3.The characteristics of seasonal workers

A recent Australian study of seasonal workers (Kilpatrick and Bound, 2005) reported that their characteristics vary from region to region, with female workers often dominant. In their literature review, the authors reported that the most frequent categories of seasonal workers were professional workers who travel following work, unemployed people, migrants, backpackers and students. However, as a result of their own research, they refined their categories into the following groups of seasonal workers:

• temporary workers motivated by income (e.g. backpackers and students)
• less experienced temporary seasonal workers with a low motivation
• aspiring seasonal workers
• employers of seasonal workers.

Although they found that some seasonal workers aim to move into higher paid work, there is also a distinct group who choose to be seasonal workers mainly for the flexibility that if offers, such as women who work to supplement family income when they wish to buy large consumer items, and others who work to supplement low-income businesses such as small farm units.

Like other workers who work part-time in small non-unionised rural workplaces and have low qualifications, seasonal workers have higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, poor job security, low income and limited opportunities for training.

3.Training needs of seasonal workers

There is a common perception of all seasonal work being uncomplicated and repetitive, requiring much more brawn than brain. Nonetheless, Kilpatrick and Bound (2005, p.11) point out that even with mundane work, effective training can help reduce or prevent many workplace issues, such as repetitive strain injury (RSI), and that there is also a growing demand from employers for generic skills such as communication and teamwork. Other skills they listed included occupational health and safety and technical skills; those with low motivation required "attitudinal and generic skills for the job such as reliability and teamwork" (p.6). Supervisors (drawn mainly from the career seasonal worker group) needed "basic training and assessment, conflict resolution and basic front-line management skills". The need for training seasonal workers is constant due to the high turnover of workers and employers therefore tend to put only their more permanent workers through formal training programmes.

3.Training programmes for seasonal workers

Consistent with such a part-time itinerant workforce, seasonal workers not only have low levels of qualifications, but also have low levels of interest in training, and their work situations mean that they do not readily fit into most conventional programme formats (Kilpatrick and Bound, 2005). Issues such as accessing information about training opportunities, transport difficulties in rural areas, demanding work hours and childcare all mean that seasonal workers face considerable barriers to accessing existing training opportunities, even if learner motivation is high.

Most training for seasonal workers in the Australian study occurred on the job and most was informal, offered as needed and was not accredited. The formal VET system is largely seen as inappropriate and inflexible for seasonal workers. Specific barriers to both formal and informal training included:

• inappropriate training delivery such as standardised packages, delivery of whole qualifications and content not being customised to the specific group
• for workers - costs of training, transport and childcare costs; for all stakeholders - identifying and accessing formal training; for employers and other stakeholders - access to appropriate funding
• limited understanding by employers and other stakeholders of how structured on-the-job training can be used flexibly to enhance outcomes for enterprises and seasonal workers
• lack of career pathways in seasonal work
• limited learning-to-learn skills and literacy and numeracy skills with some workers.

A review of rural provision (including workplace programmes) in the UK (Atkin, Rose and Shier, 2005) identified these factors as barriers to involving rural-based learners in workplace programmes:

• A lack of suitably qualified literacy, numeracy and ESOL teachers.
• Situational barriers for learners such as distance, lack of transport and access to childcare. The authors argue that the stigma of having poor literacy and numeracy skills is greater in rural areas.
• Poor publicity about what provision was available.
• Difficulties in attracting minimum numbers to satisfy funding requirements - what providers in a New Zealand rural study (Benseman, 2006, April 25) identified as a "tyranny of numbers" for rural providers. This issue is especially true for ESOL learners who tend to be even less numerous in many areas, although their educational needs may be considerable.
• Difficulties caused by the rhythms and crises of production cycles.

The report also identified a range of strategies that had been used to overcome or minimise these barriers:

• Offering ICT and embedded (integrated) provision in first aid or food hygiene courses helped de-stigmatise "basic skills" provision and also ensure higher enrolment numbers.
• Working in association with union learning representatives in areas with unionised workforces.
• Word-of-mouth was the most effective way of recruiting learners, especially those who are initially reluctant.
• Training of ESOL learners (especially those who have qualifications in their own language) as tutors to increase numbers of teachers available.
• Development work and "taster" courses were useful in reaching learners apprehensive of enrolling in programmes.

In the Australian study, the following were identified as factors to enhance effective formal training:

• Collaborative arrangements among stakeholders.
• On-the-job customised delivery facilitated by providers with deep knowledge of the industry, the employers and the workers; selection of individual competencies as appropriate; flexible delivery and recognition of current competence.
• Appropriate business and legislative factors including quality assurance processes and health and safety.
• Pay levels structured to training.
• Employer training orientation, fostered by membership of relevant industry association with an interest in training.
• Subsidising costs incurred by employers in providing training.
• Strong planning at regional level to co-ordinate and deliver programmes.

