies a different type of expertise: some work with the socially excluded or those suffering from poverty, others work with the poorly educated, minorities or migrants.

• Download course materials of the project freely!
• Read the article by Alison Crabb: The “European Pillar of Social Rights” and lifelong guidance for a fast moving labour market. You can find it among Euroguidance’s 2018 conference materials. 

Erasmus+ Project: RECTEC

“Started in 2016, the RECTEC project aims at promoting employability by identifying transversal skills and matching them with professional certifications. Managed by the GIP-FCIP of the Académie de Versailles (France), it brings together actors from the field of professional training and integration from three French-speaking countries: Belgium, France and Luxembourg. The RECTEC project is an answer to the need of workers from the fields of education, training, certification and career exploration to have assessment tools with both qualitative gradings and correspondence with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). This need comes from the principles guiding the securing of career paths, according to which a graded system allows for a better visualization of one’s positioning and/or progress. RECTEC’s main challenge is to create and put to use a competency reference guide that would be common to the whole system of actors working in the professional training and integration fields. Graded skill proficiency scales allow us to acknowledge partially mastered skills and to identify those to be developed to reach EQF’s level 2, 3 or 4.”

(Source from Hélène Paumier on EPALE)

• Read the project’s handbook!
• Visit the project’s website!

To learn about different guidance systems, visit Euroguidance’s website!

Structure of provision

Adult learners often struggle with time limitations, and they may have to take breaks in their learning path. Learning programmes that are structured as a series of modules can enable them to learn in their own time and design their own learning path. Modular provision divides a learning programme into self-contained modules. Ideally each module will give a part-qualification once completed. Learners can work towards a full qualification over time by successively adding modules to their learning portfolio.

In Ireland Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), can award Minor QQI Awards, which are also referred to as component certificates. These awards are single modules which can be completed and certificated individually. All minor awards are linked to a major award which allows learners the opportunity to build on their minor awards and work towards gaining a major award. It is important to note that minor awards are achievements in their own right. The National Adult Literacy Agency in Ireland (NALA), offers short basic skills courses which can lead to accreditation for a Minor Award.

Blended learning courses, where learners study in part online and in part in the classroom, give learners flexibility in and autonomy over learning and provide a learning experience that is completely different to the one they experienced in school, which may also encourage participation in courses. Adapting the learning provision to individual needs means that teachers and trainers are expected to differentiate and adapt instruction for every student in their classroom, which they often lack the necessary time and resources to do. Incorporating a wise use of digital tools may alleviate these problems. This kind of set-up is possible even for elementary basic skills learning provision, since it can for instance make use of relatively common digital tools like the smart phone. The Covid-19 crisis, however, has revealed that blended learning is still not common in adult learning provision in general because teachers and trainers need to become more familiar with the didactic principles involved.

Funding schemes and financial incentives

As pointed out earlier, adults may often face barriers when trying to return to learning. Funding can be one of the challenges. Providing the resources (time and financial too) can be a discouraging factor to employers to invest in employee training, when it comes to workplace basic skills programs due to the considerable worker release time when employees are away from work. To remedy this issue different cost-sharing solutions can be put in place to minimise the financial burden on the individual or the employer. In the 2015 Eurydice report of the European Commission the financing model for lifelong learning is presented. (Source: European Commission 2015 p. 119 based on Scheutze 2007¹) 

1 Schuetze, Hans G., 2007. Individual Learning Accounts and other models of financing lifelong
learning. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 26 (1), pp. 5-23.

For the source of funding Scheutze proposes 3 models:

1. state funding  
2. employer funding 
3. parafiscal funding (collection of employer-employee contribution, public funds)

In the following 4 modes of funding the learner is the direct beneficiary:

4. individual entitlement (grants, allowances and vouchers covering the fee)
5. income contingent student loans (i.e. co-funding)
6. individual learning accounts (usually a combination of savings and contribution from a public authority used for learning purposes)

Read chapter 6 on targeted financial support in the Eurydice report to learn more about co-funding instruments targeting low-qualified adults and employers!

