Skills for Life in the Workplace

New film underlines the importance of Skills for Life in the workplace

Natural Allies – awareness raising film

‘Organisations which include workplace Skills for Life in their overall development plans show improved performance and better team-working and staff morale, a new film produced by The Network at Lancaster University shows.

The DVD and CD Rom, called "Natural Allies", has been created from interviews with employers, employees, training providers, practitioners and advisers in the North West region about the importance of engaging with the Government’s Skills for Life (SfL) initiative. The Network for Workplace Language, Literacy and Numeracy at Lancaster University and Investors in People UK have teamed up to produce the 10-minute film on behalf of the LSC Greater Merseyside.

The presentation has three aims. It is to be used as a resource for advisers and assessors on how IiP can support the development of effective SfL in the workplace; to help employers understand more about SfL issues; and to increase general understanding of SfL in the community at large.

"By listening carefully to all the stakeholders – employers, advisers and employees – I believe we have produced a really useful and clear training package that can be used in a number of different ways," said Eddie Little, Director of Operations at The Network. "This latest project is indicative of how our work with our partners is expanding all the time. Without doubt we are now one of the country’s most experienced and wide-ranging Skills for Life organisations."

"Natural Allies" starts by explaining how SfL is relevant to employers, before moving on to the three stages of its implementation. First comes the planning stage, in which strategies to improve the performance of the organisation are developed. This is followed by the active stage, in which action is taken to improve performance; and finally the review stage, in which the project’s impact is evaluated.

As many as 13 partner organisations from the North West region contributed to the making of the film. They were: Aintree Hospitals NHS Trust, Business Link for Greater Merseyside, Classic Community Care, Investors in People UK, Lancashire County Council, LSC Greater Merseyside, Mercia Partnership, Merseytravel, The Network, NVQ Training and Consultancy Services, Sandylands Community Primary School, TUC Learning Services, and Wilson James.

Further information about "Natural Allies" and its availability, contact: Roberta Herd: 01524 592280; or email.