In Britain, the Employer Training Pilots (ETP) programme was set up to test the effectiveness of an offer of free or subsidised training to employees without a level 2 qualification, wage compensation to their employers and access to information, advice and guidance. Although not specifically about seasonal workers, ETP is of interest because it predominantly involved employees with minimal qualifications and who had not been involved in workplace education prior to ETP. The evaluation report of ETP (Hillage, Loukas, Newton and Tamkin, 2004) reviewed how well the programme had worked since its inception in 200ETP was successful in involving many employers who had not been involved in workplace training previously. The learners were predominantly female, aged 26-45 and working full-time.

Only 11% of the learners opted for a basic skill (literacy) qualification, even though there was considerable effort made to recruit them into these qualifications. Those groups that included learners with ESOL needs were much more likely to enrol in basic skill (literacy) qualifications. In other words, learners with basic skill needs are more likely to want to enrol in vocational courses, meaning that their basic skills then need to be addressed as part of the vocational courses. The other UK study (Atkin et al., 2005, pp.50,66) also found that ESOL issues were prominent among migrants in rural jobs, especially in relation to health and safety issues and "coping better with daily life".

For employers, the most attractive elements of ETP are the full subsidies available, the flexible delivery and the help with the brokerage offered and identifying training needs. The report concluded that there is no relationship between the level of compensation offered to employers and the level of take-up among employers or employees. Training providers have proved to be an important source of employer recruitment.

Over 17,000 learners had successfully completed their training; just under half completed in less than nine months, 20% left their course and 30% were "still in learning". Most of the withdrawals occurred when the learners left their jobs or for personal reasons; 40% however left because they did not have enough time, lost interest or found the training too difficult - all factors that the evaluators felt pointed to the need for better support for these learners in the programme.

The authors concluded that successful completion was associated with three groups of factors:

• Learner-related - learners who are older, male, do not have a disability, work flexibly and have lower (but at least some) prior attainment.
• Course-related - completion rates were lower for learners with college (i.e. more formal) providers.
• Area-related - those offering initial assessment and high employer support have higher completion rates.

A subsequent follow-up evaluation by the Adult Learning Inspectorate (Ashton et al., 2005) showed that the quality of provision had risen, with the inspectors rating it as "generally satisfactory or good", and most aspects of the programme were working very well. Employers and employees were still very enthusiastic about ETP, especially its relevance and flexibility.

3.Benefits for employers

The ETP evaluation showed that employers saw increasing benefits as the programme progressed; they reported that the benefits were more immediate than anticipated and were most obvious in their employees' new-found levels of self-confidence and important business skills. As a result, employers said that they were more positive in their attitudes about training and more likely to train less-skilled employees in the future.

A comprehensive literature review done in the UK of the research on the benefits to employers of raising workforce basic skills levels shows that there is a frustrating lack of quality studies internationally on this topic (Ananiadou, Jenkins and Wolf, 2003). This is not to say that there is not a strong link between the two, simply that the quality of the research to date is not methodologically rigorous enough. The review does point out that adults with good literacy skills tend to have higher wages and better chances of being in work (i.e. there are economic benefits for learners who participate in literacy and numeracy programmes) and that there are market studies showing that very few jobs can be performed properly without basic skills and that the literacy (and especially numeracy) skill demands of most jobs will continue to increase. Feedback from employers (as in the previous study above) is consistently positive.

Ananiadou, Jenkins and Wolf also reviewed the research evidence on training in general rather than basic skills specifically; here, the research studies are both more numerous and more sophisticated. With this body of research, there is clear evidence that training has a positive impact on firm performance, including productivity, greater innovation and better financial performance. Finally, the review points out that, contrary to popular perception, offering workplace training does not lead to the poaching of trained workers - indeed, quite the opposite occurs with workers who have been in training programmes having higher levels of commitment to the company as expressed in their loyalty, pride in the organisation and agreement with its values.

The NRDC study (Atkin et al., 2005) stressed the importance of being able to demonstrate the benefits of improving basics skills to employers.

3.Summary

This brief review shows that seasonal workers are a challenging group to involve in LLN programmes and indeed any workplace programmes for a range of reasons. Their circumstances - working long hours in tasks affected greatly by vagaries of weather and production demands, situated often in rural areas away from transport and other facilities and their high geographic mobility - all make the planning and running of provision constantly challenging for this occupational group. Most funding for provision is based on a model of high concentrations of learners who are regularly available during "conventional" times - all factors that fit poorly with seasonal workers' environments.

On top of their work circumstances, seasonal workers usually include significant numbers of adults who have not succeeded in most of their previous educational experiences. They are therefore often reluctant to become involved in workplace programmes, no matter how well they are planned and structured. Recruiting, retaining and ensuring success for these learners takes considerable educational skill.

Finally, it is important to note that seasonal workers are an extremely diverse group of workers (including their educational backgrounds and aspirations) and that workplace programmes for this group need to be tailored to the needs of the specific groups of learners involved and their learning needs.

Despite the challenges these learners bring, this brief review has listed some successful strategies to increase the likelihood of making this provision effective.