Literacy and numeracy for the new world of un/employment: implications of a fully literate Australia

This report collates multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral research about the impacts of the literacy and numeracy of adults on contemporary society. The first chapter provides a synthesis of research on literacy and numeracy and the ways in which it is perceived and put into practice. Chapter two presents an overview of research about the recent adult literacy and numeracy large-scale test outcomes from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society and its subset, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Survey of Aspects of Literacy (SAL), and discusses the implications of the results. The third chapter examines research on some of the main issues related to new forms of work, ‘knowledge work’ and un/employment. Chapter four presents research on funding of literacy and numeracy. Chapter five reports on research into policy and chapter six examines research on literacy and numeracy in relation to achieving socio-economic well-being. The next chapter discusses the implications of the research for different stakeholder groups including youth, the vocational education and training (VET) sector, and rural Australians. The final chapter discusses the implications of literacy and numeracy and then proposes conclusions about their intersection with the ‘new world of un/employment’ that, according to research, will become the norm in Australian society.

Reports related to the IALS are indexed at TD/TNC 73.245 and TD/TNC 72.335. Show less