Skills for Life

One of the major barriers to ensuring that all adult Londoners can participate in London's social and economic benefits is poor basic skills.

 These basic skills: literacy, numeracy, language (ESOL), information and communication technology (ICT) are collectively referred to 'Skills for Life' (SfL).

As well as being an issue for social inclusion they are vital for a healthy labour market and to ensure individuals can sustain and progress in employment.

London estimates indicate that there are 900,000 people of working age (19%) who have literacy equivalent to an 11 year old and a staggering 2.3 million people (48%) who have numeracy levels below that of an 11 year old.

Around a fifth of Londoners do not speak English as a first language, and 40 per cent of London's workless parents have English as a second language.

Improving the quality of ESOL (English speakers of other languages) is at the heart of London's strategy for combating worklessness, poverty and child poverty in particular.