Learning a Living: Literacy, Essential skills and why they matter

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Learning a Living Literacy, Essential skills and
why they matter

• Adapted from
• Scott Murray, UNESCO,
• Satya Brink, HRSDC
• By
• Janet Lane
• Executive Director,
• Literacy Alberta

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• These are the Essential Skills
• Oral communication
• Reading text
• Reading documents
• Writing
• Numeracy
• Thinking
• -Decision-making
• -Remembering
• -Problem solving
• -Planning
• -Finding Information
• Team Work
• Continuous learning
• Computer use

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Canadas skills data systems
Demand for Essential Skills
Supply of Essdential Skills
HRSDCs ESRP
Statistics Canadas ALL survey
Reading Text
Prose literacy
Document Use
Document literacy
Writing
Numeracy (Math)
Numeracy
Oral Communication
Speaking and listening
Thinking Skills, including
Problem Solving
Decision Making
Job Task Planning and Organizing
Problem solving
Significant Use of Memory
finding Information
Working with Others
Teamwork
Computer Use
ICTL
Continuous Learning
Adult education and training participation
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The essential skills profiles incorporate a new
understanding of literacy

• Literacy is a tool that one uses to respond to
  new and unfamiliar reading (and numeracy) tasks
• Literacy is the ability to identify, understand,
  interpret, create, communicate and compute, using
  printed and written materials associated with
  varying contexts.
• Literacy involves a continuum of learning in
  enabling individuals to achieve his or her goals,
  develop his or her knowledge and potentials, and
  participate fully in the community and wider
  society
• The factors that underlie performance are
  largely, but not completely, the same in language
  and culture

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• Literacy includes both learning to read and
  reading to learn
• Learning to read involves mastery of the
  components that
• underpin fluent and automatic reading
• Reading to learn involves mastery of texts and
  tasks of
• increasing difficulty.
• To be placed at a level adults must get 80 or
• more of items at a level correct

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Introduction
Literacy proficiency the ability to understand
and employ printed information in daily
activities, at home, at work and in the
community. It is not about whether or not one
can read but how well one reads.
4 Domains, measure skills at five levels

• Prose The knowledge and skills needed to
  understand and use information from texts
  including editorials, news stories, brochures
  and instruction manuals.
• Document The knowledge and skills required to
  locate and use information contained in various
  formats, including job applications, payroll
  forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables,
  and charts.
• Numeracy The knowledge and skills required to
  apply arithmetic operations, either alone or
  sequentially, to numbers embedded in printed
  materials, such as balancing an account, figuring
  out a tip, completing an order form or
  determining the amount of interest on a loan
  from an advertisement .
• Problem Solving Involves goal-directed thinking
  and action in situations for which no routine
  solution procedure is available. The
  understanding of the problem situation and its
  step-by-step transformation, based on planning
  and reasoning constitute the process of problem
  solving. (Only four proficiency levels)

• Level 1 0 - 225 points
• Level 2 226 -275 points
• Level 3 276-325 points
• Level 4 326 -375 points
• Level 5 376 -500 points

Proficiency level for modern economy
and knowledge-based society
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Document Level 3
Q How many millions of dollars were spent on
fireworks in the Netherlands in 1989? A ??
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Introduction
Background information of importance for IALSS
results Alberta
Gender Distribution (population 15-64,
2005) Males 1,173,300 Females 1,119,100
Total population (2003) 3,159,600
Population 15-64(2005)
2,292,400 Population 65 and over (2005)
340,600
Population by mother tongue (Census
2001) English only 2,379,515 French
only 58,645
Non-official languages only 469,220 English and
French 5,780 Eng. And non-off
language 26,420
Population 15 years and over by highest level of
schooling (Census 2001) Less than high school
709,550 High school graduate 272,915
Trade Vocational cert. 70,180
College education 667,075 University 602,310
Source Statistics Canada
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Canadian literacy performance
Percent of Canadian population (16 to 65) at
each prose literacy level, in IALS and ALL
IALS
ALL
4.1 million
4.2 million
6.7 million
8.2 million
4.6 million
5.8 million
3.1 million
3.1 million
Total 18.4 million
Total 21.4 million
Differences at each level between IALS and ALL
are not statistically significant
Source ALL, 2003 IALS, 1994-1998
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Number of people by proficiency level
About 753,000 residents of Alberta had prose
literacy scores below level 3.
4.2m
499,000
8.2m
896,000
5.8m
544,000
3.1m
209,000
2,148,000
21.4m
SourceL IALSS, 2003
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Alberta performance
Impact of low literacy in the population 16-65.
Total 8,849,000
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Low literacy performance
Main characteristics of people at level 1 and 2
in prose IALSS in Alberta (population 16-65).

