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Basic skills qualifications have been awarded to more than 1.5 million people after they made use of the government's Skills for Life strategy.

According to figures released today, 4.7 million adults have taken up 10.5 million learning opportunities via the strategy since it was launched in 2001.

Skills for Life is available to adults with skills below Level 2, which is roughly equivalent to a GCSE at grades A*-C. To date, 1,619 000 learners have achieved their first qualification in literacy, language or numeracy - including over 138,000 offenders.

Minister for Skills, Phil Hope, said: "Our Skills for Life strategy has been a huge success since it was launched in 2001. We introduced the first ever national learning infrastructure for adult skills, including national curricula and standards for literacy, language and numeracy.

"Our Get On campaign - featuring the well-known Gremlin characters - is one of the most well-known Government campaigns ever produced. It has raised awareness of the basic skills issue, tackled the stigma around admitting problems in literacy and numeracy and encouraged thousands of adults to improve their skills."

According to a recent survey by Learndirect, mistakes made as a result of the poor numeracy and literacy skills of 14.6 million workers have contributed to monetary losses for the employees' companies.