Adult Literacy Resources

Over 150,000 British Columbians aged 25 to 54 have not graduated from high school and 600,000 adults do not have the literacy and essential skills they need to achieve their goals, to function and to thrive in the modern economy, and to develop their knowledge and potential. The B.C. Government has predicted that there will [...]

Closing the Skills Gap: Mapping a Path for Small Business Prepared for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in February, 2013, this report is on the Symposium on Skills and Small Business held in Toronto on November 14, 2012. The report details some of the challenges facing small and medium-sized businesses in terms of upskilling and [...]

Embedding Literacy and Essential Skills: Lessons from Our Research Lessons from the research of the Embedding Literacy and Essential Skills project, which investigated strategies for the development of sustainable, practical workplace literacy programs that could be incorporated into a work environment. The goal was to find a way to make literacy and essential skills considered [...]

This is the Decoda Literacy Solutions submission to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, October 1, 2012. Almost 600,000 working British Columbians — over one quarter of those currently employed — do not have the literacy skills required to fully participate in a knowledge economy. Forty percent of youth aged 15 have [...]

This summary paper by Benjamin Tal of CIBC discusses the mismatches between employment skills and worker labour in Canada. Tal notes that this mismatch can be seen in both labour surplus and labour shortage – with some skills possessed by more people than there are jobs, while other skills are found in far fewer people [...]

Investing in Upskilling: Gains for Individuals, Employers and Government: Summary British Columbia Part of the Canadian Literacy and Learning Network’s Literacy and Earnings Project, this report is a summary of the costs involved in raising Canadians currently at IALS literacy levels 1 or 2 (lowest skills levels) to a level 3 (considered the minimum level [...]

The Canadian Literacy and Learning Network has recently been exploring the link between literacy and earnings with a series of research reports that comprise the Literacy and Earnings Project. The results are intended to inform policy and decision-making when it comes to developing and improving the skills of Canada’s workforce. The Project has three reports [...]

Maintained by the Government of British Columbia, the WorkBC website collects in one place a wide variety of resources related to workplace, industry, and employment. There’s something here for everyone: job searching and help with job searching, including tips on resume writing and preparing for interviews career information, including a variety of job profiles, personal [...]

New Literacies @ Work This website is a joint venture of the Quebec English Literacy Alliance, the Literacy Volunteers of Quebec and the Quebec Literacy Working Group. It showcases content from the New Literacies @ Work newsletter, which highlights best practices, highlights successes, and brings to light key issues that affect literacy and essential skills. [...]

This is the first of a series of research briefs by Essential Skills Ontario. The brief examines the disparity between the skills of the current labour market and industry labour needs, and proposes a combined effort between literacy and essential skills trainers and industry employers. By sharing responsibility and rewards with industry to meet industry [...]