English, maths, digital and other related skills are crucial for people to succeed in work, helping people find work and earn more. They also contribute to their wider lives, including increasing the likelihood of people being active in their community, and economic growth.

In Wales, around one in 12%working-age adults, some 216,000 people, have low literacy and around 50%, 918,000 people, have low numeracy skills. Digital skills are needed for an increasing number of jobs and to be active in society, but many people  struggle with these skills. 10% of adults in Wales are not on-line.  Research suggests 66% of the population have basic digital skills – the UK average is 79%.

Our work is focused on how to widen access to these skills, as well as improving the range and quality of provision.  We need to design new approaches that engage people and trial new approaches to delivering basic skills.  We argue this requires more investment to create more opportunities to learn, and recognising these skills are inter-related and made more accessible by being contextualised and integrated.