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CHAPTER TWO: METHOD

2.1 In this chapter we describe:

• the data sources which measure the supply and demand for ESOL within Scotland, as well as any methodological concerns;
• the information available directly from FE colleges and other providers;
• how the overall data was collected and interpreted, which led to the measurement of overall supply and demand; and
• the qualitative information gathered from providers, learners and other stakeholders, which presents a better understanding of how and why ESOL supply and demand has changed.

Review of data sources to capture supply and met demand for ESOL

2.2 Initially, a detailed assessment of sources of data was conducted to establish what quantitative data could be collected. This was done through discussions with the SFC about the data it collects on enrolments for the courses it funds, the Scottish Qualifications Authority ( SQA), about the data it has on entries and awards, a small sample of colleges and local authorities on the data they hold about the ESOL courses they provide or commission, and Communities Scotland, about the data they gather from local authority end-of-year Adult Literacy and Numeracy ( ALN) reports. Below we describe the data which is available and also relevant for our analysis.

Scottish Funding Council ( SFC)

2.3 Overall, the SFC collects data on FE institutions funded by the SFC on the numbers of learners enrolled on ESOL courses, disaggregated by provider and course level. Data is also held on learners' ages, current home addresses, courses of study, ethnicity, gender, completion rates, previous qualifications, sources of finance, and disabilities. This data is available from 2003-4 to 2005-6.

2.4 Data that is reported to the SFC however, is more limited. There is no comprehensive database which is publicly accessible. However, separate individual databases on total learner numbers, course level, ethnicity, age, disability, and gender are available. This information is useful in analysing trends in learner numbers (met demand) and learner characteristics at SFC-funded FE colleges. However, it appears to be that it is not generally possible to link ethnicity to countries of origin in Europe. The majority of learners are listed under "Scotland", except for international students and seasonal workers. A8 nationals and refugees and asylum seekers are also seldom distinguished as such, with the majority of colleges only reporting broad ethnic categories. The scale of the ethnic category 'Other White' may be a pointer to learners from the Accession countries.

Scottish Qualifications Authority ( SQA)

2.5 The SQA collects data on learners awarded a certificate for passing an ESOL course at one of five specified levels. This information is from all providers holding qualification examinations. These include FE and other providers, both privately and publicly funded. It also holds data on the number of learners who enrol on courses and entries for awards. There was no information available on learner characteristics. This data was primarily useful in providing learner numbers for non- SFC funded colleges and other providers which administer qualification exams.

End-of-Year Adult Literacy and Numeracy Partnership ( ALN) Reports

2.6 Learning Connections provided summary data from the end-of-year ALN Reports. This provides aggregate data for 2003-4, 2004-5, and 2005-6 on the total number of adult ESOL learners funded through the 32 ALN Partnerships. These courses may have been delivered by FE colleges, voluntary providers, or the local authority.

2.7 The main limitations of this data are two-fold: the double counting of FE and voluntary provider learners and the limitations of ALN-funded provision, which should solely be for ESOL literacy.

Review of data sources to capture potential demand

2.8 An assessment of government statistical sources of data on in-migrants and the workforce, was carried out in order to establish what data may be available for gathering information on ESOL demand. This included discussions with staff responsible for migrant data collection in the Home Office, the Office of National Statistics ( ONS), and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities ( COSLA), as well as assessing from ESOL providers what information they held. While we cannot assume that all A8 nationals or other in-migrants from non-English speaking countries have ESOL needs, these data sources describe trends in migration and potential ESOL demand.

ESOL providers and waiting lists

2.9 From the discussions with the ESOL providers, it was determined that waiting lists provide information about revealed demand, though they are not particularly reliable indicators or administered in a consistent way. Prospective learners may be double counted if they sign up to several course, some will be left on the waiting lists when they have obtained a place elsewhere, and some will not sign up on waiting lists if a suitable course is not available. ²⁵

Home Office Records

2.10 It is clear from the Home Office analysis of recent A8 migrants that potential demand is estimated from the Worker Registration Scheme ( WRS). The Home Office publishes its Accession Monitoring Report bi-annually, which provides data on all migrants registered with the WRS as well as their postcodes to show their location in the country. However it is important to point out that migrant workers are a mobile population and may only be temporarily residing at the address they have reported and not all migrant workers will register, particularly those who are self-employed. For example, if Scotland had 8% of self-employed A8 migrants, this would account for another 48,000 A8 nationals in Scotland. In addition, seasonal workers may register more than once at different locations. Nonetheless the WRS provides data on the number of A8 migrants by local authority.

