There is a growing need for people to upskill and retrain throughout their working lives in response to technological and economic changes. Employees need to adapt and take on board new information and ways of working, but may lack confidence in their skills to be able to keep pace with their employer's business. Addressing literacy, numeracy and…

The ageing labour force, and concerns with productivity and social inclusion have driven foundation skills policy development in Australia and internationally (SCOTESE 2012; Newton 2016). However, little existing literature focusses on the relationships between foundation skills, community education providers and regional location. Thus, this…

Defined as language, literacy and numeracy, and employability skills, foundation skills are essential for individuals to participate in further education, employment and wider society. Community education providers, such as community colleges, neighbourhood houses, faith-based organisations and adult learning associations, are key providers of…

Learning to be literate builds upon existing knowledge of the language from speech. Becoming literate then enables children to learn more about language. However, literacy is unlikely to be achieved without explicit and prolonged instruction. This review provides an evidence base for decision-making during literacy education. The authors identify…

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the difficulties postgraduate students face in writing the literature review for their thesis and dissertation. Methodology: Seventy postgraduate students from 9 faculties in one public university in the Klang Valley consented to participating in this study. They were 49 Masters candidates and 21 doctoral (PhD)…

This article examines evidence of academic skill development and transfer related to the taking of a first year Inquiry-based seminar course designed to enhance a range of self-directed learning skills and their transferability to other learning contexts. The study compares a sample of academic work from two groups of Social Sciences students, one…

The workplace is continually changing to keep up with new technology, improvements in products and services and the growing demands of customers. To meet the challenge of this changing environment, employers need to make greater demands on the skills of their employees to remain competitive. Basic skills are the essential building blocks which…

This document is intended to help groups raise their level of awareness about what it feels like to have difficulty with reading or math, look at how varying levels of literacy and numeracy can affect the quality of their group's activities, and look at ways in which they can overcome literacy- and numeracy-related problems. The beginning of the…

Interviews with 13 female and 7 male retirees in the West Midlands, England, aged 60-70 plus, ascertained their self-perceived reading, writing, oral communication, and computation skills. It was concluded that basic skills cannot be defined as an identifiable set of coping skills, but must be based on self-perceived requirements within an…

The paper argues that the term "literacy" has become attached to too many disparate practices, and that renewed attention needs to be paid to how the acquisition and use of skills of written communication are conditioned by the core structures of the home, the classroom, and the state. It reviews the current usages of literacy and…

The Swedish Basic Skills in a Long Term Perspective research project, which is described in this paper, was prompted by the belief that only a long-term perspective could reveal significant changes in schools and society at large. The general purpose of the described project is to endeavor, in historical and societal terms, to elucidate and…

This material provides an initial assessment procedure to help identify the level of basic skills competence of people entering education or training. It is based on Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit Standards that describe how and to what level of performance adults should be able to use communication and number skills. The material can be…

There is need for clarification of what is being called "process writing," for, in many cases, children are inappropriately being trained to follow a professional writing model. A serious problem with the use of the writing process approach is that very little is actually known about the writing process. Writing is supremely complex and…

The first volume in this two-volume report outlines the nine educational principles on which the competence statements for adult reading and writing are based. The four literacies--for self-expression, practical purposes, knowledge, and public debate--are defined and some representative text types and common genres are provided. The four levels…

Findings of a 1989 national survey of the functional reading, writing, and numeracy skills of Canada's adult population are reported. The survey population was a representative sample of 9,500 individuals aged 16-69. Three questionnaires gathered information on socio-demographic and educational background, screened out individuals with very low…