Poor worker literacy 'hurting business
By Dan Harrison | smh.com.au | 01 September
Endemic literacy and numeracy problems are having a dramatic effect on the productivity of Australian companies, according to one of the nation's biggest business groups.
Launching a national program to tackle the impact of poor worker literacy and numeracy, Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said the issue had become both a productivity and safety problem for business.
She said some workers could not read standard operating procedures, and used machinery inefficiently, sometimes resulting in products needing to be reworked and materials being wasted.
The inability of some workers to read training materials made it difficult to give them new skills or prepare them for higher duties, she said. This hampered both individual career development and a firm's ability to introduce new equipment or processes.
Ms Ridout said poor literacy also contributed to avoidable injuries and accidents where employees were unable to fully comprehend warning signs, written instructions and other safety guidance, she said.
Bureau of Statistics data shows that almost half of all working Australians have less than the minimum literacy and numeracy levels required to meet the demands of everyday work. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that a 1 per cent increase in a population's literacy skills will lead to a 2.5 per cent increase in labour productivity and a 1.5 per cent increase in per capita economic output.
Ms Ridout said that while it was important to ''get the basics right'' at the school level, her organisation's project, funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, would provide a model for tackling endemic literacy and numeracy problems in many workplaces.
The organisation is currently conducting surveys and focus groups with businesses to learn more about the problem and how it affects workplaces. Next year it will test strategies to improve worker literacy and numeracy in 10 companies.
Workers will receive between 80 and 120 hours of literacy and numeracy training in the workplace over a two-year period, and will be tested before and after the program, to help determine which approaches are most effective.
At the school level, the Federal Government has promised up to $540 million for its national partnership agreement on literacy and numeracy, which was signed by states and territories last November. Literacy and numeracy programs are already being tested in about 400 schools across the country in order to determine which approaches are most effective.
The OECD last year reported that Australian students spend just nine hours of classroom time a week on reading, writing and literature, well below the OECD average of 15 hours.
First published by Smh.com.au on September 01 2009
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