COSLA

2.11 COSLA Strategic Migration Partnership ( CSMP) holds data on the number of asylum seekers by local authority, obtained via the Home Office. This is the most complete and up-to-date data on asylum seekers, available for 2004 and 2006. The main limitation is that country of origin is not available.

Official National Statistics - ONS

2.12 In estimating the number of non-A8 migrants in Scotland, it was necessary to analyse Annual Population Survey ( APS) data which is available through the ONS. ²⁶ The APS provides information on country of origin, ethnicity, and country of birth. This has some constraints as it does not make allowances for year of migration or years in the UK. Nonetheless, it provides the percentage of non- UK nationals which is a proxy for both new migrants, as well as settled migrants with potential ESOL needs.

Review of provider data and questionnaire

2.13 Discussions with both FE and non- FE institutions provided an understanding of what information was available on both learner numbers and learner characteristics. These findings informed the design of a questionnaire which would supplement the other supply and demand data sources discussed above.

Further Education ( FE) providers

2.14 FE providers funded by the SFC are required to present data on learners and courses to the SFC. They are also required to report information to the SQA for courses where learners received formal qualifications. In addition to this, FE colleges collect their own data on waiting lists and on courses which are funded by others. Brief discussions with several providers, including Anniesland College which has piloted the citizenship materials for ESOL courses, suggested that:

• data on all ESOL courses may not necessarily be available in one centralised database within the college;
• FE providers offer tutors to classes funded by other institutions, such as local authorities, in community centres as well as offering informal tutoring (in Anniesland with Glasgow ESOL Forum); and
• waiting list information may only be available for the current or most recent academic year and may only be stored on paper.

Non FE providers

2.15 Findings from several local authorities suggests that some councils' adult education services hold data on non- SFC funded ESOL courses available, such as community based programmes, workplace projects, voluntary projects and courses administered through CLD and ALN Partnerships. This data will be variable in terms of quality and coverage. For example, one of the larger urban City Councils collects data because it provides classes at beginners, post-beginners, intermediate and advanced levels. Information is available on number of learners/course/year but with no disaggregated demographic information on learners. It could also signpost us to courses provided by the voluntary sector. Conversely, another local authority has data on the number of courses funded by the entire ALN Partnership, but could not classify which courses were provided by voluntary providers, FE colleges, or the local authority itself.

2.16 Umbrella organisations for the voluntary and community sectors were also contacted, such as the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and Learning Link Scotland, who could signpost us to providers in many areas of Scotland, though in general they do not hold detailed information. The Scottish Refugee Council ( SRC) and the Glasgow ESOL Forum, for example, make referrals to ESOL providers and record data on placements and on the waiting lists at the providers they refer to. The Glasgow ESOL Forum also has a volunteer tutor project to provide tutoring to individuals who are unable to access ESOL classes due to disabilities or very poor language skills. They keep data on these learners.

Data collection

Data from providers

Table 2.1 Sources of learner data

2.17 We concluded that no individual source of information ( SFC, SQA, or Provider data/Questionnaire returns) could provide all the information needed to map details of both the supply of, and met demand for, ESOL learning.

2.18 The information held by the SFC does not cover learning funded from other sources, this was put together from the following information:

• the SQA's entries and awards which enabled an identification of non- FE providers and an estimation of numbers of learners where we had no other data;
• the SFC learner data which allowed an identification of the extent of FE provision;
• local authorities, CLD Partnerships, end-of-year ALN Partnerships reports and umbrella groups which held information on other funding sources, courses provided and non- FE providers;
• a direct information request to all providers; and
• telephone interviews to ALN Partnerships to clarify details about the number of learners quoted in their end of year reports.

2.19 A questionnaire for providers was drawn up and a shorter version was distributed to SFC funded FE providers, as much of their information was available from the SFC. From the non- SFC funded providers, additional details of courses and enrolments as well as waiting lists were requested.

2.20 Annex 1 contains a copy of the on-line questionnaire used. The questionnaire was initially sent to all the FE colleges, all the local authority area CLD Partnerships, and all other providers identified from the variety of sources identified above. It was subsequently sent to other providers identified by Community Learning Partnerships, umbrella groups and Learning Link Scotland's study of voluntary organisations working with ESOL. ²⁷ A total of 200 requests were dispatched. Despite telephone calls to all providers to identify who was completing it and to offer help and guidance and a reminder, we received 59 completed questionnaires. Not all of these were fully completed. While the other sources enable a relatively complete estimate of number of learners, the low level of response limits the detailed analysis of learner characteristics to those in FE provision.

