Download Tasmanian Adult Literacy Action Plan
All Tasmanians deserve an equal chance at making a good life for themselves. For many Tasmanians education and skills development are pathways to a better future.
Over time, the types of skills required to keep the Tasmanian economy strong have changed and we must keep up with that change with skills that ensure we indeed are clever, kind and connected.
There was a time when people could get by without a good level of literacy. Those times have passed; all Tasmanians must have at least basic literacy skills.
Too many Tasmanians are missing the opportunities brought about by a changing economy because too many Tasmanians lack basic literacy skills. These skills give us the confidence to participate in a growing economy, in our community, to study, to find a job, to change careers and to take up the challenges associated with changing technology.
Most importantly they give us self worth, and we pass that on to our children, as we read to them and teach them to read.
They are fundamental skills for life.
The Tasmanian Adult Literacy Action Plan focuses on communities. It invests in people and programs to raise awareness and understanding of adult literacy. It provides support and programs for people to improve adult literacy in their workplace and in their community.Through this Action Plan, adult literacy can be improved and more people can experience the benefits of a growing economy and a strong community.
Please join in the Tasmanian Adult Literacy Action Plan.
David Bartlett, MP
Premier of Tasmania
Minister for Education and Skills;
‘For young people and adults to have the literacy skills they need to fully participate in their family life, the community, learning and employment’.
Over the next four years the Tasmanian Government will -
Literacy skills help people to make the most of opportunities in life and help in solving day to day problems. Literacy skills are important for participating in family life, the community, learning and employment, and to access essential services.Without basic literacy skills everyday tasks are harder – whether reading a bus timetable, applying for a loan, filling in Centrelink forms, getting your driver’s licence, reading the newspaper, enrolling in a course, taking medicine, applying for a job, or reading with your child. Not being able to do these important activities can add up to a person feeling less confident in themselves and their abilities. It can also lead to experiencing higher levels of social and economic disadvantage.
What is adult literacy?There is no single agreed way of defining the term ‘adult literacy’. In this Action Plan the term means: “The ability to communicate ideas and information in the right way at the right time, to use computers and other types of technology and to use mathematical and other problem solving techniques.” This set of literacy skills is often referred to as essential skills, basic skills, generic skills, employability skills or life skills. The range of literacy skills people need for everyday life and work changes over time and in different contexts. It is important to update and learn new literacy skills throughout our lives. |
Higher levels of literacy are associated with more skills, lower unemployment, better health, less reliance on welfare, lower crime and greater participation in the community.[i] Improving literacy can lead to a more rewarding personal life and can give the confidence needed to get a formal qualification or to participate in the workforce. It also builds the social capital of communities, leading to greater participation and community resilience.
There is also a relationship between parents’ level of education and literacy and the literacy skills and school performance of their children. Parents with low literacy skills, particularly mothers, are more likely to positively influence their children’s literacy and learning when they are able to improve their own literacy skills.[ii]
Businesses can also benefit by improving the basic skills of their workforce, demonstrated through improvements in productivity, the confidence and communication skills of employees, and better health and safety[iii]. As more people gain qualifications and skills over time, businesses will also benefit through having access to more skilled workers.
The proportion of adult Tasmanians with low literacy skills is very high. The 2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found that around half of the Tasmanian population aged 15-74 years lack the literacy skills needed to cope with the demands of everyday life and work. For example 49% of adult Tasmanians, or approximately 174 000 people, do not have the basic skills needed to understand and use information from newspapers, magazines, books and brochures.[iv] Overall, Tasmania had the lowest level of adult literacy skills in the nation and there has been no improvement in adult literacy levels since they were last measured in 1996.
Figure 1 compares the proportion of people without functional literacy skills in Tasmania and in Australia. Figure 1 shows that at the time of the survey Tasmania had a higher proportion of people with insufficient literacy skills than for Australia overall in each of the following five measures of literacy:
Figure 1 - Proportion of Tasmanians without the literacy skills needed to cope with everyday life and work
Tasmania’s levels of adult literacy are influenced by a range of factors including the higher prevalence of older persons in the population, and lower school retention rates and post-school qualifications. Recent information from the ABS also suggests that Tasmanians in regional municipalities tend to have lower literacy levels compared to those living in major metropolitan areas.[v]
The aim of the Tasmanian Adult Literacy Action Plan is for young people and adults to have the literacy skills they need to fully participate in family and community life, learning and employment.
