Country background report: addressing the training and assessment needs of adults with low basic skills in Australia

The OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) is undertaking a two-year international study of exemplary teaching and assessment for adults with basic skill needs. The study, entitled 'Improving teaching and learning for adults with basic skill needs through formative assessment', aims to achieve a better understanding of 'what works', for whom and under what circumstances, and will identify policy levers to improve the quality of provision for this group. This background report for Australia was prepared as an input to the OECD study. It provides a snapshot of how Australia addresses the training and assessment needs of adults with low basic skills. In the Australian context, these are adults whose English language, literacy (reading and verbal and written communication) and numeracy (practical calculations, measurements, and numerical estimations) skills fall below levels that are considered essential for individuals to participate at a basic functional level in the English-speaking mainstream culture. The report: identifies key challenges for adult basic education; reports on national and state and territory government language, literacy and numeracy initiatives (including government-funded training programs and projects); describes the nature of vocational and community-based training provision, and assessment policies and processes; discusses formative assessment and innovative teaching practices, and materials and resources designed to provide assessment guidance; and provides a description of the nature of the adult language and literacy workforce and opportunities for professional development.

Further country background reports for the OECD study are indexed from TD/TNC 89.715 to TD/TNC 89.720.

The final report entitled 'Teaching, learning and assessment for adults: improving foundation skills' is indexed at TD/TNC 92.339.

The OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) is undertaking a two-year international study of exemplary teaching and assessment for adults with basic skill needs. The study, entitled 'Improving teaching and learning for adults with basic skill needs through formative assessment', aims to achieve a better understanding of 'what works', for whom and under what circumstances, and will identify policy levers to improve the quality of provision for this group. This background report for Australia was prepared as an input to the OECD study. It ...  [+] Show more