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Literacy in the Workplace

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Workforce Development

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Abstract

This chapter considers the challenge of literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) issues in contemporary workplaces, both in Australia and internationally. It firstly considers the gradual recognition that adult LLN is a widespread issue warranting government responses and its links to debates about improving labour productivity. LLN issues among workers are then examined in detail, reviewing their distribution in the workforce and implications for LLN provision in the workplace. Implications of recent research studies of workplace LLN programs are discussed as well as the need to ensure that newly acquired LLN skills learned in courses are transferred back into everyday workplace practices.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Australia’s WELL program catered for 72,000 employees from 2007 to 2012 (Third Horizon 2012, p. 3).

  2. 2.

    The author was an external advisor for this project.

  3. 3.

    The author was lead researcher for this project.

  4. 4.

    Courses that ran smoothly tended to have greater impact on participants and their work.

  5. 5.

    All participants in the project were paid, and a majority attended classes during work time.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    John Benseman

Authors
  1. John Benseman
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Correspondence to John Benseman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Education, Equity and Work Research Group,University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, Australia

    Roger Harris

  2. Education, Equity and Work Research Group, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, Australia

    Tom Short

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Benseman, J. (2014). Literacy in the Workplace. In: Harris, R., Short, T. (eds) Workforce Development. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-58-0_13

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