The Action Plan has been developed in response to the Tasmanian Skills Strategy and A Social Inclusion Strategy for Tasmania. Increasing opportunities for Tasmanians to fully participate in society and economic activity are major drivers for both these strategies. Improving adult literacy, with its economic and social benefits, will help achieve the objectives of both strategies.
The Action Plan builds on the Government’s existing investment to improve the literacy skills of Tasmanians. For instance investments have been made in literacy for pre-school and school education, which are now yielding significant results. Opportunities are also provided for second chance learning through the rollout of Learning and Information Network Centres (LINCs). The network of Adult Literacy Coordinators and the valuable work of volunteer tutors is already helping many Tasmanians with their literacy.
Improving adult literacy skills takes time and requires governments, communities, businesses and individuals to each contribute and work together. This Action Plan brings together actions that will strengthen the collaboration and coordination of adult literacy services in Tasmania. It also addresses identified gaps in the provision of adult literacy services so more people that need literacy support can access it.
This Plan sets out actions in relation to three Strategies for improving the literacy skills of Tasmanians:
Currently there is a range of existing government, community and business organisations providing literacy support to adults in Tasmania albeit in a fragmented, uncoordinated way. The Action Plan recognises the benefits that can be gained from a more systematic approach to partnerships across the sector and encouraging greater collaboration including:
There is no “one size fits all” approach to providing literacy support. If we are to meet the different needs and aspirations of people wanting to improve their literacy skills, support must be provided in a range of community, formal and informal education and workplace settings.
Tasmania has a growing network of social infrastructure including the Tasmanian Polytechnic, Tasmanian Skills Institute, Tasmanian Academy, Learning and Information Network Centres (LINCs), Community Houses, Libraries, Online Access Centres and the soon to be established Child and Family Centres. The Adult Literacy Action Plan will create linkages with this social infrastructure, and engage with employers to create a state wide network of access points for literacy support.
This network will enable Tasmanians to access literacy support in an environment in which they feel comfortable and are familiar with, and in a context that is meaningful. This is important because it can be very difficult to encourage people to join adult literacy programs. People are more likely to access support to improve their literacy skills if they can see how it will help them to achieve immediate goals in their life. These goals might be to do a course, get a job, pursue a hobby, socialise, send an email or text message, or read to their child.
Formal education is rarely the best way to improve adult literacy. If a person has had a poor experience of schooling or does not have basic literacy skills, then starting a formal training course can be too big a first step to take in their pathway into learning.
Informal, non-accredited and community or workplace based programs are therefore a very important part of the Government’s approach to improving adult literacy skills. These types of programs can build people’s confidence in their ability to learn, can help people achieve immediate goals and can also be starting points on pathways into further learning or employment.
There are significant numbers of people with low literacy skills already in the workforce. Employers can take a leadership role in recognising the benefits to their business and their employees from improved literacy, and support staff to access literacy training.
There are a range of literacy needs within the Tasmanian community. Encouraging people to recognise their literacy needs and to get help to improve their literacy is often difficult because of the stigma associated with low literacy; a poor understanding of the benefits of improving literacy; and not knowing how and where to get help.
The Action Plan recognises the need to raise the awareness of individuals, the community and business of the benefits to be gained by improving literacy at all stages in life.
In a 2005 environmental scan of adult literacy in Tasmania, the Department of Education identified word-of-mouth as the method most people used to find out about adult literacy services and support. [vi] A community based awareness campaign, driven from within an informal community and workplace network, to promote avenues of adult literacy support is therefore likely to be an effective way to attract more adults to learn to read.
As well as promoting the benefits of and supporting people to improve their literacy skills it is also important that information is communicated effectively to the community in plain language, avoiding the use of jargon and taking into account the literacy needs of the audience. The Action Plan will promote the use of plain language in written information produced by the State Government. Other spheres of government, community and business organisations are also encouraged to use plain language in their communication material.
A small team of Adult Literacy Coordinators was established through the Community Knowledge Network (CKN) in 2009. These coordinators have worked in urban communities and in the Huon Valley to recruit volunteers and provide literacy support. The benefits of this small network are already being seen through preliminary data and case studies demonstrating positive outcomes from matching volunteers with individuals wishing to improve their literacy.
