Literacy/Numeracy Subject Support
Mercia Partnership has been one of the North West’s leading providers of Level 3 Subject Support programmes in Literacy and Numeracy. These awards help tutors improve their underpinning knowledge and reward them for their impact on Skills for Life in adult education.
Our own tutors have been encouraged to achieve the subject support awards. The work-based learning trainers are typical; they deliver I.T. Professional Practitioner awards to apprentices but, because of their subject support credentials, they are now helping learners achieve the Key Skills of Communication and Application of Number as well! Carolyn Vaz, team leader in the Work-based Learning Programme, says, ‘I was nervous at first about doing the Certificate in Adult Literacy Subject Support at Level 3 because everyone else on the programme seemed to be delivering Skills for Life full time, and I’m an I.T. technician. Before long, though, my literacy skills improved, as did my confidence and in the end I was one of the most vocal members of the literacy group!’
Carolyn continues to deliver I.T. support but now she has integrated Key Skills Communication into the I.T. context. She works closely with her colleague, Martin Flanagan, who achieved the same qualification in Numeracy, to identify evidence opportunities and deliver Key Skills development. One apprentice, Adam, suggested he takes more notice in literacy and numeracy than he did at school because now he can see the ‘practical use’ of those subjects.
