YOUR article “Can key skills be a barrier to success?” rather missed the point.
I agree that it is the job of schools to teach numeracy, literacy and information technology. But the purpose of key skills is to unlock potential which school did not tap.
One of the greatest joys in FE is to teach a young person who “couldn’t do maths at school” to solve work-related numerical problems. The boost to self-confidence is incredible and I have seen many progress to university success.
The principle of key skills is right, we may have got the application wrong but let us not throw out the baby with the bath water. We need to turn key skills from a negative to a positive experience and market them better, to those who deliver them and to industry.
Geoff Payne
16 Glentworth Road, Kexby Gainsborough, Lincs