We know this model of adult literacy support works. The Action Plan will build on it to extend the team of coordinators state wide, and to dramatically increase the number of volunteers available to provide support in each community.
Tasmania has a rapidly ageing population and by 2014, there will be more people aged over 65 than those between the ages of zero and 14 years. This will have significant impacts on our workforce. Many people who have retired from the workforce hold valuable skills, knowledge and experience and are looking for ways to give back to the community through volunteer work. The numbers of people looking for opportunities to volunteer are set to rise exponentially as the population ages.
The Action Plan capitalises on Tasmania’s ageing population by providing another avenue for people to volunteer, to assist people in their community to improve their literacy skills. Volunteer tutor training will be provided free of charge for those wishing to participate and Adult Literacy Coordinators will ensure each volunteer tutor is matched appropriately with community members.
The provision of adult literacy support and improvements in adult literacy skills are difficult to quantify and very difficult to report on. However large initiatives such as the Tasmanian Adult Literacy Action Plan require measurement, benchmarks and targets to ensure success.
The Tasmanian community has set a target in relation to improvements in adult literacy through Tasmania Together and this Action Plan strives to meet that target. However, we recognise that this is not enough to measure our success. Engaging people in literacy support is central to this Action Plan. We therefore need to measure the number of people receiving support and the impacts this support is having on self esteem, confidence and ability to move into further training or employment.
To achieve this, a framework has been developed for gathering data and reporting on the provision of adult literacy support. This framework, which includes indicators such as the numbers of volunteer tutors trained and the numbers of clients receiving support will measure the impact of all programs funded through the Action Plan. Each year a report will be compiled detailing results against these indicators and progress towards the 2020 Tasmania Together target.
See section 6. Summary of Actions.
This section describes how improvements in adult literacy skills in Tasmania will be measured, and how the implementation and success of the Action Plan will be monitored.
An Adult Literacy Coalition will be convened to monitor the implementation of the Adult Literacy Action Plan. The Coalition will be comprised of independent peak interest groups for adult literacy representing community, industry and employers. The Coalition will be supported by Skills Tasmania and will meet annually to monitor progress.
An annual report on the Government’s progress towards implementing the Action Plan will be published each year. The report will include an update on the status of each action and progress towards key performance measures and targets.An evaluation of the effectiveness of the Action Plan’s key initiatives – the expanded Adult Literacy Coordinator Network and the Adult Literacy Investment Fund – will be undertaken 12 months after their commencement.
The outcomes of improved literacy levels of Tasmanians as well as participation in adult literacy support will be monitored to measure the success of the Action Plan.
Increase the proportion of persons (15-74 years) who are considered to be functionally literate. (Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2008.
Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, Summary Results, 2006, Catalogue Number 4228.0)
| Baseline (2006): | 51.0% prose literacy |
| 49.3% document literacy | |
| 43.8% numeracy | |
| 26.9% problem solving | |
| 36.6% health literacy |
Targets: Prose Literacy (Tasmania Together)
Document Literacy (Tasmania Together)
Numeracy, problem solving and health literacy targets are still to be established. 7.3.2 Working towards the Tasmania Together target The Community Knowledge Network estimates that a network of 23 Adult Literacy Coordinators can support up to 15 000 Tasmanians to improve their literacy skills between 2010 and 2020. This effort, combined with improvements gained through workplace programs, the training system and other community literacy programs, means Tasmania will move positively towards the target of 58.5% of 15 – 74 year olds assessed as functionally literate. 7.3.3 Participation in adult literacy support data and reporting framework The following indicators will be used to measure the effectiveness of the Action Plans Key Initiatives
The baselines for these measures will be established after the first year of operation and appropriate growth targets will also be established when appropriate data is available. 8. How to get involvedTo find out more about adult literacy programs and support services, the following national and state services can help: Centrelink – eligible jobseekers can ask about Language, Literacy and Numeracy Training at their local Centrelink office. Community Knowledge Network – (03) 6233 7511 to find out about the Adult Literacy Coordinator Network, or to become an Adult Literacy Volunteer Tutor Skills Tasmania – Free call 1800 655 846 to find out more about the Adult Literacy Action Plan, associated funding programs and the Adult Literacy Coalition. 8.1 Further Reading |
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This page was last modified on 18th May 2011. The URL for this page is: http://www.education.tas.gov.au/dept/strategies/adult.
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