• Level 1
• 209,000
• 103,000 were immigrants
• 59 were male and 41 female
• 67 were employed
• 9 were unemployed
• Education
• 56 less than high school
• 24 had completed high school
• 20 had post-secondary education

• Level 2
• 544,000
• 106,000 were immigrants
• 55 were male and 45 female
• 79 were employed
• 4 were unemployed
• Education
• 25 less than high school
• 41 had completed high school
• 34 had post-secondary education

Source IALSS, 2003
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Quality of skill flow from the initial education
system Canada rates near the top of the world in
reading literacy
Source Programme for International Student
Assessment, 2000.
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Significant proportions of 15 year olds fail to
meet B.C.s grade 10 performance standards
Percentage of 15-yr olds from various
jurisdictions attaining B.C. grade 10 reading
standards, 2000
1. All results shown here are for 15-year-olds
except for B.C. grade 10 students who are, on
average, 6 months older than B.C. 15 year
olds. Jurisdictions ordered by the percentage of
students meeting or exceeding expectations. Source
Table 6
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Youth in Alberta
In Alberta, as in most provinces and territories,
the majority of youth had prose literacy
proficiency at Level 3 or above.
Distribution of proficiency level on the prose
literacy scale for youth age 16-25, Canada, 2003
Source IALSS, 2003
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Alberta performance
Albertans with high school education scored
better in prose literacy than counterparts in 7
provinces and territories (16 and over).
Literacy proficiency by educational attainment,
Canada, 2003
Source IALSS, 2003
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Net skill gain and loss Prose literacy by age by
educational attainment Canada
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Seniors in Alberta
The majority of seniors (340,600, 11) in Alberta
had low literacy skills.
Distribution of proficiency level on the prose
literacy scale for those older than 65 years,
provinces and territories, 2003
Source IALSS, 2003
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Literacy proficiency and employment
Those with higher literacy proficiency had a
higher employment rate than those with low
literacy.
Source IALSS 2003
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Labour market outcomes and skill Likelihood of
being a top income quartile earner by combined
skill and user profiles Adjusted odds ratios1
showing the likelihood of adults aged 16 to 65 of
being a top income quartile earning, by combined
literacy and computer user profiles, 2003
Countries are ranked by the odds of those in
Group 4. 1. Odds estimates that are not
statistically different from one at conventional
levels of significance are reported as one in the
figure. For the actual estimate and its
corresponding significance, see Table 8.12 in the
annex to this chapter. Source Adult Literacy and
Life Skills Survey, 2003.
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Literacy performance-Labour force
Those with higher average scores earned more
Source IALSS, 2003
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Equity and skill flows from adult learning
Likelihood of participation by literacy
levels Adjusted odds ratios showing the
likelihood of adults aged 16 to 65 receiving
adult education and training during the year
preceding the interview, by document literacy
levels, 2003

• Countries are ranked according to the odds of
  persons who score at Level 4/5.
• Odds estimates that are not statistically
  different from one at conventional levels of
  significance are reported as one in the figure.
  For the actual estimate and its corresponding
  significance, see Table 4.4 in the annex to this
  chapter.
• Source Adult Literacy and Life skills survey,
  2003.

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Literacy performance- Adult training participation
About 54 of workers participated in adult
training in Alberta compared to 50 in Canada.
30 took courses, similar to BC, NS and YK.
Per cent of population receiving adult education
and training the year preceding the interview, by
type of participation, population 16 to 65,
Canada and jurisdictions, 2003
Source IALSS, 2003
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Labour market outcomes and skill Probability of
exiting unemployment by skills levels The
probabilities of unemployed adults aged 16 to 65
to exit unemployment over a 52 week period, by
low (Levels 1 and 2) and medium to high (Levels 3
and 4/5) skills, document scale, 2003
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Source Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey,
2003.
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Labour Market outcomes and skill Likelihood of
being a high-intensity computer user by literacy
skill levels Adjusted odds ratios showing the
likelihood of adults aged 16 to 65 of being
high-intensity computer users, by prose literacy
levels, 2003
Countries are ranked by the odds of those who
score at Level 4/5. Source Adult Literacy and
Life Skills Survey, 2003.
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Literacy performance- Civic engagement
There was a positive relationship between prose
literacy and civic engagement
Civic engagement index by prose literacy level,
population aged 16 and older, Canada, 2003
Source IALSS, 2003
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Literacy performance- Immigrants in Canada
Regardless of level of literacy proficiency most
immigrants were employed but were they under
employed?
Source IALSS, 2003
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Literacy performance- Immigrants in Canada
A high number of immigrants at levels 1 and 2
proficiency in English or French had post
secondary education.
Source IALSS, 2003
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Equity and the quality of skill flow from
immigration Likelihood of earning low income
among native-born and foreign-born by skill
level Adjusted odds ratios1 indicating the
likelihood of low skilled (Levels 1 and 2) and
medium to high skilled (Levels 3 and 4/5)
foreign-born and native-born populations aged 16
to 65 of being in the lowest personal earnings
income quartile, prose literacy scale, 2003
Countries are ranked by the odds ratios of
foreign-born adults who score at Levels 1 and
2. 1. Odds estimates that are not statistically
different from one at conventional levels of
significance are reported as one in the figure.
For the actual estimate and its corresponding
significance, see Table 9.7 in the annex to this
chapter. Source Adult Literacy and Life Skills
Survey, 2003.
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What we know about the economic and social
consequences of literacy

• Increases in average literacy lead increases in
  economic growth
• Differences in average literacy level explain 55
  of GDP growth differences over the past 50 years
• The percentage of adults with low literacy skills
  reduces long term GDP growth significantly

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What we know about the economic and social
consequences of literacy contd

• Differences in literacy level underlie most
  social inequality in
• outcomes employability, wage rates,
  productivity, health, education
• and social position
• Adults lose literacy skills in the absence of
  adequate social and
• economic demand - use it or lose it!
• Government policy can make a huge difference on
  the level and
• social distribution of literacy
• Governments must pay attention to supply, demand
  and the
• efficiency of markets for skill

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For further information contact Janet Lane,
Literacy Alberta jlane_at_literacyalberta.ca (403)
410-6994 www.literacyalberta.ca