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This interview with Shae Wissell, founder of the Dear Dyslexic Foundation, was conducted by Karen Dennett of Engaging Education to discuss discrimination and diversity in the workplace. The interview is part of the [Industry Engaged] IE 2020 Care and Community Services course one. Industry Engaged has worked with professionals and business owners in industry to create resources that aim to connect trainers with industry to comply with essential professional currency, and to enrich training and assessment with performance skills, competencies and knowledge in context. These resources comprise: (1) case studies relating to particular industry training package units of currency, with follow up recorded discussions with a professional to provide the industry perspective on the case study tasks; and (2) insights interviews with industry experts and professionals that focus on the industry knowledge and application of underpinning concepts and theory; each interview recording includes the full transcript.

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The identification of skills necessary for entry level workers to succeed in competitive workplaces are being investigated in a number of ways. This chapter first looks at the 1991 Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report, which defined competencies and foundation skills necessary for worker success and made recommendations as to how those skills could be gained through schools and workplaces. The National Job Analysis Study, which focuses on job or work oriented behaviours, is described, and how the knowledge gained from such initiatives as these feeds into the educational and training system is considered.

The volume from which this chapter is taken may be found at TD/TNC 67.591; individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 67.592 to TD/TNC 67.607. Show less

We assess the relationship between numeracy skills and numeracy practices among adults in everyday life and at work from the Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), an international survey of about 250 000 adults aged 16-65 years old conducted by the OECD in 33 countries/economies. The level of proficiency and the intensity of engagement in numeracy practices are two embedded aspects of numeracy. Proficient adults use numeracy frequently and adults who regularly engage in numeracy practices improve their performance. Individual and contextual factors influence, in different ways across countries, the strength of these links. The intensity of the use of numeracy in everyday life decreases as the lapse of time since a person's studies increases. Moreover, employed people engage in mathematical activities less in the private setting if they do not do so intensively in the workplace.

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The 2014 Conference theme was 'Promoting and sustaining effective TVET partnerships'. The papers and presentations are: From partnerships to praxis between colleges and workplaces / Johanna Lasonen and Shetay Ashford; Status of partnership between TVET institutions and industries in Delta State Nigeria / Chinyere Shirley Ayonmike, Serumu Igberadja, Omovigho Clever Igberaharha and Benjamin Chukwumaijem Okeke; Educational success through partnering / Karen Connaughton; How to use advisory committees to maximize student outcomes / Lesley Wemyss; The importance of social partnership in vocational and technical education and training / Ilhan Gunbayi; Perception of keys to building, developing and maintaining partnerships in quality agricultural and chemistry education teachers' preparation North Central, Nigeria / Alfred Ochu and Augustina Ochu; Developing and streamlining assessment standards for technical and vocational programs in Uganda's education system / Paul Amoru; Oil and gas industry and TVET institution partnership for youth development in Nigeria / Samuel Idowu Akinseinde; Workplace readiness skills partnership / Ken Potthoff and Darren Morris; Planting and harvesting with advisory committees / Vicki Roberts; Building and sustaining partnerships through public/private partnership for effective technical vocational education and training program in Nigeria / James F. Maigida; Working together for student success: lessons from Ohio's College-ABLE Partnership Project / Adrienne Boggs; Why do we need partnerships in TVET? / Olga Oleynikova; The workplace readiness skills partnership / Career and Technical Education Consortium. Show less

The ‘old economy’ is the way companies have traditionally done business in the past. Companies in the ‘new economy’ make use of the Internet to sell goods and services. There will be significant changes in workplaces over the next decade as a result of the so-called ‘new economy’ and as the lines between the ‘old economy’ and the ‘new economy’ become blurred. These changes will include workplace flexibility, globalisation, technology and a shift in the balance between work and family life. As these changes occur, educational institutions need to be able to anticipate and respond to the needs of the employer and the employee, providing a greater emphasis on lifelong learning, increased performance based training, with ‘soft’ skills becoming a priority, and a greater need for generic computer skills at all levels.

Published abstract.

