Thursday, July 10, 2008

Poll Position

Just a quick reminder to vote in my China Gateway poll if you haven't already done so. You'll find it in the sidebar on the right. With only a day left it's clocked up more than 70 votes, almost a record for an ECR poll. Keep 'em coming!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Skills Plus
The first Skills Plus centre opened in Sittingbourne in 2003 and the initiative is offered for free to adults wanting to improve their numeracy and literacy and is available through the Kent Adult Education Service.

Courses are run at 11 dedicated Skills Plus centres throughout the county and also at further adult education centres.

Many adults find they need to improve their English and Maths skills later in life in order to fill gaps in their education with recognised qualifications in order to secure a specific career or simply to help with daily tasks such as shopping and FILLING IN FORMS *** (essential claimant skills ECR)

Prospective students can join at any time throughout the year and courses run mornings, afternoons and evenings so studies can be fitted around family life and other commitments. Each student has an assessment to gauge their level of ability and their studies are tailored to suit each person based around real-life situations.

Aimed at anyone over the age of 19, completion of the course leads to National Qualifications in English and Maths which are an accepted alternative to GCSEs for adults.

In October 2007 the 5,000th learner was enrolled with Skills Plus and since August 2007 alone, 1,379 new students have joined the scheme. There are plans to open further centres in the county and it is hoped that partnerships with employers, schools and community groups will enable more people to work towards nationally recognised qualifications in English and Maths.

Councillors recognised the inbcrasing complexity of benefits claim forms.


The need to improve the claiming skills of Thanet plus the numeracy and literacy needs of graduate immigrants, hopping off lorries inbound at the Kent Ports, represented the compelling case to invest further public funds in mythical New Horizons for the unemployable.


One alumni of the scheme did visit the Flog it Dope and Cadge of a Sunday lunchtime to get first dabs at the peanuts and read of the freebie paper.

The claimant impressed all round by reading out loud a feature written by a journalist called Nick.

"Tell yer what" said one worthy "Let's send that Nick some Free Skills Test leaflets."

"Yeah", said another "And let's sign it compliments of ECR"

"You can bet what will happen to them then" said the barman.


Back story ECR.

Anonymous said...

The councillor recognising "increasing complexity" also serves the community on the bench.

Anonymous said...

I detect the dead hand of Rick there somewhere.

Moving swifly on, did you see KCC have announced an initiative to tackle boozing? Guess which borough in Kent has the worst boozing record?