Data interpretation

2.21 Once all the data had been collected, it was necessary to determine the most accurate and complete sources. The following systematic approach was adopted for selection of data:

2.22 For FE Colleges:

• questionnaire returns directly from the college and interviews were used where available;
• where there were no questionnaire returns, the number from the SFC database were used; and
• SQA entries provided numbers for those colleges where no questionnaire returns or SFC data was available.

2.23 For voluntary providers:

• figures were provided by questionnaire returns and interviews.

2.24 For ALN and CLD Partnerships:

• where available, interviews and questionnaire returns were used;
• for local authorities with no data available from FE Colleges (and no SFC funded provision), voluntary providers or ALN/ CLD Partnerships, the figure quoted in the ALN End-of-Year report was used; and
• local authorities with FE college and/or voluntary provider data, and those who had reported numbers different from the ALN end-of-year report were contacted by follow-up phone interviews.

Understanding issues around supply and demand

2.25 Official data was supplemented with more anecdotal information from telephone interviews, particularly about waiting lists, the changing nature of demand, origins of learners, and the extent of learners taking citizenship tests from interviews with providers, learners, and stakeholders.

2.26 Through telephone interviews and field visits information was sought about the nature of demand, the reasons for provision made, the type and cost of provision, and the needs for ESOL from a sample of 50 providers, 20 learners, 10 stakeholders and 8 HEIs to establish what factors may be affecting supply and demand.

2.27 With providers it was important to be sure we captured the range of experience in terms of funding, type of provision and scale and nature of demand. As a consequence our sample was divided geographically and by type of provider and over sampled non- FE lower volume providers and areas which had not traditionally had much provision. Annex 3 contains the target sample of provider interviews which was 25 colleges (20 telephone interviews and 5 face-to-face), 13 local authority areas CLD/ ALN Partnerships, 9 voluntary and community providers and 3 private providers. ²⁸

2.28 Annex 2 contains the topic guides used in interviews, the first for the telephone interviews, the second for the longer face-to-face interviews. Both types of interviews sought to gather information on ESOL courses, waiting lists, partnerships, learner backgrounds, funding, the impact of EU enlargement and the citizenship test. Further questions were asked in the face to face interviews to cover differences in the needs of A8 learners, funding and costs of delivery and the scope for charging fees.

2.29 Individual interviews occurred with learners at 5 providers' venues during the fieldwork stage. The topic guides for these interviews can be found in Annex 2. Discussions focussed around learner background, their courses, funding and overall satisfaction.

2.30 We identified stakeholders and HEIs with an interest in ESOL provision for background information and sources. The topic guides for these interviews can also be found in Annex 2. The stakeholder interviews covered community needs, role in community, barriers to accessing ESOL, impact of EU enlargement and the citizenship test; the HEIs interviews covered courses, funding, learners, impact of EU enlargement and citizenship test, and waiting lists.

2.31 A summary of the interviews completed are in Table 2.2 below and with some detail in Annex 3. This shows both wide geographical coverage to pick up differences in experience and scale, and extensive coverage of the range of providers.

Table 2.2 A summary of interviews achieved

2.32 In order to achieve the target numbers of interviews for colleges and CLD Partnerships we had to target more than the number of providers needed and substitute organisations.

Key Points from this chapter

• The method for this study was a combination of quantitative data collection and qualitative interviews;
• Data was collected from a variety of sources. While no one source of information is comprehensive enough to capture all the data needed, it was important to draw on details from a variety of organisations to build a profile of learners;
• The SFC holds data on learners in Scotland in the institutions it funds. FE and non- FE providers hold data on their learners; however we have found that the information is much more comprehensive in the college sector;
• The SQA offered data on the numbers of awards given, while ALN Partnership reports aggregate data on numbers of learners funded through the ALN funding streams;
• The Home Office publishes its Accession Monitoring Report which was used to gather data on the number of A8 migrants in Scotland. COSLA collects data on asylum seekers and offers statistics by local authorities. The Annual Population Survey provides information on non- UK nationals living in Scotland;
• As part of the methodology, an online questionnaire was able to supplement information about individual providers;
• While some providers hold waiting list data, it can be difficult to use this as a way of measuring met/unmet demand as providers have different methods of capturing data so the information may not be comparable;
• To capture a range of provider experiences as well as to understand learner concerns, qualitative fieldwork was conducted through provider and stakeholder telephone interviews and visits. Learners were interviewed at learning providers' venues.

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