In order to improve on the curriculum and participation rate of adult learners in the current Adult Basic Education (ABE) program in Nigeria, this explorative study investigated the entrepreneurial (or vocational) training needs of illiterate women in Cross River State (CRS). Three research questions were posed to elicit from the participants…

A study was conducted to find out about the people who conduct and work in adult literacy programs in New York City (NYC). Through a questionnaire distributed to NYC literacy practitioners working in programs operated by public libraries, the City University of New York, the New York City Board of Education, and community-based organizations, the…

Demographic forecasters predict that fewer young workers will be entering the work force at the turn of the century, with women, minorities, and immigrants constituting five-sixths of the net additions to the labor force. Since these groups generally have comparatively low educational levels, the labor pool of the near future will be characterized…

During the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), trained staff interviewed nearly 1,150 inmates in 80 federal and state prisons that had been randomly selected to represent prisons across the country. Survey participants completed diverse literacy tasks and answered questions regarding demographic characteristics, educational background, and…

Testing of skills in reading, mathematics, and English as a second language (ESL) was conducted at 12 programs for homeless people in California in 1992; 2,111 homeless persons were evaluated. Analysis of the data revealed that approximately 63 percent of the participants were male and 37 percent were female; 35 percent were between 20-29, 39…

The National Survey of Literacy Skills Used in Daily Activities assessed the functional literacy skills of Canadians aged 16-69. It used a series of commonplace tasks of varying difficulty supplemented by a self-assessment of the literacy skills and needs of Canadians to provide a detailed literacy profile of the adult population in Canada. A…

This document reports the results of a study of literacy in Canada conducted for the Southam News in 1987. During the study, 2,398 Canadians were surveyed to determine the levels of literacy they possessed and how they coped in society if they were illiterate. The research methodology is based on an assessment of literacy conducted in 1985 by the…

This study identified the needs, aspirations, and hindrances defining and delineating adult literacy education in the Riverina region, New South Wales, Australia. Information sources were policy, opinion, memories, literature, and statistics. A profile of the region showed that the population was basically white and of Anglo-Saxon heritage.…

In 1983-1984 the adult literacy program in the State of New York served 78,195 adults. Fifty-one percent were female, 17 percent had completed less than 5 years of formal education, 24 percent considered a language other than English as their native language, 46 percent were between the ages of 16 and 24, 42 percent were between the ages of 25 and…

Global figures that reveal the magnitude of the problem of illiteracy in the world disguise great disparities. For example, most of the illiteracy in the world is in developing countries. Therefore, it is preferable, and more appropriate in terms of numerical importance, to concentrate the analysis of illiteracy on developing countries. Such…

This document contains 20 papers on lifelong education presented at a conference on aging. The papers, grouped into themes of trends and implications, resourceful roles (students and learners, teachers and mentors) and an agenda for the future, include the following: "Demographic Potential and the Quiet Revolution" (Opening Remarks by Robert A.…

This summary paper examines factors in achieving full adult literacy in the United States, particularly among the growing population of limited-English-proficient (LEP) immigrants. The first section offers a demographic profile of LEP adults in this country, drawing largely on data from the National Adult Literacy Survey and on a study of poverty…

The 1-year project reported here was undertaken for World Literacy of Canada to survey the nature and extent of functional illiteracy in Canada, with a focus on those activities currently being undertaken in Anglophone Canada. An introduction provides background on the extent of the problem, comparing 1961 and 1971 Census statistics, and defines…

Data from the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey were analyzed in a study of the relationship between literacy skill levels and dependency on welfare. The study focused on the following: literacy levels in the welfare population and in different demographic groups, the relationship between educational attainment and literacy and labor force…

This report is an overview of the changes occurring in society and the workplace today, with a prediction of how those changes will affect employment in the future in the United States and especially in Indiana. The report is organized in five sections. The first section summarizes the demographic, economic, and social changes that are presently…