Literacy skills vital for increasing productivity at work

Government support is needed to improve adult literacy. Photo / Thinkstock

The importance of workforce literacy in boosting productivity, profitability and to support New Zealand's economic growth strategy is being increasingly recognised.

Yet efforts to improve it are hampered by a fragmented and under-resourced approach.

Phil O'Reilly, Business NZ's chief executive says that individual businesses, and the tertiary and industry training sectors have roles to play in improving adult literacy, but to make progress strong and consistent support is needed from the Government.

"There's too much wasted effort in the system at present, caused by a lack of continuity and insufficient focus on what's really important. Adult literacy is a big, complex issue and New Zealand will only make real inroads when we have a scalable, targeted action plan.

"The plan, which should be developed in partnership with business and industry training bodies, needs to have a long-term focus.

"It should also be sustainable and adequately resourced so as to provide continuity for the investments in capability that the tertiary sector needs to make."

Chris Meade, executive general manager Human Resources, of construction giant Downer, agrees, saying she would like to see further action to support the Tertiary Education Commission's work to address the issue.

Downer has been at the forefront of addressing workforce issues. Meade says the company enjoyed huge productivity gains and significantly reduced workplace accidents after it put steps in place to improve literacy and numeracy skills.

"We found many of our people's literacy skills had eroded since they'd left school and they had lost confidence as a result.

"This manifested itself in issues such as high levels of equipment damage because people were unable to follow basic pre-start and shutdown procedures, and a general failure to engage in their jobs," she says.

A combination of Government-subsidised and company-funded training has enabled Downer to up-skill around 2000 staff over the past six years.

"Tertiary training institutions have a strong role to play, but workplace literacy training is a critical plank too.

"Most employees with low literacy simply don't have the time or confidence to go to a polytechnic.

"Workplace training provides a safe, familiar environment that enables employees to immediately apply their newfound skills to their jobs."

Katherine Percy - chief executive of adult literacy, numeracy and communication support provider, Workbase - believes the Government needs to work with all stakeholders to improve the delivery of the skills that New Zealand employers require and, importantly, to make it clear which department is responsible for overseeing the plan to achieve this.

The quality of literacy and numeracy teaching for adults is a salient issue in the country's tertiary sector because few vocational educators and trainers know how to build literacy and numeracy skills into vocational training.

This will enable adult students to be better equipped for the jobs they are being trained for, and it will also increase their chances of successfully completing their qualifications."

O'Reilly acknowledges that employers need to do more workforce training, but notes there is a danger that the Government's drive to push more young people into the workforce will backfire unless youth are equipped with adequate literacy, language and numeracy skills.

"Pushing the problem on to employers, and expecting them to take an increasing role in developing literacy and numeracy skills without support will do nothing to enhance New Zealand's productivity," he says.

Instead, there needs to be a co-ordinated approach to understanding the workplace literacy demands and tailoring appropriate solutions.

Part one of this feature ran in Thursday's Business Herald.