Session Information
02 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Session
General Poster Session
Contribution
Adult literacy and work-related learning opportunities
The PIAAC study (OECD, 2013) provides, among others, international statistical data on literacy skills of adults (more precisely: people aged 16-65 years residing in the country), for which five proficiency levels are described. Like in all countries, in Germany there is a substantial number of adults (17.5 %) with low literacy proficiency (level 1 or below; cf. OECD, 2013, p. 257). Of those, 62.7 % are employed, while 30.8 % are out of labor force (cf. OECD, 2013, p. 393). Functional illiterates can be defined as a subgroup of adults with low literacy that “can read or write single sentences, but not continuous text – even if it is brief” (Grotlüschen & Riekmann, 2011). In Germany, more than half (57%) of the functional illiterates are employed, while 12% of the working population is to be considered functional illiterate(Grotlüschen & Riekmann, 2011). As “[p]roficiency and engagement in literacy practices interact over time and mutually reinforce each other in adult literacy development” (Grotlüschen, Mallows, Reder, & Sabatini, 2016, p. 9), workspace related literacy skills are of special importance for these adults. In line with PIAAC’s first key recommendation for policy – “Develop links between the world of learning and the world of work.” (OECD, 2013, p. 35) – this raises the question how to offer them optimal, work-related learning opportunities.
Digital learning environments and the project lea.online
Most learning and diagnostic materials in adult literacy education are paper-based. Only over the past decade digital media has slowly been developed. In the prior lea.-project (2008-2010), Wolf, Koppel & Küster have developed a diagnostic online-platform otu.lea (http://otulea.uni-bremen.de) for testing functional illiterates. This tool is widely used in Germany in adult literacy courses, because it saves a lot of time – instead of doing a diagnosis one teacher with one participant, all participants of a literacy course can take a test in parallel on the computer to determine the individual level of literacy skills. Other parts from the lea. - project, especially learning materials will be made available in digital form as well in our project.
Taking up the demand outlined above, the lea.online project seeks to make available digital learning ressources for functional illiterates which are specific for certain occupational areas. This way, functional illiterates already employed or searching employment in such jobs can improve their workspace related literacy skills to improve their careers.
Functional illiterate adults find jobs mostly within the low-threshold sector of employment. Such jobs can be carried out with low or even no qualification, but still require basic literacy skills.
The central question to be answered on the poster is: which occupational areas are most relevant for a digital learning app to improve workspace related literacy skills ?
Method
Relevant selection criteria were identified by analyzing studies in the area of literacy development and functional illiteracy on the one hand and prognoses about trends in occupational sectors on the other. The following criteria were found relevant: 1. Educational requirements: only low education required. As Grotlüschen and Riekmann, (2012, p. 203) show, having no or low formal educational qualification is an important predictor for functional illiteracy in Germany. Accordingly, areas with semi-skilled (instead of formally educated) employees have a high proportion of functional illiterates (cf. Grotlüschen & Riekmann, 2012, p. 145; Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, 2013, p. 29). Hence, there is a special focus on jobs that require only low formal education. 2. Apprenticeships with overproportionately high percentages of functional illiterates. Amongst apprenticeship courses, those taking only two years are of special interest, as they are usually less theoretical than three-year courses and often offer youths with low education prospects for employment (cf. Notz & Nüchter, 2006). The respective skilled occupations can be checked against proportions of functional illiterates in jobs (cf. Grotlüschen & Riekmann, 2012). 3. At least 15% of identified functional illiterates within a sector of employment. Mainly set by the SAPfA study (Ehmig et al., 2015), a threshold of 15% should be considered as a criterion. Grotlüschen and Riekmann (2012) also identified other proportions of functional illiterates by sector. 4. High future workforce demand Both, trends in sectors of employment until 2030 (cf. Vogler-Ludwig et.al., 2016) and expected demand on workforce until 2030 in certain sectors (cf. Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, 2013) are considered to choose "future safe" sectors. 5. (Basic) literacy is mandatory. In some jobs, the lack of sufficient reading and writing skills can lead to negative consequences for employees. 6. Shortage of employees. Jobs in such sectors might provide good prospects of employment and might thus be appealing to adults with low education. Based on these criteria, occupational areas with sufficient employment potentials were selected for a detailed analysis, which will be presented on the poster.
