Workplace-oriented Literacy and Numeracy Training for the Low-skilled

The current discussion on securing an ongoing supply of skilled workers is increasingly drawing attention to the potential for training up low- and unskilled employees. However, the fact that most such workers lack not only a vocational qualification but even basic schooling makes upgrading their skills a special challenge. A promising and suitably targeted approach to career advancement for the low-skilled is workplace-oriented literacy and numeracy programmes. For the first time, a representative survey of companies carried out by the Cologne Institute for Economy Research (IW) provides information on the availability of in-company courses in literacy and numeracy for low-skilled workers and about the requirements for future labour market policy in this field. The survey was conducted on behalf of the Alpha-Grund Project, part of a national campaign to promote basic skills at the workplace, and of which the IW is a leading partner. The results show that about 80 per cent of companies employing low-skilled workers have offered at least one training measure for this target group within the last five years. In just under a third of these firms this was a measure to improve workplace-oriented training in the basic skills. With more than a third of companies seeing an increasing need for workplace-related support in literacy and numeracy for the low- and unskilled, this will continue to be an important aspect of companies’ personnel development.