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Overview from the Chief Executive

Delivering maximum flexibility for learners and value for money from the public purse.

Ufi's core purpose is to improve the skills of our nation. Through learndirect, we strive to draw people into learning and to equip them with the skills they, their employers and the economy need.

The innovative use of technology to deliver maximum flexibility for learners and value for money from the public purse has always been a distinguishing feature of Ufi. In 2006/07, we continued to lead innovation in the learning market and to use technology to extend our reach and develop and enrich our services. With, on average, 15,500 enrolments on to a learndirect course every week, no other country outside China has a learning organisation with a comparable capacity.

And through learndirect Careers Advice, the UK leads the world in web-enabled and telephone-based learning advice and guidance.

Quantity and quality

We reach millions of people, successfully involving them in learning and helping them gain new skills, but we are not just about large volumes. We continue to achieve impressively high levels of customer satisfaction.

2006/07 was the first year in which we directly managed the learndirect network in England. This is a change which resulted in the reduction of administration costs by £10 million in-year.

We also reached or exceeded all our contractual targets for delivering publicly-funded learning.

In the case of Skills for Life, we exceeded our target of 50,000 achievements and we are contributing around 25% of all adult Skills for Life first test passes in England.

In the case of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), we saw strong growth. We exceeded our target of 3,000 first level two achievements through learndirect. We are now firmly established in the NVQ business.

With 11% of our pre-level two users going on to study for a first NVQ elsewhere, we exceeded our target for referrals to other providers.

Making a regional contribution

We are playing an increasingly important regional role, working with regional Learning and Skills Councils (LSCs) and through our European Social Fund projects to ensure we focus learndirect on particular areas of economic or skills needs.

We are also enhancing our regional contribution through Train to Gain. In 2006, we won Train to Gain bids in five of the English regions. In 2007, we secured a Train to Gain contract in all nine.

In Wales, we have continued to develop our provider network and to support regional needs and priorities.

Our achievements in Wales include more than 9,000 Basic Skills enrolments, over 4,000 Vocationally Related Qualification units and over 25,000 completions on courses leading to qualifications. In Northern Ireland, we achieved our objective of establishing a new offer for learndirect - a delivery model to boost the take-up of government e-services.

Breaking new ground

Through learndirect Careers Advice, we delivered 9.7 million advice sessions and piloted for the government a telephone-based careers guidance service. This project broke new ground and has shown that it is possible to deliver high-quality and cost-effective guidance without face-to-face meetings.

We are especially proud of our continued achievement in attracting people who are hard to engage in learning of any kind. Some 60% of our 2006/07 enrolments were from members of socially disadvantaged groups and 84% of our learners were either qualified below level two when they joined us or had problems with reading and writing or numbers. Among users of the careers advice service, 2.1 million were qualified below level two.

The platform which supports our commercial eCourses offer for small businesses has reached almost 5000 learners, a third of them employees of small businesses. Total course sales reached nearly 9,000.

All these achievements are due wholly to the hard work of our staff and the network of providers and centres. I should like to say a big 'thank you' for a successful year to everyone involved in delivering learndirect.

And thank you too to our strategic partners, especially our learndirect Careers Advice partners, the Skills for Business Network, the Prison Service, unionlearn, Jobcentre Plus and the LSC, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the Department for Work and Pensions, The Welsh Assembly Government and the new Northern Ireland Executive.

Looking ahead

We expect 2007/08 to be another exciting year for Ufi and learndirect. Having recently reviewed and refreshed Ufi's values as an organisation, we have also adopted new staff development and reward strategies to make sure we have the skills we need to take learndirect into the next stage of its development.

The Leitch Review of Skills is playing a substantial role in shaping our future direction.

Lord Leitch's final report acknowledged the strength and value of the learndirect brand and we plan to build on this recognition as we work with the government in response to his recommendations. For example, learndirect Careers Advice is working closely with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and other stakeholders throughout 2007/08 to help create the nationally integrated guidance and advancement service for adults.

In Wales, we will be supporting the outcome of Sir Adrian Webb's Review of further education. In Northern Ireland, we will be working with partners to embed learndirect in the learning and skills infrastructure.

We also expect to be well-placed to expand our Train to Gain programme and where appropriate to bid successfully to deliver other learning and skills provision.

Nationwide, we will use our strength in learning technology, the flexibility of our offer and the scale and value for money of our operation to make a strategic contribution to the sector-wide effort to boost the skills of the UK workforce.

Sarah Jones

Chief Executive

Ufi Partners in 2006/07