National Adult Learning Survey (NALS) 2005 Scotland Report

ANNEX G Basic skills

NALS 2002 was the first in the series to measure whether respondents had a basic skills difficulty. The methodology and questions were adapted from a scheme developed by Taylor Nelson Sofres. The same methodology and questions were used in NALS 2005.

All respondents who had either an academic degree, or maths AND English at GCSE grades A-C/Standard Grade 1-3 or equivalent were assumed not to have basic skills difficulties.

All the other respondents were asked a series of questions to find out whether they might have difficulties with basic skills. These questions asked how frequently respondents did everyday tasks that required the use of basic literacy and numeracy skills such as: reading bills, filling in an official form, or working out wages or benefits. Respondents scored one point for each task that they did infrequently. Respondents were then asked if they needed help with any of these tasks, and scored one point for each task with which they needed help. Respondents accumulating 6 or more points were considered to have a basic skills difficulty.

Activities respondents were asked about to ascertain basic skills difficulty:

Reading a newspaper or magazine
Reading official information, e.g., from Hospital
Reading instructions, e.g., on medicine bottles, recipes
Reading for pleasure
Filling in an official form
Writing a letter or note
Working out wages or benefits
Checking bills or statements at home

Table G.1 Percentages of respondents reporting different types of learning by whether they have a basic skills difficulty (Scotland and England/Wales)

	%	%	%	%	%	%
	Basic skills difficulty (Scotland)	Basic skills difficulty (England/ Wales)	No basic skills difficulty (Scotland)	No basic skills difficulty (England /Wales)	Total (Scotland)	Total (England/ Wales)
Any learning	62	59	88	85	82	80
Taught learning	42	44	74	66	66	62
Self-directed learning	46	39	73	71	67	65
Vocational learning	51	50	81	78	74	73
Non-vocational learning	21	20	31	26	28	25
Weighted base	189	711	652	3161	841	3871
Unweighted base	196	595	638	2745	834	3340

Base: all respondents aged 16-69 not in continuous full-time education.

Table G.2 Percentage of age groups with a basic skills difficulty

	%	%	%	%	%
	16-39 years	40-59 years	60+ years	Total (Scotland)	Total (England/ Wales)
Basic skills difficulty	18	23	40	26	20
No basic skills difficulty	82	77	60	74	80
Weighted base	349	370	272	992	4543
Unweighted base	300	396	295	992	3989

Base: all respondents not in continuous full-time education.

Table G.3 Percentage of highest qualification groups with a basic skills difficulty

	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
	Level 5	Level 4	Level 3	Level 2	Level 1	No qual's	Total
Basic skills difficulty	-	6	20	18	42	61	22
No basic skills difficulty	100	94	80	82	58	39	78
Weighted base	51	258	155	115	189	71	840
Unweighted base	52	249	148	106	194	82	833

Base: respondents aged 16-69 who had been in continuous full-time education but were not currently in continuous full-time education.

Table G.4 Percentage of current main activity groups with a basic skills difficulty.

	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
	FT empl'ee	PT empl'ee	Self-empl'd	Looking after the family	Retired	Incapable of work	Total
Basic skills difficulty	18	17	11	28	32	61	22
No basic skills difficulty	82	83	89	72	68	39	78
Weighted base	433	103	61	56	85	54	841
Unweighted base	401	98	69	61	98	62	834

Base: respondents aged 16-69 and not in continuous full-time education.

Table G.5 Percentage of NS- SEC groups with a basic skills difficulty.

	%	%	%	%	%	%
	Managerial and prof	Inter-mediate	Small employers/ own account workers	Lower supervisory/ technical	Semi-routine and routine	Total
Basic skills difficulty	9	14	15	32	33	20
No basic skills difficulty	91	86	85	68	67	80
Weighted base	317	88	56	111	200	775
Unweighted base	308	89	64	99	190	751

Base: respondents aged 16-69 who were currently employed or self-employed or who had been in paid employment in the past 10 years.

Table G.6 Percentage of household income groups with a basic skills difficulty

	%	%	%	%	%
	£10,399 or less	£10,400- £20,799	£20,800-£31,199	£31,200+	Total
Basic skills difficulty	35	28	17	12	22
No basic skills difficulty	65	72	83	88	78
Weighted base	126	168	161	297	841
Unweighted base	161	191	148	268	834

Base: respondents aged 16-69 and not in continuous full-time education.

Table G.7 Percentage of benefits dependency groups with a basic skills difficulty

	%	%	%
	Benefit dependent	Not Benefit dependent	Total
Basic skills difficulty	35	19	22
No basic skills difficulty	65	81	78
Weighted base	184	652	841
Unweighted base	219	611	834

Base: respondents aged 16-69 and not in continuous full-time education.

Table G.8 Percentage of respondents in Scottish index of multiple deprivation quartiles with a basic skills difficulty

	%	%	%	%	%	%
	1st quintile (least deprived)	2nd quintile	3rd quintile	4th quintile	5th quintile (most deprived)	Total
Basic skills difficulty	13	16	19	32	39	22
No basic skills difficulty	87	84	81	68	61	78
Weighted base	221	215	115	150	139	841
Unweighted base	207	208	112	164	143	834

Base: respondents aged 16-69 and not in continuous full-time education.

Table G.9 Percentages of respondents likely to do job-related learning in the future by basic skills difficulty

	%	%	%
	Basic skills difficulty	No basic skills difficulty	Total
Very likely	37	65	60
Fairly likely	26	21	22
Not very likely	18	9	11
Not at all likely	19	6	8
Weighted base	88	374	461
Unweighted base	85	344	429

Base: respondents aged 16-69 and not in continuous full-time education who were working or planning to work in the future.

