Training and Assessment for Australian Adults with Low Basic Skills

1. Training and assessment for Australian adults with low basic skills (Experts meeting OECD 30-31 October 2006, OECD headquarters, Paris) Josie Misko

2. Low basic skills • Term not used in isolation in Australia • Underpinning elements: language, literacy and numeracy • Over-represented in special groups • Indigenous Australians • Unemployed, including long-term unemployed • Non-English speaking background • Inmates in correctional services

3. Survey of Adult Literacy: 1996(15 to 74 year-olds) • Level 1: Very poor (2.6 million) • locate and identify • Level 2: Poor (3.6 million) • explain, investigate, select, list, calculate percentage, compare • Level 3: Cope but not always proficient (4.8 milion) • longer and more complex tests, conditional, compare, extract • Level 4: Good (2.0 million) • Match and integrate, high level inferences, calculations • Level 5: Very good (300,000) • Above these levels

4. Mismatch in perceived and demonstrated LLN • Self-assessed as poor literacy, SAL level 1 (92%) • Self-assessed as poor numeracy, SAS level 1 (79%) • Challenge for: • accurate recognition • motivation to seek and access assistance • awareness of where to go to for assistance • suitable economic circumstance to participate in learning

5. Drivers of LLN provision • Commitment to access and equity • Compliance legislation • OHS • public liability insurance • supply chain quality arrangements • Keeping current with new ways of working • Legislative reform (Welfare to Work) • Integration of recently arrived and new migrants

6. Federal government funded language, literacy and numeracy programs: target populations and possible pathways Eligible job seekers and migrants Newly and recently arrived migrants Existing workers Potential apprentices Language, Literacy and Numeracy Program (LLNP) Workplace English Language and Literacy Program (WELL) New Apprenticeship Access Program (NAAP) Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) Progress into apprenticeship programs Employment (full-time, part-time, casual) Employment (full-time, part-time, casual) Further Education and Training Further Education and Training Further Education and Training Figure 1 Language, literacy and numeracy programs funded by the federal government

8. Key national LLN programs • Language Literacy and Numeracy Program (LLNP) • Workplace English Language and Literacy Program (WELL) • Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) • New Apprenticeship Access Programme • [National Reporting System (tool for reporting on outcomes of LLNP & WELL)] • National Adult Literacy Projects: Research

9. An ageing LLN workforce TAFE NSW Access Division, 2001, Adult literacy and numeracy practices 2001: a national snapshot, NSW Department of Education and Training, Sydney

10. A feminised and casualised workforce • 85% female in 2001 • similar in 2004 • 50% casual, 20% contract, 30% permanent • affects income and professional status • Berghella, Molenaar & Wyse (NCVER, 2004) • LLN Specialists, Vocational trainers, volunteer tutors • 50% of LLN specialists over ten years experience

11. Participation in professional development TAFE NSW Access Division, 2001, Adult literacy and numeracy practices 2001: a national snapshot, NSW Department of Education and Training, Sydney

12. Topic Preferences & barriers: 2004 • Preferences • teaching practice (specialists) • understand LLN issues (VET trainers) • help provide better assistance (Volunteer tutors) • Barriers • time • funding • casualised employment • remoteness

13. Structure of programs • Stand alone • AMEP • LLNP • ACE • other LLN courses • Embedded into qualifications • VET • ACE-VET

14. Embedding LLN into Training Packages • VET & ACE-VET leading to nationally recognised qualifications • Major challenge for VET and LLN practitioners • mapping needs to LLN competencies in qualification • developing training and assessment materials • VET practitioner not expert in LLN • LLN specialist not expert in VET content

15. Teaching & assessment • No formal prescription about how teachers will teach or assess • Student-centred learning & assessment • Use of multiple techniques • Recognition of non-curriculum outcomes • ACE : generally no assessment • Process of ‘reasonable adjustment’ • alter assessment structure but not outcomes • Blurring of boundaries between formative and final assessments and teaching

16. Commonly used formative assessment techniques • TAFE NSW Access Division, 2001, Adult literacy and numeracy practices 2001: a national snapshot, NSW Department of Education and Training, Sydney

17. Quality assurance • Australian Quality Training Framework standards for RTOs: • screening students who request or require assistance • judgements : valid, reliable, flexible and fair • Competent staff • Rules of evidence: valid, sufficient, current and authentic • auditing of providers • moderation and validation of assessments • nationally (AMEP) • provider and system-wide quality groups

18. Continuing challenges • Understanding extent of low literacy • Legislative reform issues • Raising professional status of LLN practitioners • Understanding scope and magnitude of provision • Workforce Replenishment

19. More information • National Adult Literacy Projects • http://www.ncver.edu.au • http://www.voced.edu.au