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CHAPTER THREE WHY DON'T MORE ADULTS TRY TO IMPROVE THEIR SKILLS?
If people are going to aspire to improve their literacy and numeracy, they need to recognise that they have poor skills in the first place, and then see this as an area for self-improvement. However, previous research has shown that few adults are aware of their own literacy and numeracy skills needs, and we found that levels of self-awareness were lower in Scotland than in England and Wales. Just 4% of respondents in Scotland reported difficulties with reading, 19% with writing and 6% with number work (compared to 8%, 26% and 11% of cohort members overall).
Gender differences
We found few differences between the proportions of men and women in Scotland reporting difficulties with reading. Gender differences were more noticeable in relation to writing, with 16% of men reporting difficulties with spelling, for example, compared to 11% of women. There were virtually no differences between the percentages of men and women reporting difficulties with number work.
These results contrast with the more gender-stereotypical findings of the initial New Light report, which showed that across the BCS70 cohort as a whole, more men than women realised they had difficulties with written communication, while more women reported difficulties with number work, especially multiplication and division.
Regional differences
Respondents from the Central Belt were more than twice as likely to report difficulties with number skills as those living elsewhere in Scotland (10% to 4% for both men and women). We did not find the same regional differences when we looked at the proportion of respondents reporting difficulties with reading and writing.
Self-awareness and take-up of literacy and numeracy provision
While 4% of all men and women in the BCS70 survey had been on a course to help them improve their reading, writing or number skills, this fell to just 1% of men and 2% of women living in Scotland.
Conclusions
Not many adults with low levels of literacy and numeracy recognise their own limited capabilities.
More than 1 in 3 of those who did acknowledge a difficulty with reading, writing or numbers expressed a desire to improve their skills.
By contrast, just 1 in 25 of those who did not acknowledge any problems wanted to improve their skills.
Even among respondents who did report skills difficulties, just 3% had been on a reading or writing course in the previous four years. Attendance on numeracy courses was lower still at 1%.
This suggests that further work is needed to explore the reasons why adults do not take up learning opportunities and to develop innovative and imaginative programmes to attract and engage new learners.
Cohort members living outside the Central Belt were slightly more likely to self-report difficulties with spelling, putting down in words what they wanted to say and the four mathematical calculations.
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