Table G.10 Percentages of respondents likely to do non job-related learning in the future by basic skills difficulty

	%	%	%
	Basic skills difficulty	No basic skills difficulty	Total
Very likely	14	25	23
Fairly likely	22	33	30
Not very likely	27	25	25
Not at all likely	37	17	21
Weighted base	182	644	826
Unweighted base	191	631	822

Base: All learners aged 16-69 and not in continuous full-time education.

Table G.11 Obstacles to learning and reasons for not learning by basic skills difficulty (among learners)

	%	%	%
	Basic skills difficulty	No basic skills difficulty	Total
Prefer to spend time doing other things	34	29	30
Not interested in learning	18	8	9
Do not need to learn for my work	18	7	9
Do not see any point in education	4	1	2
Lack of time due to work	47	51	50
lack of time due to family	24	32	31
Hard to get time off work to learn	29	17	19
Lack of time due to children	15	20	19
Lack of time because care for an adult	9	5	6
Hard to pay course fees	23	22	22
Would only do learning if someone paid fees	18	10	11
Benefits would be cut if did course	6	3	4
Does not know about local learning opportunities	22	13	14
Cannot find local opportunities to learn	15	13	14
don't know which courses would be interesting/useful	25	11	13
Does not know where to find out about course	9	6	6
couldn't find the training I wanted	10	11	11
Nervous about going back to classroom	28	10	13
Do not have quals to get onto course	26	10	12
Worried about keeping up with course	26	10	13
Difficulties reading and writing	14	1	3
Difficulties with English	11	1	3
Problems with numbers	12	1	3
Too old to learn	19	3	6
Course difficult due to health/ disability	6	2	2
Problem arranging transport to course	14	6	7
Employer would not support learning	14	5	7
None apply	4	8	7
Weighted base	118	575	693
Unweighted base	110	547	657

Base: All learners aged 16-69 and not in continuous full-time education.

Table G.12 Obstacles to learning and reasons for not learning by basic skills difficulty (among non-learners)

	%	%	%
	Basic skills difficulty	No basic skills difficulty	Total
Prefer to spend time doing other things	38	37	38
Not interested in learning	29	25	27
Do not need to learn for my work	9	14	12
Do not see any point in education	15	7	11
Lack of time due to work	13	25	19
lack of time due to family	31	37	34
Hard to get time off work to learn	9	10	10
Lack of time due to children	17	13	15
Lack of time because care for an adult	12	15	14
Hard to pay course fees	22	25	24
Would only do learning if someone paid fees	20	10	15
Benefits would be cut if did course	14	11	13
Does not know about local learning opportunities	32	17	24
Cannot find local opportunities to learn	21	15	18
Does not know where to find out about course	20	8	13
don't know which courses would be interesting/useful	23	18	20
couldn't find the training I wanted	8	3	5
Nervous about going back to classroom	34	19	26
Do not have quals to get onto course	27	13	20
Worried about keeping up with course	20	15	18
Difficulties reading and writing	10	1	5
Difficulties with English	4	1	3
Problems with numbers	4	0	2
Course difficult due to health/ disability	14	9	11
Problem arranging transport to course	15	16	16
Too old to learn	30	19	24
Employer would not support learning	4	2	3
None apply	4	6	5
Weighted base	71	77	148
Unweighted base	86	91	177

Base: All non-learners aged 16-69 and not in continuous full-time education.

Table G.13 Whether non-learners would like to have done some learning by basic skills difficulty

	%	%
	Basic skills difficulty	No basic skills difficulty
Yes definitely	20	16
Yes maybe	29	26
No	52	58
Weighted base	71	77
Unweighted base	86	91

Base: non-learners aged 16-69 who had done no learning in the past 3 years.

Table G.14 What would encourage non-learners to learn by basic skills difficulty

	%	%	%
	Basic skills difficulty	No basic skills difficulty	Total
Funding to help me pay for learning	21	25	23
Advice on the type of learning I could do	13	15	14
Learning organised at more convenient times	11	17	14
Learning organised in more convenient places	10	17	13
Help with health problems/disability	14	8	11
Time off work to do learning	12	5	9
Childcare available while learning	7	7	7
Learning which is more relevant to what I need	6	7	6
Learning which helped to improve my employment prospects	5	7	6
Care for other dependents available while learning	3	5	4
Help with reading, writing and/or English	6	1	4
Learning organised in the workplace	3	2	2
Improved job prospects	0	1	0
Weighted base	70	75	146
Unweighted base	85	89	174

Base: non-learners aged 16-69 who had done no learning in the past 3 years.

Table G.15 Percentage of respondents who are current computer users by basic skills needs

	%	%	%
	Basic skills difficulty	No basic skills difficulty	Total
Current computer user	47	77	69
Not current user	53	23	31
Weighted base	253	738	992
Unweighted base	262	730	992

Base: all respondents

Table G.16 Percentage of respondents who are current Internet users by basic skills needs

	%	%	%
	Basic skills difficulty	No basic skills difficulty	Total
Current Internet user	41	75	67
Not current user	59	25	33
Weighted base	253	738	992
Unweighted base	262	730	992

Base: all respondents

« Previous | Contents | Next »

The Scottish Government

Publications

On this page:

National Adult Learning Survey (NALS) 2005 Scotland Report

ANNEX G Basic skills