The two volumes of collected papers are indexed at TD/TNC 64.287 and TD/TNC 64.355. Selected papers from volume one are indexed from TD/TNC 64.288 to TD/TNC 64.320; selected papers from volume two are indexed from TD/TNC 64.321 to TD/TNC 64.354. Show less

This handbook presents a wide range of research on adults who have low literacy skills. It looks at the cognitive, affective, and motivational factors underlying adult literacy; adult literacy in different countries; and the educational approaches being taken to help improve adults' literacy skills. It includes not only adults enrolled in adult literacy programs, but postsecondary students with low literacy skills, some of whom have reading disabilities. The first section covers issues such as phonological abilities in adults who have not yet learned to read; gender differences in the reading motivation of adults with low literacy skills; literacy skills, academic self-efficacy, and participation in prison education; and more. Chapters on adult literacy, social change and sociocultural factors in South Asia and in Ghana; literacy, numeracy, and self-rated health among US adults; adult literacy programs in Southeastern Europe and Turkey, and a review of family and workplace literacy programs are among the topics featured in the second section. The last part examines how to teach reading and writing to adults with low skills; adults' transition from secondary to postsecondary education; implications for policy, research, and practice in the adult education field; and educational technologies that support reading comprehension.

Excerpts from publisher's website.

The contents are as follows: Conceptual framework and overview of the handbook / Dolores Perin. Section I, 'Cognitive, affective and motivational factors underlying adult literacy', contains the following chapters: Cognitive processing challenges associated with low literacy in adults / John Sabatini, Tenaha O'Reilly, Kelsey Dreier, and Zuowei Wang; Phonological abilities in fully illiterate adults / Jose Morais and Regine Kolinsky; Gender differences in the reading motivation of adults with low literacy skills / Jan C. Frijters, Emily Brown, and Daphne Greenberg; Integrating component skills in a reading comprehension framework for struggling adult readers / Elizabeth L. Tighe; Writing challenges for postsecondary English learners with low levels of first language literacy / Stephen M. Doolan; From 'degisned' and 'dezine' to 'design': comparing adults' and children's spelling errors across tasks / Katherine S. Binder, Amani Talwar, Nora K. Bond, and Nicole Gilbert Cote; Literacy skills, academic self-efficacy, and participation in prison education / Lise O. Jones and Terje Manger; Readiness to learn among adults with low skills / M. Cecil Smith, Thomas J. Smith, Amy D. Rose, and Jovita M. Ross-Gordon; Cognitive profile of students with dyslexia entering postsecondary education / Maaike Callens and Marc Brysbaert; A cognitive framework for tracing the roots of reading disabilities among university students / George K. Georgiou and J. P. Das; Reading, writing, and self-efficacy of low-skilled postsecondary students / Dolores Perin.

Section II, 'Contexts of literacy for adults with low skills', contains: Cognitive and sociocultural dimensions of adult literacy and integrating technology in adult education / Aydin Y. Durgunoglu, Hilal Gencay, Meltem Canturk, and G. Hilal Kuscul; I will survive: sociocultural and educational factors underlying child mortality in rural Ghana / Niels-Hugo Blunch; Literacy and social change in South Asia / Cristine Smith and Konda R. Chavva; Literacy, numeracy, and self-rated health among U.S. adults / Esther Prins and Shannon Monnat; Adults with low skills and learning disabilities / Margaret Becker Patterson; Participation in literacy programs for adults with low skills in Southeastern Europe / George K. Zarifis; Making the most of learning contexts: a literature review on family and workplace literacy programs / Hendrickje C. Windisch.

Section III, 'Education of adults with low literacy skills', contains: How to teach fully illiterate adults to read / Regine Kolinsky, Cristina Carvalho, Isabel Leite, Ana Franco, and Jose Morais; Developmental trajectories of adult education students: implications for policy, research, and practice / Stephen Reder; Academic literacy as developmental pedagogy: the learning and growth of adult English language learners / Jennifer Ouellette-Schramm; Educational technologies that support reading comprehension for adults who have low literacy skills / Arthur C. Graesser, Daphne Greenberg, Andrew Olney, and Maureen W. Lovett; Writing strategy instruction for low-skilled postsecondary students / Zoi A. Traga Philippakos and Charles A. MacArthur; Transitioning adult literacy students to postsecondary education / Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow; Research on developmental education instruction for adult literacy learners / Maria Cormier and Susan Bickerstaff. Show less

In this paper, the author argues that adult literacy programs have relied on school-based notions of literacy content that may be inappropriate for preparing workers for specific positions. There is a need for trainers and assessors to become familiar with the tasks and texts that competent workers in particular occupations and industries use, and to understand how they fit within the broader social environments of individual workplaces. The author examines two activities that are associated with the position of level three clerical-administrative trainee and then draw implications for literacy practitioners who are required increasingly to provide vocational training and assessment to meet specific competency standards. Show less

