Provides suggestions for designing customized basic skills instruction using work-related reading needs. Highlights opportunities for adult educators in workplace literacy. (SK)

Begins an international conversation among reading teachers and other literacy educators about the intersection of literacy and the world of work. Describes the complex workplace literacy requirements of a front-line worker in Silicon Valley. (SR)

Reviews survey and other data on workforce skill needs and literacy levels of current and future workers. Concludes that technical educators should cooperate with employers in developing a more literate workforce. (SK)

Examines the Australian Language and Literacy Council's paper, "Literacy at Work." Concludes that it concerns not only achievement of social and economic objectives but also the question of acceptable forms of governance and the state's intervention in economic and social life and the organization of the workplace. (SK)

Two Australian projects--integrating numeracy into a construction training course and integrating literacy in rural training--illustrate the development of integrated curricula and the necessity of contextualized, multiple literacies. Literacy is not a set of generic skills to be taught in isolation, but highly specific vocational and social…

This case study documents one girl's emerging literacy about workplace activities through her participation in literacy events at home over a three-year period beginning when she was three. The case study shows the girl's understanding of the functions of literacy to record and convey information, regulate activities, and transact business. (BC)

The Job Enhancement Program at Texas Instruments is designed to strengthen work skills, promote flexibility, and improve the learning skills of employees. It started with a focus on functional literacy skills, but it has evolved into a comprehensive program to assist employees with academic and job-related skills. (JOW)

Draws from a research project on young grocery and fast-food workers in the United States and Canada to discuss some of the ways in which workplace text and literacy have an impact on the lives of working youth. Concludes that educators should reject the idea that there is little to be said about the literacy practices of low-end service sector…

Multicultural immigrant workers (n=23) studying English as a second language took photographs about their lives, wrote about them, and displayed them on the Internet. The materials depicted their cross-cultural journeys and transformative experiences. The process increased their communication skills and empowered them to make workplace changes.…

While research on globalisation can hardly be said to have ignored the phenomenon of the global corporation or the globally distributed supply chain, the focus has overwhelmingly been on "globalization from above"--on corporate structures and on the movement of global capital in global "knowledge economies". My focus in this…

This brief describes national technical assistance organizations. Thirteen organizations are included: Essential Skills Resource Center; Center for Applied Linguistics; Center on Education and Training for Employment; Language Training Designs; Center for Remediation Design; Matrices Consultants, Inc.; Performance Plus Literacy Consultants; HRD…

This performance report, presented in chart form, outlines progress on five goals of the Massachusetts Workplace Literacy Consortium. Under each goal are a number of objectives, and for each objective the chart describes activities, accomplishments, responsible party, and time frame. Goals are as follows: (1) "Enhance the Productivity and…

This manual consists of glossaries and descriptions of medical terminology for use in a workplace literacy program for hospital workers. The sections are as follows: hospital patient care areas; hospital departments; medical specialists; word elements (root, prefix, suffix, combining vowel, compound word); surgical procedures; diseases and…

The functional literacy movement has emphasized the ability to read job-related materials as a major occupational/functional skill. Various studies, by the Educational Testing Service and others, have supported the contention that the ability to read is a fundamental vocational skill in American society. (CH)

Points to the importance of teaching job literacy. Outlines a method (which was successfully employed in the military) of analyzing job demands, and then constructing and using effective literacy materials. (ARH)