Jackie and all: The following note includes further information about
integrated basic skills and vocational education. It includes some links
that may be of interest regarding professional development in this area.
Tom Sticht

Integrated Literacy Works! Making Workforce Development Efficient and
Effective in Industrialized Nations

February 11, 2007

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

Throughout the industrialized nations of the world, which are fast becoming
the informationalized nations of the world, there is an urgent need to
up-skill the literacy, numeracy, and English language skills of what are
increasingly becoming under-skilled workforces. International adult
literacy surveys showing one- to two-fifths of a nation's workforce with
lower than expected literacy, numeracy, or English language skills, and an
emergent globalization of work being sent to lower wage nations have
heightened the need for effective and efficient ways to help adults
re-skill, up-skill, and cross-train as jobs shift globally and
technologically.

One approach to improving the efficiency of basic skills and job skills
training that is gaining in popularity in developed nations follows what I
have called a Functional Context Education approach. In this approach,
basic literacy, numeracy , and English language skills education is
integrated into, or embedded in, or contextualized within, vocational
education or job skills training. This approach is more efficient because
it shortens the learners overall time required to be in education and
training, and increases the amount of time that can be spent on a job
providing productive activity in the marketplace and bringing home a
paycheck. It does this because it removes the need to have learners spend
time first raising their basic skills to some established level before they
can enter into vocational education. Instead, the integrated approach makes
it possible to both raise basic skills and learn vocational knowledge and
skills at the same time.

In January 2007 I presented three speeches in the Dublin, Ireland area
called Integrated Literacy Works! In one speech on 23 January at the
National University of Ireland (NUI) at Maynooth I summarized a hundred
years of professional wisdom using Functional Context Education to
integrate literacy instruction with important skills training such as
farming, banking, working, and parenting. Then I summarized four lines of
scientific (quasi-experimental) research from the United States and United
Kingdom that supports the integrated literacy approach to adult basic
skills and vocational education.

The foregoing speech was followed by a two hour workshop in which I
presented four case studies of Functional Context Education integrating
literacy and vocational education, including methods, materials,
evaluation, and outcomes. Cases included job training in a large
organization, vocational English for English Language Learners (ELL/ESOL),
integrated basic skills and electronics education, and examples of
materials for integrating literacy and numeracy in five occupational
education programs: Construction Trades, Automotive Industries, Electricity
& Electronics, Office Technology, & Health Occupations.

Both the speech and the workshop at NUI Maynooth were especially relevant on
23 January because the university was celebrating the graduates of a unique
certificate program in Integrated Literacy that was jointly sponsored with
the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) in Ireland. NALA was the
originator of the Integrated Literacy effort in Ireland in which literacy,
numeracy, and English language skills are taught integrated into vocational
training.

The Integrated Literacy approach developed at NALA was picked-up by adult
literacy educators in New Zealand, where a recent report on integrating
literacy in other courses was developed. In a policy-oriented speech on 24
January for a group of policymakers and literacy education sponsors I spoke
about the international efforts at integrated literacy in Australia, Canada,
New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the UK Integrated
Literacy is referred to as Embedded Literacy and I reviewed recent research
showing that the greater the extent of embedding of literacy into
vocational training, the greater the completion rates, achievements of
qualifications, and other important outcomes for both literacy and
vocational qualifications.

In the policy-oriented presentation I also reviewed the use of Functional
Context Education with integrated/embedded/contextualized literacy and
special subject matter content in job training in a large organization,
vocational English for English Language Learners (ELL/ESOL), electronics
education, and occupational education.

Implications were drawn for a policy and strategy on vocational and
work-related education and training, based on Functional Context Education
principles, including integrated literacy, numeracy, and English language
education, which provide multiple returns to investments in adult literacy
education. These "multiplier effects" of Functional Context Education go
beyond the training in literacy, numeracy, English language and
work/vocational skills and tend to return benefits in health, community
activity, and, importantly, in parenting and grand-parenting that helps
children with their school learning.

Ireland's NALA has produced a very important set of products for adult
educators showing how to integrate literacy with vocational training, and
it has pioneered a university level certificate program at a prestigious
university for the professional development of adult educators who can work
to integrate basic skills and jobs skills training. These activities provide
a solid model for workforce development in our globalized world.

Given the increasing need for both basic skills and work-related skills in
industrialized/informationalized nations, integrated literacy education
provides a cost-beneficial approach for more rapidly advancing adults into
the work they want and with the basic skills they need. In short,
Integrated Literacy Works!

Online Resources:

For NALA's resources on integrating literacy go to www.nala.ie and click on
Projects to find Integrating Literacy into Further Education and Vocational
Training; under NALA's Publications search for Integrating Literacy
Guidelines. For Functional Context Education reports go to
www.nald.ca/fulltext/fce/cover.htm and see Functional Context Education:
Making Learning Relevant in the 21st Century. Chapter 2 in this report
provides information about integrated/embedded/contextualized literacy in
six industrialized/informationalized nations. For integrated literacy in
New Zealand go to www.workbase.org.nz and search publications for a guide
to integrating literacy into other courses. For embedded literacy in the
United Kingdom go to www.nrdc.org.uk

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net