Literacy, Business

1
Literacy, Business Growth

• Presentation to the Literacy Aotearoa National
  Hui
• Saturday 12 July 2003
• University of Auckland

2
Business NZ - Who we are

• 5 regional associations
• 52 industry and sector affiliate organisations
• Collectively represent 76,000 businesses

3
Why do we get up in the morning?

• Improving the sustainable growth rate of the New
  Zealand economy
• Why does this matter?
• Particularly in a country where business is seen
  as a necessary evil

4
NZs economic performance

• NZs economic growth performance over the last
  1/2 century has not been sufficient to maintain
  the standard of living we expect for our people.
• GDP has a real and lasting impact on the lives of
  all of us.

5
How GDP really counts

• If we had been able to retain our position of 3rd
  most wealthy nation in the OECD, we would be 45
  wealthier.
• If we had simply kept pace with Australia, we
  would be 28 wealthier.

6
Bigger GDP better living standards

• If we had maintained our growth, we could all be
  earning 1.5 times what we are now
• We could also be spending 1.5 times what we are
  on health education - without any increase in
  taxes.

7
Okay, but how?

• There are no simple solutions
• It requires a broad range of initiatives, and
  action from
• Government
• the community and
• Business

8
A Growth Strategy

• Sorting the Basics
• Fostering Innovation
• Growing the Skills
• Smarter and Better Business

9
Growing the Skills

• Workplace learning
• Adult literacy and numeracy
• Compulsory education outcomes
• Tertiary sector relevance and partnership

10
Workplace learning

• Increase skill levels in the current workforce,
  by increasing the number of people involved in
  industry training from 80,000 to 160,000 per
  annum and significantly increase the number of
  people with industry skill standards, by 2005.

11
Skills needs in the workforce

• 80 of the workforce of 2013, and 60 of the
  workforce of 2023, are already in the workforce
• 25 of the NZ population aged 25-64 have no
  qualifications at all only 35 have a
  post-school qualification.

12
Skill NZ Campaign

• Business NZ sees this area of such importance
  that we have worked with the CTU the Government
  to develop a tri-partite initiative to promote
  workplace learning - the Skill NZ Campaign.
• 800,000 over 4 years, supporting 120 million
  per annum of delivery spending.

13
Adult Literacy

• Eliminate very poor literacy and numeracy in
  the population (ie. Reduce the number of people
  with IALS Level 1 literacy to fewer than a
  statistical margin of 5), by 2010.

14
Literacy in the Workplace

• Literacy is a major and growing issue in the
  workplace.
• Employers are increasingly taking responsibility
  for literacy issues - but can never address the
  whole problem.
• 11 of employers in the 2003 Business NZ skills
  training survey were offering literacy numeracy
  training.

15
Building Capacity

• More Than Words
• National Qualifications for Adult Literacy
  Practioners
• Quality Mark for Literacy Providers
• National Coalition Networking
• Resourcing. ?

16
Collaboration

• Achieving our target of eliminating very poor
  literacy will require everyone working together.
• It cannot be achieved solely or even principally
  in the workforce.
• Collaboration needs clarity
• What, when, who, and how much

17
Setting Targets

• The critical task is to set targets, and get
  buy-in for them.
• Providers, community groups, the business sector,
  trade unions and the Government all have to
  agree.
• From clear and agreed targets will flow resources.

18
School Outcomes

• Improve the outcomes of compulsory education, so
  that all completing compulsory education achieve
  basic literacy and numeracy standards, and attain
  at least NCEA Level 1, by 2005

19
NCEA Results 2002

• Only 80 of 3rd year secondary students were able
  to meet the literacy and numeracy requirements -
  after 11 years of compulsory education
• Results where literacy and numeracy skills were
  applied were much better than those where they
  were assessed in an academic context

20
Broadening Curriculum

• Gateway - 50 of all schools will eventually
  participate
• ITOs Industry Associations working with schools
• Tertiary providers and schools - creating real
  pathways

21
Tertiary Relevance

• Improve the relevance of post-compulsory
  education, by more rigorous quality assurance,
  greater partnership with business, and a greater
  proportion of learning taking place within
  industry and on the job, by 2005.

22
Charters Profiles

• Identifying stakeholders
• Building partnerships
• Collaboration between providers
• Links to the Tertiary Education Strategy
• Foundation Skills for all

23
Conclusion

• The Challenge is substantial
• But the reward is great
• Business knows we cannot do it alone - but we
  believe that if we work with others, we have a
  good chance

24
We are from business.

• And we are here to help!