This first "OECD Skills Outlook" presents the initial results of the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), which evaluates the skills of adults in 22 OECD member countries and two partner countries. The PIAAC survey was designed to provide insights into the availability of some key skills and how they are used at work and at home through the…

The role of a professional and creative writing degree is to provide resources, structured workshops, professional interactions--and the potential for creative risk. Opportunities for risk, within the structured environment of the university, challenge the individual's perspectives and judgements, as well as their ability to analyse and to reflect…

Learning always takes place in a particular context and culture, yet educators have tended to focus their attention mainly on the form of learning, its methodology, content and teaching approach. While these can and do affect learning and its results, this paper looks beyond the particulars of the program to explore how the context and culture of…

Employees of Hannaford Brothers Company, Nichols Portland, and Wood Structures in the Casco Bay area of Maine participated in a series of tours at each worksite for three consecutive Tuesdays in August 1995. Each group of employees, some of whom were limited English speakers engaged in workplace literacy classes, planned a tour of their facility,…

During the Workplace Training Project, workplace trainers from Oregon's Lane Community College (LCC) provided workplace math classes to employees of an area business, PW Pipe. The math training was designed to help employees increase their proficiency in math and thereby reduce production error rates. During the training, PW Pipe's employees…

Project WORKSMART was a Nashville, Tennessee-based workplace literacy project to provide an exemplary multidimensional workplace literacy program while simultaneously demonstrating products and practices that promote lifelong learning that can be customized and replicated in diverse work environments. The project was a partnership between…

Site visits to 17 workplace education projects funded in the second year of the Massachusetts Workplace Education Initiative are reported for year 1 and year 2 projects. The year one projects are as follows: EASCO Handtool Company (Springfield), T.J. Maxx Distribution Center (Worcester), laundry workers (Boston/Lynn), AT&T (Lawrence), and…

The Wisconsin Workplace Partnership Literacy (WPL) Program provided job-specific basic skills education to employees at 11 worksites. A total of 1,441 employees were recruited to participate in on-site competency-based educational activities to upgrade their basic skills sufficiently for job retention or advancement. Participants were encouraged…

Four community colleges in North Carolina cooperated to provide workplace literacy education to employees of eight plants in the state. The target population for the program was 710 adults who had not completed high school or who were functioning below high school level who were employed at one of the industry sites. The Comprehensive Adult…

Analysis of the Project ALERT (Adult Literacy Enhanced & Redefined through Training) Workplace Literacy Project produced a description of the needs assessment process, steps, and instruments that can be used for needs assessment in other workplace education projects. The data for the needs assessment were collected through the following methods: a…

An external evaluator worked with the project team of the Wisconsin Technical College System National Workplace Literacy Program to develop the evaluation design. Although she was at the project site for only limited periods of time, she and the project team maintained periodic contact during the 3-year period by telephone, fax, and email. Three…

The experience of eight prominent Canadian business organizations was examined in terms of how basic skills deficits are identified in their work force, the impact of those deficiencies on organizational competitiveness, and why corporate programs are developed in response to the issue. Some of the key findings were as follows: (1) employee…

This document contains a final report, evaluation report, and materials from the Better Educational Skills Training (BEST) workplace literacy program in Vermont. The seven-page final report describes program components: (1) expanding and institutionalizing the workplace literacy program developed through two previous national workplace literacy…

Seven workplace education projects funded in the first year of the Massachusetts Workplace Education Initiative are reported. This report includes both general observations and specific information in case studies of the projects. Overall information is provided on students served, the importance of partnerships, the emphasis on…

An evaluation of this Syracuse, New York workplace literacy skills improvement project had three purposes: to characterize changes in the baseline performance of adults' workplace literacy skills as a function of instructional treatment; to characterize changes in workers' and supervisors' perceptions of worker effectiveness as a function of…