International research

Here are some links to international research about literacy and employment.

Contact us about any research you’d like added to this page.

October 2011

Menial no more [Ontario Literacy Coalition, Canada]
A discussion paper on advancing the workforce through digital skills – jobs perceived as ‘low-skilled’ or ‘entry level’ need new kinds of skills.

June 2011

Access to work-related training [Department for Business and Innovation Skills, UK]
Report informs the development of a framework that career centre advisors can use to tailor support and training to the needs of each recipient.

May 2011

Literacy research [ABC Life Literacy, Canada]
A range of research reports about literacy and numeracy levels in Canada.

April 2011

No more excuses [Industry Skills Councils, Australia]
A collective Industry Skills Council response to addressing the challenge of improving language, literacy and numeracy levels in the workforce.

Financial competence and expectations [University of Technology, Sydney]
An investigation of financial competence in Australian retirement savers. View a presentation on the working paper (PDF, 2.6 MB).

November 2010

Skills for sustainable growth [The Department for Business Innovation and Skills, UK]
Government strategy detailing the priorities for skills funding and investment over the next 5 years.

October 2010

Links between literacy and numeracy skills and labour market outcomes [Australian Government Productivity Commission]
Analysis covering the Australian population aged 15–74 years. This paper compares literacy and numeracy levels against educational attainment and labour market outcomes.

July 2010

How literacy levels have developed over time [Oxford Economics, UK]
Report investigates the feasibility of designing a robust model capable of measuring the development of literacy skill levels in Northern Ireland.

May 2010

Employers' views on workplace literacy and numeracy skills [Australian Industry Group]
A report from the National Workforce Literacy Project.

March 2009

A cost benefit analysis of adult literacy training [National Adult Literacy Agency, Ireland]
Research report looks at causal relationships between low literacy and certain types of social problems.

December 2008

Skilling the Existing Workforce [Australian Industry Group]
This report seeks to identify and better understand how workers' skill needs are being addressed and how workplaces can improve.

Whose responsibility? [The Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research]
How industry perceives, identifies and addresses issues relating to literacy, numeracy and employability skills.

October 2008

Australian Core Skills Framework [Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations - Australian Government]
This comprehensive tool assists literacy practitioners and trainers who deliver in the workplace, in educational institutions and in the community.

March 2005

Lower-literacy [website] users: Writing for a broad consumer audience [Jakob Nielsen, United States of America]
How lower-literacy website users exhibit very different reading behaviours than higher-literacy users.