Expected Outcomes
Applying the criteria described above to occupations in the low-threshold sector of employment, three sectors emerged that were considered most relevant for the project’s purposes: 1. food sectors, 2. cleaning sector, and 3. public health and caring sector. According to Rosenbladt and Bilger (2011), there is a substantial amount of employed functional illiterates within the various food sectors. In their sample, women were employed as domestic assistant, cook, kitchen assistant etc., whereas men were rather employed in food producing jobs, such as baker, butcher, or cook (Rosenbladt & Bilger, 2011, p. 21). Choosing food sectors – including both, catering industry and food production – is reasonable because in both sectors a high percentage of the employees are functional illiterates, and generally many activities and jobs are done by assistants. In the catering industry, about 18% of the employees are functional illiterates (Ehmig et al., 2015), and in the food production sector it is 27% (Grotlüschen & Riekmann, 2012). While employment rates tend to decline in these sectors because there are continuously more jobs than personnel, they remain nevertheless relevant for this project due to the high number of overall employees and the considerable percentage of functional illiterates. Another highly relevant sector is cleaning, with an amount of 40% of the employees considered functional illiterate (Grotlüschen & Riekmann, 2012, p. 146). Additionally, in this sector employment rates are increasing (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, 2013, pp. 25, 48). The third sector considered highly relevant public health and caring. Employment rates are predicted to increase until 2030 (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, 2013). At the same time, in this sector there is a growing demand for literacy skills in order to efficiently read and write staff rosters and accurate medication treatment. Misunderstandings can have severe consequences for individuals.
References
Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales (2013). Arbeitsmarktprognose bis 2030. Eine strategische Vorausschau für die Entwicklung von Angebot und Nachfrage in Deutschland. Bonn: Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales. Couldry, N. & Hepp, A. (2018). The mediated construction of reality. New York: Wiley. Ehmig, S., Heymann, L., & Seelmann, C. (2015). Alphabetisierung und Grundbildung am Arbeitsplatz. Sichtweisen im beruflichen Umfeld und ihre Potenziale. Mainz: Stiftung Lesen. Grotlüschen, A., Mallows, D., Reder, S., & Sabatini, J. (2016). Adults with Low Proficiency in Literacy or Numeracy (OECD Education Working Papers No. 131). Paris: OECD Publishing. Grotlüschen, A. & Riekmann, W. (2011). leo. – Level One Study (Press brochure). Hamburg: University of Hamburg. Grotlüschen, A. & Riekmann, W. (2012). Funktionaler Analphabetismus in Deutschland. Ergebnisse der ersten leo. – Level-One Studie. Münster: Waxmann. Notz, P. & Nüchter, O. (2006). Berufe für Jugendliche mit schlechten Startchancen. Bestehende Ausbildungsberufe als Option für eine berufliche Integration. Offenbach / Frankfurt: INBAS / IWAK. OECD (2013). OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. Paris: OECD Publishing. Rosenbladt, B. & Bilger, F. (2011). Erwachsene in Alphabetisierungskursen der Volkshochschulen. Ergebnisse einer repräsentativen Befragung (AlphaPanel). Bonn: Deutscher Volkshochschulverbund. Stuckatz, D. & Badel, S. (2015): Arbeitsplatzorientierte Grundbildung für Geringqualifizierte in der Pflegehilfe – Analyse gegenwärtiger Kurskonzepte und Ableitung von Entwicklungsbedarf. In E. Severing & M. Baethge (Eds.), Sicherung des Fachkräftepotenzials durch Nachqualifizierung. Befunde - Konzepte – Forschungsbedarf (pp. 117-132). Bielefeld: Bundesinstitut für berufliche Bildung. Vogler-Ludwig, K., Döll, N., & Kriechel, B. (2016). Arbeitsmarkt 2030, Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsmarkt im digitalen Zeitalter, Prognose 2016. München: Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales.
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