Dublin Adult Learning Centre: Empowering Opportunities for Literacy Development

1. DUBLIN ADULT LEARNING CENTRE

2. DALC Mission Statement The Dublin Adult Learning Centre provides basic education services to ensure that everyone in the inner city has the opportunity to avail of their right to develop their literacy and numeracy skills. Vision Statement To be a centre of excellence in the provision of adult basic education

3. Definition of Literacy The Dublin Adult Learning Centre defines literacy as follows: Being literate means being able to read, write and use numeracy and information technology competently to deal with situations and opportunities in your own environment. It means being able to fulfil your own goals as a family and community member, citizen and worker. Being literate depends on what you need or want at a specific time. Becoming literate is part of a lifelong learning continuum.

4. Core Values • Learner-centred • Respectful of the adult status of the learner • Creative and holistic • Community-based

5. Learners The centre caters for almost 700 students per year

6. Prior educational attainment

7. Profiles/categories of students

8. Profiles/categories of students • People who are unlikely to work because they: • Are retired/near retirement or • Have very poor skills/ addiction problems/ homelessness/history of incarceration and are socially disadvantaged • These students tend to start in non-accredited courses to develop or maintain skills

9. Profiles/categories of students • People at work or doing a course elsewhere at level 5 who need assistance around a very specific issue, e.g. report writing/using a computer for a specific reason or study skills • This group need to be taught something to enable them to do something else. • Doing an accredited course is not what they require and will only hinder them in what they want to do • Likely to be placed in: • a one-to-one • Computers for College • FETAC Level 4

10. Profiles/categories of students • At DALC Level 2/3 • Can get accreditation here at FETAC Levels 3 and 4 • In better economic environment would be able to get work or go onto further training

11. Profiles/categories of students • English for Speakers of Other Languages. • Our students are those will little or no literacy in their own languages and poor language skills. • This can be a slow process. • Many progress into the mainstream classes in the centre and on to other training or employment.

12. Profiles/categories of students • Care workers who need to get accreditation at Level 5 in order to continue working • The reality for most of these students is they are at level 3 and need to be given the assistance with their literacy as well as the content to get Level 5 certification • These students would not be able to get the qualification without the literacy support. • This is an example of how a model can very successfully improve literacy and get recognition for their practical skills

13. 'We need to recognise that every learners journey is not the same, for some people the distance to travel is greater'

14. DALC Levels DALC has • Six reading levels • Six writing levels • Levels correlate to the VEC reading and writing level 1-3 • We devised separate reading and writing levels as reading is often much stronger than writing

15. Placement & Progression • Interview • Assigned a level • Based on skill and confidence will be offered

16. What Students see as Progression • Many studies see progress as the impact the literacy tuition has on peoples lives, they identified 4 areas: • Personal • Family • Work • Community • In general, students described progression as the application in everyday life of the skills they had acquired.

17. “It changed my life because I never had known what was going on. I only knew what people told me. So now I am reading, I know what is happening, I feel as though I am a different person.” & “They are just little things, but they are things I couldn’t do before. Now I wouldn’t say they are coming to me naturally but I can do it”

18. Opportunities • A history of 40 years of providing literacy tuition in North Inner City • The capability to meet the needs of any student anywhere on the spectrum of no literacy up to level 4 • Our Expertise in research in programme and material development • To be an integral part of the SOLAS structure in providing literacy to those who need it, wherever they are on the life-long learning continuum • To be part of a system that recognises the increasing complex nature of the literacy skills required to function in the information society • To be linked with other training colleges and employers to enable participants to have the necessary literacy skills to either meaningfully go on a course, or to be assisted in completing one. (for example Health Care Support) • To continue to develop as a centre of excellence in the provision of literacy tuition

19. Challenges • The reduction in the grants from all Depts. • Low referral rates from Dept. of Social Protection • The over reliance of accreditation for assessment and a measurement of progress • Recognition of other means for measuring progress • Poor literacy skills require intensive tuition over a number of years and in some cases progress can be very slow. • Staying student centred while meeting reporting requirements

20. Literacy in Training “Weak literacy and numeracy are serious problems among many learners but problems are often not identified in time or adequately addressed.“ Recommendation 4 Systematically identify the literacy and numeracy problems of those who come into contact with training services and provide basic skills support to those in need. Learning for Jobs OECD Reviews of Vocational and Educational Training (Ireland) February 2010

21. http://vimeo.com/103259379