But in fact, menial jobs are affected! Menial No More, a Discussion Paper released by the Ontario Literacy Coalition (OLC), highlights how jobs that were once considered entry-level or low-skilled now need middle-level skills. Businesses keeping up with emerging technologies to stay competitive are demanding higher digital and technology skills at all employment levels – including where none were needed before.

More than ever, the importance of literacy and essential skills (LES) is evident. Canadians need the continued efforts of the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES), LES organizations and forward-thinking companies working together to develop programs that raise literacy levels and build digital technology skills.

From the stockroom to the executive suite everyone is impacted by the need to constantly improve his or her digital technology skills. But sadly it’s the workers at the lowest levels, the ones that can least afford it, that suffer most and are the hardest hit by these changes. Most of these workers, already at low-literacy levels, are now challenged to increase their literacy levels while learning new digital technology skills at the same time. A daunting task indeed.

Further compounding the problem, many companies view low-skilled workers as easily replaceable and resist investing time and money into literacy and essential skills training. Fortunately as LES organizations infiltrate the workplace, this prejudice is changing. A large Canadian manufacturer recently told QELA “We used to replace these workers but now we keep them.”

Working towards a solution

The Ontario Literacy Coalition (OLC), with funding from Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) and the collaboration of a number of community partners, have implemented 15 workplace literacy and essential skills projects throughout Ontario. The projects are providing basic skills to entry-level employees with promising preliminary results. The Menial No More research paper was created based on information gathered while evaluating the program’s effectiveness.

Menial No More also profiles initiatives in the USA, UK and Australia that may be beneficial in shaping our own future programs. For example, OLC believes there may be great value in combining general literacy and essential skills concepts with some aspects of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) approach found in Washington’s I-BEST program. (See Menial No More, pages 8-11, for additional details)

The Future

For centuries unskilled labour represented the majority of the workforce. Today however, digital technology skills are demanded at all levels. But with 48% of Canadian adults below the level 3 literacy considered the minimum required to learn these skills, we have a long way to go.

The lesson learned from OLC’s discussion paper, is that by working together and incorporating the best aspects of foreign and domestic projects, we can make great strides in helping all Canadians develop the skills required in today’s workplace.

Additional reading/resources:

Menial No More, by the Ontario Literacy Coalition (OLC)

Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST), Washington State’s program for learners with writing and reading skills below grade level 9

Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP), develops training programs targeted to specific industry needs

Ontario Literacy Coalition will host a free webinar on Essential Skills Levels in Reading Text and Document Use: An Introduction, Tuesday February 14, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.

Discover strategies that will help raise the Essential Skills levels of your learners relative to Reading Text and Document Use. In this free one hour webinar, you will:

• Learn about the theory behind Essential Skills levels for Reading Text and Document Use using the IALS 500 scale as a background
• Understand the difference between Essential Skills levels
• Apply a strategy to assist learners to process information from text sources
• Review available resources to learn more about complexity and question-answering strategies

For further information and to register visit: http://qela.qc.ca/online-training

OLES will host a webinar on Literacy and Essential Skills Tools Monday, February 6, 2012 from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. This webinar offers community organizations, employers and others help to understand and use the tools available through OLES to increase literacy and essential skills in the workplace.

Send an e-mail to register.

For additional information click  Literacy and Essential Skills Tools

In the workplace, new skills are required to do old jobs. Who has not been affected to some degree? Just ask the auto mechanic that’s had to keep up with the computer technology in modern automobiles. Or the factory workers that are now using precision, electronic equipment where they once used hand tools. Those that don’t keep up will be left behind.

‘Computer use’ was identified as an Essential Skill in the early-1990s as the personal computer revolution of the early-1980s was transforming the workplace. But as PCs grew more powerful and less expensive, they also became common fixtures in our homes and computing technology migrated into every conceivable electronic device. New devices like tablet computers and digital e-book readers have exploded onto the market promising to transform the future of digital content and e-learning. Many of us carry cell phones in our pockets with more computing power than the original Space Shuttle!

At home and in the workplace we now interact with a myriad of digital devices. The Internet facilitates information sharing and collaboration networking people and devices. With the extensive integration of digital technology tools in our lives, AlphaPlus, in a recent report (What is in a Technology Competency), recommends that ‘computer use’ be replaced by ‘digital technology use’ as an Essential Skill.

The AlphaPlus research paper details the development work undertaken to define a digital technology competency as an aid to stakeholders in adult literacy education and employment education. In reviewing how tasks apply to the digital technology competency, the researchers discovered that many technology tasks had connections to other competencies. These technology tasks were actually the same as the other competency but performed using a digital technology tool. While other competencies such as ‘working with others’ have a clearly defined purpose, ‘digital technology use’ is not an end in itself. Technology is not used in isolation. It’s integrated with the other competencies and is a method of teaching the other competencies.

With digital technology so pervasive in our lives, it’s natural to wonder what the scope of a digital technology competency is. For example, does using a blood pressure sleeve with a digital display qualify? The report concludes that it does not. Simply turning a device on and interpreting a reading or responding to a visual or audible indicator is not sufficient. Programming a universal TV remote, however, requires the user to navigate through settings and therefore does qualify. A task requires a meaningful interaction with the device to be considered within the scope of a digital competency.

A coordinated effort by government, educators and employers to implement digital skills training while workers learn to embrace life-long learning will keep us from falling behind. Essential skills are vital for our society to prosper. As ‘digital technology use’ becomes more important, so does ‘continuous learning’. Not embracing ‘continuous learning’ has become an occupational hazard.

Additional reading:

AlphaPlus - What is in a Digital Competency

HRSDC - Literacy and Essential Skills

ABC’s Journey to Learning Passport (available for download at www.FamilyLiteracyDay.ca) shows families how easy and fun it is to share these moments and start learning together. It offers suggestions for family learning activities such as following a recipe, counting items in a load of laundry and finding things that begin with each letter of the alphabet at the grocery store.

