Federal budget and funding

ACAL has written to the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, Senator Evans, about the need for funding.

See the letter.

Copies of this letter were also sent to to the Federal and State ministers and Skills organisations.

Australian Core Skills Framework

Revised Australian Core Skills Framework

The revised Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) has been released and includes a new ACSF Pre Level 1 Supplement. The ACSF describes levels of performance in the five core skills of: learning, reading, writing, oral communication and numeracy.

Mapping adult literacy performance

This paper outlines an NCVER study which will investigate whether it is possible to map the performance levels of the ALLS to the performance levels of the ACSF in order to gain more frequent information than is currently available about the literacy and numeracy progression of adult learners against national goals.

New survey: Does 1 = 1? Mapping measures of adult language, literacy and numeracy

Go to http://literacymap.com/s3/  to enter the survey and for a chance to win one of six Apple iPads (3rd generation 32GB Wi-Fi). You can also access the survey from the NCVER web site (http://www.ncver.edu.au/): go to the ‘Quick Links’ section.

Glossary of terms

The NCVER website has a glossary of terms that are very useful and updated regularly. The glossary includes:

• VET terms and concepts, including adult and continuing education and lifelong learning

• Australian VET organisations and some key international VET organisations

• Key Australian historical documents

• VET-related acronyms.

2012 Conferences

VALBEC Annual Conference

Read the word, Read the world - Melbourne

May 25, 2012

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Adults Learning Mathematics Conference

ALM-19 Auckland, NZ

26–29 June, 2012

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Adult Literacy Practitioners Association (ALPA)

Measuring success: Opportunities and Challenges - Auckland

29 June – 1 July 2012
Call for papers closes March 26

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NCVER National Vocational Education and Training Research

21st National Conference ‘No Frills’

11-13 July 2012, Adelaide

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ACTA 2012 Conference

July 3-5, 2012, Cairns

'TESOL as a Global Trade – Ethics, Equity and Ecology'

2012 ACAL Conference • 'Joining the pieces: Literacy and Numeracy - one part of the picture'

Call for papers

Sept 19-21, 2012 - Hobart

You're invited to submit a proposal for a session that will:

• stimulate thought and discussion on relevant issues and practice

• be interactive and encourage dialogue

• display innovation and flexibility in practice/research

• demonstrate effective practice in a range of settings

• exemplify adult learning principles

• critique changes in state and federal government policies and priorities

• communicate developments and findings in research and research practices.

Proposals are due by May 12, 2012

Snapshot - Literacy for licence *

Rachael Marriette is now back on the road after completing Karrayili Adult Education Centre’s Driver Education programme as part of the CGEA. Rachael enrolled in the programme over a year ago to help her pass her theory test, acquire a Learner’s Permit, get professional driving lessons and pass her driving test.

Read more

*Many thanks to a careful reader who pointed out the spelling mistake in the earlier title of this article "Literacy for License". We apologise for the mistake.  For those who are wondering, the rule for Australian spelling is that 'licence' with a 'c' is used for the noun and 'license' with an 's' for the verb. American English uses an 's' in both cases and spellchecks on computers are likely to reproduce the American spelling.

Wellbeing is more than money

Here is a short micro-documentary about 'what counts' when we measure progress. It may be a useful resource for discussion with LLN Groups.

More information at Australian National Development Index (ANDI)

Articles and publications

Literacy and Numeracy Studies: An international journal in the education and training of adults

A new issue was published late last year.

Access the journal. New readers will need to register, but there is no cost.

Beyond deficit approaches to teaching and learning: Literacy and numeracy in VET courses

This paper considers models of support, both in the research literature and in Australian case studies, which ‘integrate’ L&N with VET courses.

AVETRA President, Dr Llandis Barratt-Pugh, (left) presents the award for ‘Best Paper’ to co-authors Dr Keiko Yasukawa and Dr Stephen Black at the 2011 AVETRA Conference.

Exploring the role of Australian trade unions in the education of workers

There are two main elements to this paper. Firstly, the authors critically examine the current literacy and numeracy ‘crisis’ in Australian workplaces in which loss of productivity, lack of take-up in education and training, and skills shortages are being blamed on workers’ lack of literacy and numeracy skills (Australian Industry Group [AiG] 2010a&b, DEEWR 2010, Skills Australia 2010). The second main element to this paper is the opportunity for unions to demonstrate their stake in the education and training of workers.

For more publications go to our Publications and Report page.