A significant proportion of CWM colleges’ AEB funded provision is Basic Skills courses. In 2021/22 colleges delivered English, Maths and English Language (ESOL) to 23,180 adult learners, which made up 48% of the 43,993 adult learners funded through AEB funding. 

The split across the three main subject areas was roughly equal. 

Location 

83% of learners on Basic Skills provision in 2021/22 live in the WMCA area. 

Almost all learners on English Language (ESOL) provision live in the WMCA area.  

Level 

The majority of all CWM learners enrolled to Basic Skills courses were at entry level, followed by level 2. The high proportion of ESOL learners in the WMCA patch accounts for this split. 

Vocational ESOL 

In 2021/22, colleges started using a new code to record where provision delivered to WMCA residents to teach English language was vocational in nature. 495 learners had a Vocational ESOL aim, which was about 7% of ESOL provision. 

Vocational ESOL was provided for a nine vocational areas with the most popular being Health, Nursing and Social care and ICT.