Poor Literacy and Numeracy Skills holding back Australia’s workforce
Posted on June 9, 2010 by by valerirojas
According to an article from the latest Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) Industry Connection newsletter, poor literacy and numeracy skills in up to half of Australia’s workforce are holding business back.
The article shares the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALLS), which revealed that Australian language, literacy and numeracy levels have shown little improvement in the decade since the 1996 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS).
It found that:
- Approximately 7 million Australian adults (46 per cent) had literacy scores below the minimum level needed to function fully in life and work
- Approximately 7.9 million (53 per cent) had numeracy scores below the minimum needed.
In the article CIT shares an audio video Interview with Skills Australia CEO Robin Shreeve and Director Policy and Projects Marilyn Hart where they cover current literacy and numeracy issues and solutions in Australia. One of the major issues is inefficiencies caused by employees not being able to communicate fully with the people they interact with at work. For example, if an employer sends an instruction via email and this instruction is misinterpreted, the work of the employee will need to be redone once the error is identified, making the individual, and the organisation, less productive overall.
For the complete article and interview visit Literacy and Numeracy holding Australia back