The theme for this year’s conference was ‘Vocational education and training systems, what works and why’ and the program was structured around four topics: VET systems; VET in developing countries; VET and economic and social development; and VET and special needs groups. This paper was part of the third topic. A pervasive problem associated with vocational education and training (VET) curriculum design and delivery is the creation of curricula that are of value to all stakeholders. This is of particular importance with curricula that prepare people for employment in world class workplaces where dramatic change and the need to learn are constant. This paper focuses on Curriculum Quality Indicators (CQIs), resources designed to aid in creating VET curricula that align more closely with employers’ expectations in world class work settings. Included are discussions of CQI development and application as well as some lessons learned from this long-term effort to improve VET curriculum quality. The creation of CQIs draws directly from a conceptual framework for VET curriculum described by Finch and Crunkilton (1999) (see TD/INT 61.586). In this framework, the VET curriculum is viewed from a macro-level that goes beyond traditional micro-descriptions of curricula with their dominating or exclusive focus on instruction. This framework recognises the importance of engaging a wide range of stakeholders (e.g. students, instructors, administrators, employers, and community representatives) in the curriculum development process. It also recognises the value of creating curricula that are world class-focused (Finch & Crunkilton, 1999, p. 18-22).

Excerpt from executive summary with additional information reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

The main entry for the IVETA 2001 conference is indexed at TD/TNC 68.302. Individual papers presented at the conference are listed by topic from TD/TNC 68.303 to TD/TNC 68.306. Selected papers (including keynote speeches) are indexed from TD/TNC 68.307 to TD/TNC 68.384. Show less

Over a period of 50 years at Kiruna iron ore mine in the far north of Sweden, we can see a transformation of work from underground to remote control at surface level. What characterized the old underground workface was the close relation between man and the hard rock centred on arduous physical work under dangerous conditions. Today, the face miners are located ‘up in the sky’ on the seventh level of an office building close to the mine. The workers leave their job at the end of the shift just as clean as when they arrived. The contact with the hard rock is mediated by machines controlled by remote control technology. The modern technology has created a new type of work - new in terms of competencies and knowledge as well as workload. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the technical development of underground mining in Kiruna and to consider the implications it has had on qualifications, identity and gender. There is an emerging, and in many aspects already evident, knowledge transformation - from the old and obsolete physical and tacit knowledge and skills (for example the ability to ‘read the rock’) to something new which can be described as abstract knowledge. But the old culture still provides an important context for workplace learning and the construction of identity and gender. This is associated with a degree of ‘worker identity lag’ and to difficulties in adapting attitudes and norms to the demands and structures that result from the new technology and the new work tasks. The new forms of work in the mine have less need for the traditional mining competencies, attitudes and ideals. The traditional workplace culture and its ‘macho style’ have also been challenged. Workers have to find new ways to learn and to develop a workplace culture more attuned to a new type of worker identity and masculinity.

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Expanding and strengthening the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professional workforce is recognised as crucial for improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The Career Pathways Project (CPP) took a national perspective and aimed to provide insights and guidance to enhance the capacity of the health system to retain and support the development and careers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the health workforce. The aim of the workplace-based case studies presented in this report was to collect ground-level data from urban, regional, rural and remote regions of New South Wales (NSW). This enabled in-depth exploration of the factors impacting on careers whilst using a solutions-focus to generate a range of potential strategies for enhancing career pathways. The CPP was initiated by Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCHOs) and has leadership at all levels by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander investigators, partners and field researchers. The project was funded by the Lowitja Institute and is a partnership between UNSW Sydney and Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT), and includes other participating institutions. The CPP had a national focus through a survey, literature review and analysis of existing workforce data, as well as interviews conducted nationwide and consultations with key stakeholders at multiple levels. Local case study sites in NSW and the Northern Territory (NT) provided perspectives from diverse urban, regional and remote areas. An important deliverable from this project is to share learnings from these NSW and NT local case study sites with other states and territories so they may utilise the approach and or adapt as needed.

The CPP incorporated a mixed-methods design drawing upon both quantitative and qualitative data to generate evidence and collect data from multiple sources (workers, employers, stakeholders). It has multiple levels of focus (service organisation, operational support, and broader jurisdictional and national level) to consider the implications of the findings for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health professionals' career development and pathways. Key questions the project answers include: What are the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health staff and health professionals in entering, and progressing, their careers within health services? What factors facilitate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce career development and career advancement? What factors impede Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce career development and career advancement? What are the unique skill sets and values that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health staff and health professionals can, and do, contribute to health services? What can employers do to make a difference to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce career development and advancement?

Edited excerpts from publication and publisher's website. Show less