Tag: adult literacy

Extremely Exciting Times!

CLD is excited to be part of a couple of ground breaking pieces of work currently taking place within Falkirk, aimed at providing literacies support for both adults and young people.

One of these is through an Early Years Consortium ‘Test of Change’.  This is where new or untried activities to increase literacies skills and opportunities are tried out and monitored to see if they work.  P4 pupils from the Denny area, as well as Adult literacies learners from across Falkirk are currently taking part in a Visual Stress Test to identify if they have visual difficulties, which wouldn’t be picked up by a regular eye test, but which may contribute to reading difficulties.  Those identified are taking part in further testing by the Caledonian University with the aim of identifying exercises or aids which could lessen the visual difficulty and so make the process of reading, or learning to read much easier.  Hopefully all the testing will be completed by Christmas.

The second new piece of work to Falkirk is the Education Scotland funded initiative ‘Closing the Gap’. This is one of 7 projects across Scotland that are involved in action research to identify ways of reducing the inequality gap in Education. In Falkirk this project is targeting P7 pupils and their families with extra support and opportunities to work with CLD & school staff on small group or family work. Within schools work will be on ‘High Five’ interventions, and within the community on activities to increase families’ confidence with, and motivation for learning.  This pilot is expected to take place until March 2015 but it is anticipated that funding will continue after this.

Both of these pieces of work will be evaluated on completion to identify if they make up a sustainable model for targeted and holistic intervention in literacy, with the objective that ‘no child is left behind.’

On top of this our core adult literacy classes (15 classes) and ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) classes (16 classes) continue to take place in local accommodation, Falkirk wide.   In these classes adults build on their skills in areas that are relevant to them, and in ways that they are comfortable with.  Qualifications are optional, although there are increasing opportunities for adults to gain their Communication and Numeracy SQA’s in other more mainstream CLD classes, for example work clubs and healthy cookery classes.

Find out about all of these opportunities and more in the what’s on where newsletter

http://www.falkirk.gov.uk/places/community-centres/docs/What%27s%20on%20Where%20newsletter.pdf?v=201409111040

Adult Family Learning

 

Throughout the course of 2013 Scotland’s Learning Partnership has been writing a series of papers designed to generate discussion and debate by and between those involved in the delivery of various aspects of lifelong learning in Scotland. In this Family Learning Document they highlight and discuss key issues around the meaning of family learning in Scotland and raise awareness of some of the main thinkers in the family learning field. 

More information can be found at: http://www.salp.org.uk/

Skilled for Life?

This first OECD Skills Outlook presents the initial results of the Survey of Adult Skills (PIACC), which evaluates the skills of adults in 22 OECD member countries and two partner countries. The survey was designed to provide insights into the availability of some key skills and how they are used at work and at home through the direct assessment of key information processing skills: literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in technology-rich environments. The book examines the social and economic context, the supply of key information processing skills, who has these skills at what level, the supply of and demand for these skills in the labour market, the acquisition and maintenance of skills over a lifetime, and how proficiency in these skills translates into better economic and social outcomes.

The presentation can be viewed by clicking on this hyperlink.

OECD Survey of Adult Skills

The ‘basic skills’ of literacy and numeracy are among the most fundamental attributes of human beings and their civilization, lying at the root of our capacity to communicate and live and work together, to develop and share knowledge, science and culture. Their contribution to workforce skills have increasingly been recognized as critical to economic success, while evidence on gaps in adult basic skills and the link with economic and social outcomes has also been growing, both at national and international level (e.g. International Survey of Adult Skills of 1994-98 and Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey of 2003-2007). Most tellingly, there has been a belated realization that despite universal basic education in advanced countries, some adults have slipped through the net, leaving them with very weak literacy and numeracy. All of these factors underline the importance of the OECD’s new international Survey of Adult Skills.

This report on skills in the US draws out the policy implications of the Survey for the US, while also making use of some additional data collected for the Survey on the US alone. The study does not directly evaluate relevant US policies and programs – such as schooling and adult education. Instead it identifies in the results of the Survey some key lessons about the strategic objectives and directions which should form a frame for policy development in the US, including policy on adult learning and schooling.

Click on this link to access slideshow with findings.