New ways of thinking about how language, literacy and numeracy skills are taught has coincided with a fundamental policy change in the vocational education and training sector. A major development has been the integration of literacy, language and numeracy skills into vocational training. The complexity of the issues makes it important to gain a better understanding of what actually happens in Australia, especially in the workplace. This study explores how training practitioners are using the reforms in the national training system, and their knowledge of new approaches to teaching and learning to integrate language, literacy and numeracy into workplace training programs in the community services sector. Although the study is small scale, it provides an informative snapshot of how a number of providers are integrating language, literacy and numeracy into vocational programs.
This report summarises an extensive study of adult literacy policies and practices in vocational education in six countries - Canada, New Zealand, United States, Ireland, United Kingdom and Australia. The policies and programs of the six countries were compared across policy contexts and concepts, program development and delivery, and regulatory frameworks, product development and quality assurance.