Why the need for literacy training?

With an estimated 3,3 million illiterate people in South Africa your organization is sure to be impacted by this complex and limiting phenomenon.

Without the basics of literacy in place, it is almost impossible to motivate, understand and manage the people in your workplace. Many organizations in South Africa find themselves in a situation where levels of education (as reflected through speaking, reading, writing and thinking skills) are severely compromised.

This has serious implications for levels of productivity, responsibility, accountability and efficiency at the workplace. Reading and writing skills are the traditional point of departure to upskill, thereby making the workforce competitive with international standards and norms

Programme & Objectives

The Adult Education and Training (AET) programme focuses on development of Literacy and Numeracy skills for illiterate and semi-literate employees, as well as more advanced courses for literate employees wishing to advance their oral or written skills in English, and their Mathematical skills.

As part of our development process, we include life skills in our Literacy and Numeracy programmes and offer certain additional Life Skills modules.

We offer a proven and cost-effective way of ensuring that organizations are ready to face the need for education in our culturally diverse society.

1. Assessment

Hr Support can conduct a complete audit of employees or, alternatively, assess a select group of employees according to the organisation’s needs. This would assess the employees’ acquired skills in Literacy and Numeracy. We would be flexible regarding times to ensure that the interruption to the company would be minimal.

This assessment is a crucial part of the programme, as accurate placement of the learners on the appropriate levels will guarantee the further success of the programme. A benefit of our programme is that the assessment tool can be easily administered and ensures correct placement.

2. Findings

The findings of the assessment would be tabulated (and presented diagrammatically if a complete assessment is carried out), in both Literacy and Numeracy, to aid in the strategizing phase. In addition to this we could also present the results departmentally to assist in the analysis of particular strengths and weaknesses in each separate department.

3. Strategizing

HR Support would be happy to assist in the strategizing phase. Potential and acquired skills would need to be evaluated in order to determine how and when the Literacy and Numeracy programmes would be implemented. This would also indicate which employees would be able to be party to fast-tracking and which would need to follow a lengthier programme.
As part of the strategizing phase a roll-out plan would be developed that suits the needs and requirements of management, facilitators and learners.

4. Implementation of courses

HR Support will manage and run the entire AET project using their own trainers.
HR Support will do the necessary training and all administrative duties, including monthly progress reports. In addition to this, each learner would be registered for the

Independent Examination Board exams when they are ready to write. All issues that may arise throughout the duration of the programme will be dealt with as quickly and effectively as possible.
Workbooks would need to be purchased from us for each individual learner.

5. Programme details

Lessons are designed to be run in two-hour sessions, with at least one two-hour session per week. An ideal scenario is two two-hour sessions or one four-hour session per week.

As there is a lot of learner participation, in one form or another, as well as interim testing, the facilitators are able to measure learners’ progress and thus work at the speed of the group.
The literacy programme that we utilise is already extensively used in many companies. The Numeracy programme that we are currently using is based on problem-centred learning.

One of the major benefits that the Literacy courses afford is the greatly reduced course duration as we use a building block methodology. The main benefit that our Numeracy courses afford is that all learning is problem-centred. So often Numeracy is a mechanical process with no thought as to how it can be used in real life or work situations. In addition to this our I.E.B. average remains consistently higher than the national average.

Because of the methodology encompassed in the courses, there is also a higher level of learner cognitive development. All in all, our literacy programmes are of benefit to the company and individual.