Literacy and Numeracy Resources

In the workplace, literacy is not just reading and writing. It includes skills such as the ability to access/sort information, to understand and work with numbers, to communicate effectively with customers and other staff. For example, someone promoted from a production level role to supervisor not only has to come to grips with the new tasks, but also has a higher literacy demand placed on them. In this case they may be expected to write reports, give presentations and prepare budgets.

As a good employer, you may regularly send employees on courses to increase their skills. But what if the course itself requires higher reading and writing skills than the employee has? This could create huge barriers for those with low literacy. They may lack the strategies needed to manage the information load, and may fail early on in their courses.

A recent Business NZ-Industry Training Federation Skills and Training Survey showed that 35% of businesses surveyed had some employees that had difficulties with filling in forms, understanding safety warnings or accurately measuring volumes. Literacy and numeracy gaps were commonly reported by manufacturing, construction and infrastructure businesses.

Why not just send them on a literacy course?

Only a small number of people who struggle with literacy demands in the workplace would participate in a literacy course. (This number is even lower for numeracy.) Again, if we take the newly appointed supervisor, they may undertake a ‘supervisor's course’ to gain the knowledge/skills of the supervisor, but they may also need their literacy and numeracy skills boosted. These skills need to be taught in context.

An effective way of boosting these skills is by embedding them in both workplace training and professional development courses.

So what is embedding?

Embedding literacy and numeracy creates a realistic context the learner can make meaning of. It helps make the learning attractive and worthwhile to the learner – they often see it as ‘killing two birds with one stone’. Learners increase their literacy and numeracy skills almost as a by-product of their learning!

Embedding can also help overcome previous bad educational experiences and lower anxiety levels of the learner.

Origin of embedded literacy and numeracy

During the 1980s and 1990s, the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC, UK) proposed that “Whenever possible key skills should be integrated with other aspects of the course.” (FEFC, 1998 p20)

The principles of embedding can also be found in ESOL and EFL teaching as early as the 1980s – where the use of real situations to motivate learners was commonplace.

Are you doing it right?

Embedding literacy and numeracy is much more than making sure sentences are short! What you do depends on the type and level of training materials, the target audience, and the whole context their training is set in.

Before you start investing time and money, it is vital to carry out a workplace literacy and numeracy audit. You need to know what has to be done, and that you are targeting the right areas.

Want to know more about carrying out a literacy and numeracy Workplace Audit, and how to embed literacy and numeracy into your training materials? Contact us now to talk to one of our literacy and numeracy experts. If you want something even faster, go to our resources section and download a free copy of our latest booklet. It's full of useful information on this subject.

Design and development of the Foundation Communication Certificate (Get Ahead Start Programme). This is an adult literacy and numeracy initiative of the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand.