The Australian Industry Group conducted a survey with 300 employers as its participants. Ninety-three percent of employers are concerned with their employees’ numeracy and literacy skills. According to them, their workers’ poor levels of literacy and numeracy affect their business negatively.

1. The State of Adult
Literacy in Australia
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2. The Australian Industry Group conducted a survey with 300 employers as its
participants. Ninety-three percent of employers are concerned with their
employees’ numeracy and literacy skills. According to them, their workers’ poor
levels of literacy and numeracy affect their business negatively.
Basic literacy skills will not suffice in the workplace. While they let students grasp
the general idea, this does not prepare them to the specialist literacy of the various
jobs they will move into.
Literacy in the Digital Age
According to the AIG, the highly developing digital economy needs more complex
literacy skills. Employees would also need to develop high-level cognitive and
interpersonal skills.
Being in the digital age redefines the inclusions of literacy. This means that literacy
in the modern times go beyond reading, comprehending and writing on a page.
These days, people should now be able to communicate and grasp ideas and
concepts in the more complex, cyber age.

3. The Problem
The educational system is falling behind with the government’s obsession with
back to basics learning. There is an increasing gap between what they teach in
school versus what people do in the real world.
While basic skills such as reading, writing, spelling and grammar are important,
these do not prepare them for new sets of literacy skills. These include being able
to read images or navigate through a mix of visual and print in the cyber world.
Another survey was conducted by the Programme for the International Assessment
of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). It shows that in Australia, 44 percent of the adult
population had literacy skills below level 3. This is the minimum requirement to
effectively operate in the workplace and the society. As for numeracy proficiency,
55 percent of Australian adults are below the minimum skill level.
This shows the deterioration in the literacy and numeracy skills and performance of
adults in the workplace and society.

4. RESOURCES:
 http://www.ramtrainingservices.com.au/other-courses/certificate-iv-in-training-and-
assessment-course-tae/
 http://www.aigroup.com.au/portal/binary/com.epicentric.contentmanagement.servlet.C
ontentDeliveryServlet/LIVE_CONTENT/Publications/Reports/2016/AIG9675_EMAIL.pdf
 https://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/files/Skills%20volume%201
%20(eng)--full%20v8--eBook%20(01%2010%202013).pdf
The Solution
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,
businesses should invest in workplace-based numeracy and literacy programmes
and training.
There is a continuous deterioration of adult literacy and numeracy in Australia.
Playing the blame game with the education system will not suffice. But, there
needs to be an initiative from the employers as well. If there is a need to further
educate employees, then implementing a workplace-based training for their
needed skills would suffice.