Return of investment

Making the return of investment in basic skills programs visible is of key importance when outreach strategies and awareness raising campaigns aim at involving people as learners and employers as co-funders in learning programs. It is essential to show that the investment in training can be a source for further financial benefits besides the social return and other positive outcomes to the employee (e.g. increasing efficiency in task completion).

Read the quote below regarding the piloting of the above-mentioned Citizens’ Curriculum. In one of the pilot initiatives taken place in Rochdale. The results of the program in financial terms were encouraging. 

Return of Investment in Citizens’ Curriculum pilot phase 1 “Rochdale Borough Council, in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University, undertook a full, validated cost-benefit analysis of their Phase 1 Citizens’ Curriculum pilot. The results are impressive, and show that for every £1 the council invested, they achieved a £3.68 financial return on investment, or a £2.18 fiscal return on investment for the local authority. However, the savings were not only experienced by the local authority. In total, their pilot generated £3,117,502.23 in public value, equating to a £19.65 return on every £1 invested. In addition, only 49% of the fiscal cost savings went to the local authority; 34% were experienced by the Department for Work and Pensions and 11% were experienced by the National Health Service. Other beneficiaries included the police (2%), courts and legal aid (2%), HMRC (1%) and other criminal justice system organisations (1%)” (Source: Citizens’ Curriculum Phase 2 project report p. 52).

For another example, read the summary of the Canadian UPSKILL project funded by the Government of Canada’s Office of Literacy and Essential Skills. The objective of the UPSKILL demonstration project is to provide a credible test of the effectiveness of workplace LES training by measuring its impacts on workers and firms and estimating the return on investment for all those engaged.

Return of Investment in the UPSKILL project In Canada the longitudinal study called UPSKILL between 2010 and 2014 (more information, please read the technical report) investigated the effects of workplace basic skills training on the individual and the employer, and the extent of the return of investment regarding the employee, employer and the government. The main conclusion of the research seemed clear despite the fact that the tools applied were rather complex. Workplace basic skills training programs do return the investment costs and can benefit especially the SMEs employee skills development.  Investment costs The skills training program’s investment costs were 2 247 Canadian dollar (CAD) per individual, which was increased by 288 CAD resulting from worker release time. Investment costs were fully funded, and the worker release costs were only partially covered by the government during the pilot phase. According to the study, these costs can be significantly reduced by the standardisation of learning materials and performance optimalisation.  Return of investment The results of the study show that UPSKILL participants received just over $1,400 in earnings gains during the 12-month follow-up period, but with few additional costs. The primary costs were indirect, arising from income taxes and foregone EI benefits in the amount of $558. In terms of direct costs, while participants did not pay for LES training under the UPSKILL model, some did engage in learning activities on their own time (an average of 1.9 hours) which represents an equivalent cost of $27 at their current wage rate. As a result, with substantial earnings gains and trivial training costs, participants have a substantial positive return on investment. In terms of benefits, firms experienced gains in revenue, cost savings from increased productivity, and reductions in hiring costs that amounted to nearly $4,600 per participant. In terms of costs, firms paid the increased earnings to participants (the amount that arises from improved retention), along with increased corporate taxes. When firms are assumed to bear full costs of training ($2247) and release time ($288), their net benefit is $577 per participant, for an average return on investment of 23 per cent. Governments experienced gains in terms of increased income, corporate, and sales tax revenue, as well as a small reduction in transfers (EI benefits). These gains more than offset the costs of sector-level activities to support the launch of workplace LES training including the initial engagement, sector needs analysis, and the design of the core curricula. The net impact on government budgets is positive at $679 per participant, for an average return on investment of over 200 per cent, under the assumption that governments cover only start-up costs. Of course, this positive return is contingent on the employers making investments in LES training and the increased tax revenues that these investments bring about.

Other supportive measures

As mentioned elsewhere in this OER, adults in need of basic skills learning provision are an extremely heterogeneous target group. Wherever policy makers can identify a cluster of similar individual needs, it is wise to ponder about which accompanying measures can be implemented to reduce the obstacles that keep the learners from attending the courses. Provision that combines family learning courses with courses only for adults but with the added element of a creche to take care of small children are quite usual in the UK. Follow this link to see an example.

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