The Government of Canada recognizes that reading is a necessary skill required in a modern workplace. The Skills for Success framework consists of nine skills. Reading helps us to understand and interpret the meaning within the text. Strong reading skills allow us to do our jobs and to work safely, and efficiently. With the right resources, learners can build their reading skills to improve both their work and home lives. To help support this essential skill, we have gathered resources on workplace reading.

“It’s easy to see why reading is an essential skill. Reading helps us find information and communicate with others.” – UP Skills for Work: Reading

The video below offers an introduction to reading at work.

Strategies for Reading

ABC Life Literacy Canada outlines some useful reading strategies:

• Set a goal. You can set a goal by answering the questions, “Why am I reading this?” and “What do I want to get from it?” Setting a goal can make it easier to know what to look for as you read.
• Ask questions. What do you know about the text you’re reading? Knowing a little about what you’re reading can make reading easier. Ask more questions such as, “What kind of text is this?”, “What information am I looking for?” and, “What key words will help me find it?” Keywords can hint that you’re at an important part of the text.
• Look for clues. Longer texts can contain clues to help with understanding, such as a table of contents, titles and headings, or pictures, charts and diagrams.
• Take a quick look. Sometimes it’s useful to have a quick look at a text before you read it carefully. You may read some parts first to get a sense of what the text is about. You may also look for keywords and headings first. It’s like watching a preview for a movie. By taking a quick look before reading you may determine if the text is something you want to read, what the text is about and if it’s important, and find the part in the text that has the information you need.

To learn more about workplace reading and how to teach this skill, check out the resources below.

Resources

• Reading at work : facilitator’s guide and Reading at work : workplace reader
• Skills for Success: Reading
• UP Skills for Work
  • Online workbook: Reading
  • Video: Reading: Build Your Reading Confidence
• WorkWise : Reading at Work
• The Workwrite series – books 1-3 and 4-6