Many literacy-learning centres across Quebec are also marking the occasion with activities to encourage adults to read to their children including:

• The Centre for Literacy will again collaborate  with the Lire/Imagine/Read program at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Parents and children, who visit certain pediatric clinics on Wednesday January 25^th, will receive books and information about the importance of reading and the role of libraries.

• In South-West Montreal, RECLAIM Literacy Learning Centre will be cooking up ‘alphabet pancakes’ for children participating in the Club des petits déjeuners du Quebec program at Verdun Elementary School. Children will also receive a can of Heinz Alpha-Getti as well as suggestions for fun reading activities they can do at home.

• Literacy Unlimited in Pointe-Claire will be hosting a drop-in for families at Riverdale High School where they can visit various stations and get their Journey to Learning Passports stamped while doing activities such as participating in a treasure hunt and making paper airplanes.

• The Western Quebec School Board and Western Quebec Literacy Council have joined forces by inviting parents and grandparents to share some special time with their children in reading activities at the Onslow Elementary School in Quyon Quebec.

• The Littoral School Board’s St. Theresa School will have a series of stations for the children and their parents to rotate through including cooking, crafts and games, music and reading together.

Taking time every day to read or do a learning activity with children is crucial to a child’s development. Remember just 15 minutes a day of reading, playing a game or writing a grocery list can improve a child’s literacy skills dramatically, while helping parents keep their own skills sharp.

For more information on family and adult literacy programs in your area call us toll-free 1.866.942.7352.

Statistics Canada:

Literacy for Life, is the second report from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey. It presents additional results on the nature and magnitude of the literacy gaps faced by OECD countries and how these gaps have evolved over the medium term.

It offers new insights into the factors that influence the formation of adult skills in various settings – at home and at work – for the eleven countries participating in the first and last round of data collection between 2003 and 2008. The study offers comparative evidence on the impact of various factors on the supply of skill. The study offers a special focus on numeracy skills and problem solving skills. It explores the relationships between numeracy and key socio-demographic factors as well as labour market outcomes and earnings.

It highlights the importance of problem solving skills by defining this foundational skill and by exploring its determinants as well as its relative role in influencing important labour market outcomes.

The report offers also an analysis of performance across multiple skill domains. It investigates the skill profiles of various population groups defined in terms of the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of those who score at levels deemed to be low in one or more skill domains and explores the resulting consequences.

The report concludes by investigating the issue of skill mismatch in the labour market and its relationship to adult learning. The extent and distribution of mismatch between the day to day literacy related requirements of workers and the literacy skills they have obtained is an important issue that is being explored in this study.

Resources:

Complete Report – Literacy for Life: Further Results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey

Learning a Living: First Results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey

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Recently QELA distributed sets of newly released Good Reads books to member organizations across Quebec.

ACCESS – Riverside School Board’s Continuing Education and Career Centre – was very pleased to receive the Good Reads books. The centre has incorporated the books into their reading program and for reading practice.

Next semester ACCESS plans to start a reading club that will focus on the development of reading skills and encouraging the habit of reading regularly.

Thanks to ABC Life Literacy Canada for the great Goods Reads initiative and providing QELA with the opportunity to distribute books to learners and teachers throughout Quebec.

For more information on Good Reads books, watch author videos or to download reading and teaching guides click on the following link http://abclifeliteracy.ca/goodreads

On the first day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
The gift of literacy

On the second day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the third day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the fourth day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Four jolly words
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the fifth day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Five new skills
Four jolly words
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the sixth day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Six tapes on training
Five new skills
Four jolly words
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the seventh day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Seven sites for searching
Six tapes on training
Five new skills
Four jolly words
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the eight day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Eight coins for counting
Seven sites for searching
Six tapes on training
Five new skills
Four jolly words
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the ninth day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Nine thoughts for planning
Eight coins for counting
Seven sites for searching
Six tapes on training
Five new skills
Four jolly words
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the tenth day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Ten lines for learning
Nine thoughts for planning
Eight coins for counting
Seven sites for searching
Six tapes on training
Five new skills
Four jolly words
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the eleventh day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Eleven writers writing
Ten lines for learning
Nine thoughts for planning
Eight coins for counting
Seven sites for searching
Six tapes on training
Five new skills
Four jolly words
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
And the gift of literacy

On the twelfth day of Christmas my teacher gave to me
Twelve numbers summing
Eleven writers writing
Ten lines for learning
Nine thoughts for planning
Eight coins for counting
Seven sites for searching
Six tapes on training
Five new skills
Four jolly words
Three fountain pens
Two books to love
AND THE GIFT OF LITERACY!

Merry Christmas from the staff at QELA

Literacy Volunteers of Quebec’s Freda Hudson Volunteer Recognition Award is presented annually to a volunteer making a “remarkable” contribution to literacy. The award was established in 2007 in memory of Freda Hudson, a longtime literacy volunteer who made a unique and lasting contribution to the lives of adults with low literacy.

This year there were two award recipients, Ed Chaffey from RECLAIM Learning Centre renowned for his long time volunteering spirit and desire to help people and Lillian Hartley from the South Shore Reading Council who has given generously to the SSRC, over the years, as a tutor, a coordinator, and volunteer board member.

Congratulations to this year’s award winners!

Good Reads are original books by best selling Canadian authors, written for adult literacy learners.  The books are approximately 75 to 90 pages and are written in plain language in large type. They are available for purchase at Chapters and Indigo.  Good Reads is a joint project of ABC Life Literacy Canada and Grass Roots Press.  For more information go to www.goodreadsbooks.ca