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What are foundation competencies and skills?

While this strategy refers to the need to Raise Foundation Skills so that all People can Participate in our Knowledge Society, it is not just skills that will be important, but rather knowledge, skills and dispositions that will be needed by people to be competent in a knowledge society. In this report, we use the term foundation competencies in recognition of this wider understanding of what is needed to participate in a knowledge society.

Foundation competencies are a set of skills, knowledge and dispositions in the areas of language, literacy and numeracy. These are essential to continued learning and active participation in society and family/whānau roles, as well as employment. Foundation competencies include cross-cutting skills, such as the ability to use technology. They should not be conceived of as a list of discreet and specific competencies, but rather as a bundle of commonly required, interrelated competencies. In the New Zealand context, language includes English and/or te reo Māori. Māori language is the gateway to te ao Māori and Māori culture and values. It needs not only to be preserved, but be a language of communication across communities and accessible to all New Zealanders.

Foundation competencies are developed within wider contexts linked to larger purposes. These contexts and purposes are likely to require competencies beyond language, literacy and numeracy.

The level, complexity and types of foundation competencies required are continually increasing, particularly with regard to the increased sophistication and use of technology and the greater cultural and social diversity of society. Foundation competencies are no longer just a set of knowledge and skills acquired at school as a prerequisite for entering tertiary education and/or employment. They need to be continually updated and improved throughout life, which means access to foundation education for all age groups will be increasingly important.

Higher levels of literacy are now required in most jobs. People require much more literacy to interact with their world in general. The economic development of the country is much more dependent on people having the ability to engage with information and knowledge in their work. Raising foundation competencies across the population is therefore critical to New Zealand’s economic and social development.

The expected change – 2002 to 2007

The overall goal of this strategy is to ensure that foundation learning results in real gains for learners and, over time, results in significantly improved literacy, numeracy and language levels in the population. This requires moving foundation learning from a relatively marginal position within the tertiary education system to being a core activity, underpinned by informed professional practice and improved diagnostic and teaching tools, as well as improving access for those who are not currently participating.

The education system is responsible for ensuring that all New Zealanders acquire the foundation competencies that they need to function effectively in society. The compulsory education system needs to continue to have a strong emphasis on ensuring that all students attain the needed knowledge, skills, attitudes and values before leaving school. The tertiary education sector’s responsibility is to provide foundation education for those who did not attain these competencies at school, for whatever reason, and for adults who need to update and further build on their competency levels.

A staged approach to change is being implemented. In the short term, there is a need for increased teaching capability in foundation learning, coupled with a greater focus on the quality of provision and the outcomes for learners. This needs to include developing a common language to describe foundation competencies across the tertiary education system.

There is a need to develop professional practice in foundation learning across the tertiary education system. A large amount of foundation learning is taught by volunteers. There is limited training and education available in teaching adults foundation competencies. There is little sense of identity of foundation learning as a coherent area of professional practice across programmes, provider types and modes of delivery.

Development of professional practice needs to include a stronger focus on diagnosis of learner needs, assessment of progress and reporting of attainment. It needs to be based on an understanding of how adults acquire competencies and how they can adapt competencies acquired through education to other life contexts.

It is expected that there will be improved connections and clearer pathways for learners between foundation learning and other types of education, including from school to tertiary education. This will require stronger connections between TEOs and schools, as well as between TEOs themselves.

There needs to be better understanding of how and why learners do and do not move from foundation learning to other learning. There needs to be more emphasis on ensuring that learners have support to move into other learning. This requires a greater focus on the needs of the individual learner and greater flexibility of programme provision and funding.

Over time, there will be an emphasis on increasing the availability of foundation learning to a greater number and range of learners. There is a need to address gaps between existing provision and to identify the learners who are currently not being well served. There is currently a mix of strategies in tertiary education that includes a foundation learning aspect and a focus on particular learners (such as Adult Literacy and ESOL) or types of provision (such as Adult and Community Education). These strategies are central to achieving progress on this Strategy. However, it is known that these do not cover all learners in need of foundation learning.

The baseline picture in 2002

The 1996 International Adult Literacy Survey shows that a significant proportion of adult New Zealanders would face challenges in coping with the range of material found in everyday life and work in a knowledge economy and society. This is largely consistent with results from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. It reflects the legacy of education systems that had undue focus on differentiating learners between academic and vocational and an industrial system that did not require particularly high levels of literacy in the workforce.

The 2001 Health of the Māori Language Survey confirmed that te reo Māori remains in a precarious position. While 25 percent of the Māori population can speak some Māori, only 15 percent can make use of it to a reasonable degree. The knowledge of te reo Māori in the non-Māori population remains low with less than one percent able to speak it to any degree.

In the period to 2002, there was a fairly stable pattern of nearly one in five school leavers each year leaving school without any qualifications. These proportions were higher for Māori and Pasifika school leavers. These people are much more likely to have low foundation competencies and find it much more difficult to move into tertiary education later in life.

At the same time, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of school leavers moving directly into tertiary education. This has been assisted by programmes such as STAR and Gateway, as well as local level connections between schools and tertiary providers. Youth Training provides an option for students who have disengaged from school to gain entry to further education.

Programmes such as adult literacy and training opportunities were important providers of foundation education, particularly for people who have been disadvantaged in education and employment. However, there has also been a significant growth in provision of foundation education courses through TEOs in 2002. This has partly been driven by Te Wānanga o Aotearoa’s Mahi Ora programme. However, provision through polytechnics has also increased.

There has been a similar growth in the provision of te reo Māori courses, through both wānanga and polytechnics. Te Wānanga o Aotearoa’s Te Ara Reo course significantly increased the availability of te reo learning throughout the country, particularly in more isolated areas.

A new policy framework for foundation learning will be implemented progressively over the next three years. The initial focus is on improving quality and raising expectations. An early start has been made with the adult literacy achievement framework. A broadening of access and expansion of provision will take effect from 2006.

Further development of monitoring

Future monitoring will have a greater focus on completion of foundation learning courses and progression to other learning. It will also look at how TEOs are determining their specific contributions to foundation learning provision, including actions taken to improve the integration of foundation learning to core provision and provide support for progression to other learning. Foundation learning within industry training is a specific area that needs further attention within monitoring.

As the new policy framework for foundation learning is implemented, monitoring will have a greater focus on the quality of provision. Information should be able to be gathered from the application of achievement frameworks and assessment tools to look at learner achievement and progression through different programmes and pathways. The emphasis on professional practice in TEOs will also be monitored.

As quality provision is broadened, access to foundation education by groups who were previously not well represented will need to be measured. This will require improved information on what happens to people who leave school without qualifications and the extent to which they enter foundation education later in life.

The Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (to be conducted in 2004/05) will provide updated information on literacy levels in the adult population. It is also likely to provide broader measures, giving a more accurate picture of foundation competencies.

The 2006 Census will provide an update on the extent to which Māori is spoken in the population. While there are no plans currently to repeat the Health of the Māori Language Survey in the form it was undertaken in 2001, Statistics New Zealand is considering how the key questions from the survey can be incorporated into an ongoing programme of social surveys.

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• Table of Contents

• The Baseline Picture

• Cross Strategy Indicators

• Raise foundation skills

• Skills for our knowledge society

• Strengthen research and knowledge creation

• Te rautaki mātauranga Māori

• Pacific people’s development and success

• Capability and quality

• Technical and Data Definitions