Closing literacy skill gaps

The reading, writing and arithmetic skills required of the workforce one hundred years ago have become the literacy, numeracy and communication skills of today. The words themselves indicate the complexities that face people at all levels of employment where expectations of output, accountability, generic skills, job specific knowledge and professional development are higher than ever.

Not all employees meet the criteria, and some employers, particularly in the manufacturing and other traditionally manual industries are turning to workplace literacy programmes as a way of improving quality, productivity and safety at work.

Fletcher Aluminium in Auckland uses Workbase, a non-profit organisation that works to improve the skills of frontline employees.

"One of our strategic goals is to get to a level where teams will be self-managing and where our people will be empowered to make decisions, take more responsibility and be more involved," says Warwick Milbank, human resources manager, Fletcher Aluminium.

The company has a large Pacific workforce for whom English is a second language.

"There is quite a range of competency in literacy and numeracy. When we hold meetings people often don't have the confidence to speak up and contribute," he says. "The improvements we make in our systems to be internationally competitive require the participation of the people who do the job and they need to be confident in their communication."

In many comparable industries there are high compliance and safety issues where it is crucial that employees understand signs, are able to manage hazards, record incidents, complete job sheets and other documentation.

Twenty employees have just completed the company's first round of training and another has recently begun for a second group of 20. The first group graduated last week after 48 weeks of one-on-one training with a Workbase tutor, for one hour each week.

Employees, Alfred (Fred) Ahoafi and Ninrod Alican, have just finished training with a Workbase tutor. Ahoafi is Tongan and has been working at Fletcher Aluminium for 12 years. As team coordinator in aluminium packing he gives instructions to other employees and communicates with senior management, verbally and through written reports. Working with his tutor he learned writing, spelling, grammar and computer skills. But the skill he says has made a huge difference is a communication strategy.

"I used to tell them [the team] what to do," he laughs. "And I was promising the management the work would be done. But come the end of the day it wasn't done and I was getting angry. The tutor was saying it's not 'tell', it's 'ask' [them]. At the moment we are doing a new project and I realise it has really worked."

With a number of different cultures in the workplace, communication styles and expectations can be problematic.

"After the training I thought about all the mistakes I was making because I was treating people according to my own culture and customs," says Ahoafi. "I have just opened my eyes and we have found a way of working with all different people."

He would like a position of greater responsiblity and the opportunity to do further training.

Alican is from the Philippines and has been working four years at Fletcher's. He is a leading hand in one of the crew in the extrusion department, responsible for manufacturing and inspecting all the products delivered to customers.

"English is the most important tool because all the guidelines and procedures are written in English. If you miss a word, that's it. All the course material was related to work and I am more confident now in using English in writing, and in speaking at meetings. Before I wouldn't talk".

He wants to continue developing his skills in English.

The workplace literacy programme is geared to specific tasks and is immediately relevant to the trainees.

"What makes workplace literacy so successful is that it is meeting an immediate need - there is nothing like the present looming at you to get you to learn those skills, says Workbase programme manager, Barbara Wilkinson.

Literacy is not just about reading and writing, she says, it is about speaking, listening, problem solving and critical thinking.

"Critical thinking can make the difference between someone who is good at their job and someone who is great at their job. It is being able to think through an issue and the implications and consequences of what you do."

Workbase is often approached by employers complaining about employees' "attitude problem", or for not following procedures correctly.

"It may be that they have not thought through the consequences of not following health and safety procedures or how to manage hazards carefully," she says.

Workbase tutors carry out a needs analysis to identify the critical skills for every business they work with. They also identify the skills individual trainees need to do their job.

"We unpick the literacy, the reading and writing, the speaking, listening and the maths they are required to do, find out what they do know and work on the ones the employee needs help with."

In one food processing company they worked with an employee who could say "yes" and "no", "please" and "thank you".

"We worked with pictures and demonstrations, adding slowly to their vocabulary as we went," she says.

Tutors also ask employees to show them around the workplace, identifying hazards and thinking about the consequences of not following safety procedures.

"A lot of the problem solving and critical thinking is talking through scenarios and asking what would they do in certain situations. Even in the daily job record - what is the purpose of it, who does it go to next."

Department of Labour research, cited in its Future of Work programme, indicates that people with higher levels of literacy are more likely to be employed and have higher incomes.

One study found that unemployed people have an average literacy level 19 per cent lower than those in work. Researchers also found that employers who invest in workplace literacy programmes are often rewarded with increased productivity, higher quality outputs, and improved safety in their workplaces.

Milbank has observed a marked change in confidence levels and in communication among employees, with people speaking up in meetings and talking more with colleagues and team leaders.

"They are hungry to go on courses they would not have thought of doing before. We lost a couple because they grew in confidence," he says. "One went off to be a panelbeater. Before he did the training he thought he couldn't handle the study. That is a risk you take if you want to be an employer of choice. If employees have the confidence out in the community to do what they want to do it is good for us as well."

Government funding is available for workplace literacy training and Fletcher Aluminium also draws on an education fund to finance the programme. The company is now looking at offering further training to its employees, to be undertaken in out-of-work time, through Manakau Institute of Technology.