New instruments and methods of collaborative learning styles of adult literacy students have been developed in collaboration with the Canadian Research council. These instruments and methods have been piloted in the SSHRC project and will be used for testing in selected NRDC workplace sites from October 2003.

• how do adults learn collaboratively with other peers in workplace literacy programmes
• what literacy teaching models best support collaborative learning practices among workplace literacy learners.

• to explore the collaborative learning styles of workplace literacy students and the teaching models used by workplace literacy tutors using instruments and methods developed collaboratively with the University of Ottawa
• to lay the foundations for a larger scale application on learning styles in literacy programmes.

Project continues the work from ‘Identifying Effective Workplace Literacy, language and numeracy strategies for enhancing employee development and productivity’ project.

Data collection started in January 2004 and is ongoing. This includes structured interviews with learners, literacy and/or numeracy assessments, structured interviews with tutors, semi-structured interviews with managers and union learning representatives and in-depth interviews with a sub-sample of learners. Approximately 350 learners have so far been interviewed and/or assessed.

In addition, we are now about to start the second round of structured interviews and assessments with learners. The latter are being carried out by external contractors.

• The majority of the learners in the sample seem very happy to be attending the training courses at their workplace
• The profile of the learners on workplace courses seems different from that of the average FE learner - the majority of our learners are male
• Trade unions and union learning representatives often play a crucial part in initiating workplace courses and ensuring their sustainability over the long term.

• Basic Skills and workplace learning: what do we actually know about their benefits? Studies in Continuing Education - Paper
• Identifying effective workplace basic skills strategies enhancing employee productivity and development- Progress report (pdf 376 KB)
• Identifying effective workplace basic skills strategies for enhancing employee productivity and development - Summary (pdf 196 KB)
• The benefits to employers of raising workforce basic skills: a review of the literature - Report (pdf 924 KB)
• The benefits to employers of raising workplace basic skills - Summary (pdf 161 KB)

• Identifying effective workplace basic skills strategies enhancing employee productivity and development
• The benefits to employers of raising workforce basic skills: a review of the literature
• English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) in the workplace
• Maths Skills Workplace report
• Learning for and in the workplace