The Literacy and Numeracy for Adults Assessment Tool is an online adaptive tool primarily designed to provide robust and reliable information on the reading, writing and numeracy skills of adults. This information will inform the development of learning interventions that match learners’ needs and strengthen their literacy and numeracy skills. The assessment tool will also allow learners to track their progress over time and enable educators and organisations to report on the progress made by groups or cohorts of learners.
This project aims to find out about the nature of changing contemporary learning-work relationships and arrangements. It focuses particularly on how learning and work are, or could be, integrated in a range of different learning-work contexts.
The ITO Workplace Assessment Structures project explores the different structures and systems that Industry Training Organisations can to support and manage assessors and assessment in the workplace.
This project is looking at the effect of utilising training from within the company for sustainability purposes, in contrast to the use of outside providers.
This research project for the Department of Labour (DoL) looked at how (and if) language, literacy and numeracy skills (LLN) from workplace training initiatives transfer to and in the workplace. It was part of a much larger suit of research projects the government has put in place to ascertain the effects of government initiatives to improve adult LLN.
The project addresses workplace learning’s increasingly central role in the drive to increase New Zealand’s productivity. There is an emphasis on people’s attitudes and capacities, as well as their knowledge and skills. And there is potential to integrate business strategy with on- and off-the-job training in creative ways.
Around 40% of adults in Aotearoa, New Zealand have literacy and numeracy skills below a level needed to use and understand the increasingly difficult texts and tasks that characterise a knowledge society and information economy: hence increasing Literacy, Language and Numeracy (LLN) is a key strategic priority for the government, and the nation.
This report analyses and discusses findings from a study of training programmes at six different workplaces, across four different industry sectors, around the country. Our research team visited each workplace, observed training sessions or training-related activities, and interviewed a range of people who were participating in the training, or leading and supporting the training programme and trainees. The research was funded by the Tertiary Education Commission and conducted by NZCER for the Industry Training Federation.
Marie Cameron, Jenny Whatman, Helen Potter, Keren Brooking, Sally Robertson, and Dominic Madell
2011
Department of Labour
Research report
This study sought to understand more about how literacy, language, and numeracy (LLN) skills gained in workplace literacy and numeracy courses are developed, utilised, and transferred within workplaces. A literature review on the transfer of workplace learning (Cameron et al, 2010) provided a framing for the analysis of six case studies that were conducted during 2010. These ‘cases’ were a variety of workplaces that offered LLN courses funded by the Workplace Literacy Fund and delivered by external training providers.
Marie Cameron, Rose Hipkins, Josie Lander, and Jenny Whatman
2011
Department of Labour
Research report
This literature review is the first stage of a two-stage research project by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) for the Department of Labour. The project addresses the ways employees transfer, utilise, and develop literacy, language, and numeracy (LLN) skills in the workplace; the conditions that enable this to happen; and the short- to medium-term outcomes for employees and workplaces. The second stage will consist of case studies in workplaces where workplace LLN learning programmes are being offered.
The guide presents a set of four high-level principles for developing and maintaining good assessment structures and systems for Industry Training Organisations (ITOs). The guide is a resource based on the best available evidence from a research project involving an analysis of New Zealand and international literature, a survey of ITOs, and focus groups with ITO assessors and ITO staff. The primary intended audience for the guide is quality assurance and assessment staff at Industry Training Organisations (ITO).
School-based careers advisors have been given a key role in assisting young people in transition from school to work and further education. Their role is especially significant in light of the strategic importance attached to career development for workforce preparation and development policies. However major changes in the nature of work and in contemporary transitions from school, as well as shifts in career education theory and delivery, mean that careers advisors are often left playing continual “catch up” challenge in terms of knowledge and expertise.
Jenny Whatman, with Sandie Schagen, Karen Vaughan, Josie Lander, Juliet Twist, Keren Brooking, Sally Robertson and Lorraine Spiller
2010
Department of Labour
Research report
The Department of Labour (the Department) is responsible for a cross-government programme of research and evaluation on workforce literacy, language and numeracy skills. Its purpose is to build the evidence base to inform practice and policy development around improving adult literacy, language and numeracy skills. This is in partnership with the Tertiary Education Commission, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Development.
Jenny Whatman, Sandie Schagen, Karen Vaughan and Josie Lander
2010
Department of Labour
Research report
The purpose of this literature review is to contribute to the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) research project Engagement of Youth in Literacy, Language and Numeracy (LLN) Skills Development. As specified by the Department of Labour (the Department), the objective of the whole project is “to enhance the knowledge base on the engagement, recruitment, retention and support of youth in literacy, language, and numeracy (LLN) skills development”.
Jenny Whatman, with Sandie Schagen, Karen Vaughan, Josie Lander, Juliet Twist, Keren Brooking, Sally Robertson and Lorraine Spiller
2010
Department of Labour
Research report
The Department of Labour (the Department) is responsible for a cross-government programme of research and evaluation on workforce literacy, language and numeracy skills. Its purpose is to build the evidence base to inform practice and policy development around improving adult literacy, language and numeracy skills. This is in partnership with the Tertiary Education Commission, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Development.
This report provides a summary of research into young adults’ engagement in literacy, language and numeracy (LLN).
This is a report on findings from a survey of 33 Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) and five focus groups with 19 ITO representatives – the second phase of a three-phase project entitled ITO Workplace Assessment Structures and Systems.
Young adults’ early career development is an increasingly important field of inquiry. With the complexity of modern transitions from school and the lifelong learning demands of emerging knowledge societies, governments are concerned to improve learning pathways into, and through, tertiary education and work. Young adults are exploring new learning and work possibilities and understanding these create a challenge for governments trying to validate their experiences and enhance their employability.
