Adults

UPDATE: March 24-April 1 2012 is Adult Learners Week. Click here for news, stories and resources. 

Literacy and skills development is not something that occurs for a few years from kindergarten to grade 12, and then is over. Throughout our lives, it is vital that we learn new skills, improve our knowledge, and increase our literacy.

Today’s world is increasingly complex. Technology is moving at an unprecedented speed. Everyone must learn, all the time, simply to keep up with the pace of change. A successful society must be a learning society, in which everyone learns and shares new skills and information, at work, at home and at play, through formal and informal means.

Adult Literacy in BC

Adult Literacy programs meet the needs of adults who need to upgrade their skills for a variety of reasons. They may speak English as a second or third language. They may have left school early or have a learning disability or health problem. They may have faced trauma or abuse. Their skills may simply be rusty because they do not use them in their current job. They may need to upgrade skills to get a new job or change careers, or simply to learn to communicate with friends and family using new technologies.

Across BC, there are many community adult literacy programs. These are learner-centered programs in a non-institutional context. They offer services ranging from small-group classes, to one-on-one tutoring, to drop-in help such as filling out the forms for the Guaranteed Income Supplement.  These  community-based programs can be very flexible in offering adult learners the kind of personalized assistance that they need.

Each year, community adult literacy programs serve more than 1,800 core learners, and an additional 1,450 drop-in learners, who access help for a specific need, such as filling out a job application or understanding a rental agreement. Approximately 1,600 British Columbians volunteer in literacy programs.