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ALCR: Adult Literacy and Communication Research Group
Literacy and Employment
Overview
Researchers at the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, Massey University, in partnership with the Wanganui District Library, undertook a major longitudinal research project funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, focusing on adult literacy and employment in Wanganui and Districts. Through a series of interlinked research projects we aimed to achieve the following four objectives:
- To establish adult literacy needs of both employed and unemployed in Wanganui and Districts region.
- To identify the social, attitudinal and economic barriers to adult literacy, numeracy and analytical thinking skills of employed and unemployed in Wanganui and Districts.
- To evaluate how effectively adult literacy programmes secure employment outcomes.
- To examine adult literacy learning processes and their relationship to employment.
The Wanganui project group added further objectives, specific to gaining tangible benefits for Wanganui. These include:
- Achieving positive, tangible and practical outcomes for the Wanganui community, with a well-researched plan of action for medium-long term 2005-2015 to address identified issues relating to literacy
- Establishing a database of meaningful, relevant information relating to the links between literacy and employment in Wanganui and identify links to other social issues e.g. crime, health, and housing; and providing benchmarks to measure future progress
- Developing collaboration between agencies within the Wanganui region, to strengthen the community and social infrastructure for future work and projects
- Building the research capacity within Wanganui.
This project ran from 2004 to 2008, and is in excess of $2 million. To achieve its four research objectives, the Department is collaborated closely with community organisations such as Literacy Aotearoa (Wanganui), the Wanganui District Library, Te Puna Matauranga O Whanganui, and the Whanganui Community Foundation.
If you are interested in knowing more about this research, please contact the project leader, Prof Frank Sligo, in the first instance.
