As foundational skills gaps continue to grow, adult education and training (AET) has never been more relevant. Individuals who have completed AET level 4 and hold a General Education and Training Certificate (GETC) have been primed to learn the skills that businesses need now and tomorrow.

However, solving the foundational skills crisis takes a lot of passion and resolve considering the sheer extent of the work involved. Therefore, many businesses ignore or avoid the topic completely. Worryingly, AET is not viewed in the same light as other upskilling initiatives that, for example, lead to apprenticeships. Oftentimes, adult literacy and numeracy training is relegated to something that merely ticks boxes to comply with skills-development legislation. This while many South African adults, primarily of working age, still cannot read or write in English, the formal language of the workplace, because it is their second language. At the same time, basic maths skills continue to decline, exacerbating the problem.

Certainly, a lot of these older citizens are products of previous education systems. However, many are also young adults who have slipped through the strained schooling system.

“The problem is not going away as much as we all hoped that high functional illiteracy in business English that the country inherited in 1994 would have been resolved by now. Then there are the many young people who never finished school due to their circumstances. What future do they have without foundational skills? For example, to be eligible to learn a trade, you need to have passed English literacy and basic maths at least at a grade 11 level, although grade 12 is often preferred by companies that sponsor these apprenticeships. While our youth struggle to access higher education because of poor literacy and numeracy, industries are left with large skills gaps,” Letitia van Rensburg, a development specialist and strong proponent of AET, says.

Among the many highlights of Van Rensburg’s career as a human resources (HR) professional was participating in large programmes geared at equipping all low-level employees of a leading construction and mining equipment supplier with foundational skills. Between 2004 and 2009, most of the learners, spanning general blue-collar workers through to office cleaning staff, attained a GETC at a National Qualification Framework Level 1. Many of these individuals studied further to develop successful careers as blue or white-collar workers. They were able to access higher education options due to the high quality of the AET programmes that they completed.

Witnessing the confidence that these individuals gained once they could read, write, and do basic calculations was always a richly rewarding experience for Van Rensburg. The training also entailed so much more than just teaching workplace literacy skills. Illiteracy prevented these individuals from performing basic functions associated with daily life, such as personal banking and reading to their children or grandchildren or helping them with their homework. Individuals who completed this leg of their lifelong learning journey could participate fully in all aspects of daily life. The benefits of the training intervention could be felt by both learners and HR practitioners, alike. Throughout her long career, she has yet to encounter someone

who did not benefit from completing the programme, or businesses that did not realise a return from their investment in AET.

However, Van Rensburg acknowledges that all her AET assignments have required hard work and dedication, oftentimes more than other workplace skills development projects. In all instances, the end goal has been to empower people.

People who struggle with English literacy will seldom approach their employers for help because they lack confidence and self-esteem to do so; are ashamed of their predicament; or afraid that they will lose their jobs. Learners also need support and motivation throughout the programme. This is considering that many adults also have learning disorders which they mistake for a lack of intelligence. An inability to understand and retain course content is also due to low literacy in English. Even managers and supervisors make this assumption when members of their teams struggle to learn new skills. They still overlook the importance of foundational skills in facilitating further learning. Therefore, unskilled and low-skilled employees are registered on short courses with disastrous outcomes. This is because these employees have holes in foundational literacy and numeracy skills, restricting their ability to comprehend and retain information. These foundations need to be developed further or reinforced through targeted training interventions.

As Van Rensburg notes, there is no quick fix to the problem. “Learning is a journey for which we need to be prepared. It can be likened to taking a road trip. However, all too often these individuals are simply given the destination point with very little – if any consideration – given to how they’re going to get there, as well as known and unknown challenges that lie ahead. When the vehicle that they are using along the way breaks down because it was unable to make the trip in the first place, we give up on them. What we should rather be doing is fetching them along the way with a more appropriate learning-related vehicle and be prepared to travel the long journey with them, while also making allowance for the many disruptions that can be expected along the way,” she says.

Van Rensburg says that a well-planned and managed AET programme does exactly that, starting with an aptly termed “compass assessment”. By first evaluating these individuals’ skills level at that point, and determining where there are gaps, they can be shown the correct direction.

This is the mindset that businesses approached AET in the early years of democracy when high illiteracy was still considered a top priority. The private sector assumed a lead role by providing top quality adult literacy and numeracy training to millions of employees and members of communities.

With a high number of South African adults still functioning with low English literacy, both private- and public-driven AET have never been more important. This is especially considering the rapid digitalisation of the country. Technology is redefining functional literacy with millions of adults who cannot read, write, or calculate already falling behind.

“As HR practitioners we need to take their heads out of the sand and assume a lead role in closing the literacy gap for people to freely access higher learning path. We have a

responsibility to help these individuals and point them in the right direction, so that they can enter a life-long learning part. We should also be willing to take the hard and long journey with them,” Van Rensburg concludes.