NRLC
When our learners improve their literacy skills, their self confidence returns and their job prospects are greater. Improvement in literacy levels has a rippling effect which benefits families, employers, the local economy and society at large.
The need for literacy and essential skills training has never been greater. 42% of adults in Canada do not have the minimum literacy skills to cope with everyday life and work. Of those 42%, the 15% with lowest literacy levels have serious difficulty dealing with any printed material. Low literacy skills are directly linked to poverty, poor health and high unemployment:
WORK
- People with low literacy skills are about twice as likely to be unemployed for six or more months as those with higher skills.
- 50% of Canadian adults with low numeracy scores are 2.5 times more likely to receive social assistance compared with those with higher scores.
- Adults who scored at lower literacy levels only have a 50% chance of finding another job – even after 52 weeks of unemployment.
JUSTICE
- Offenders experience literacy problems at three times the rate of the general population. The average education level of newly admitted offenders serving two years or more is Grade 7.
HEALTH
- Some direct effects of living with low literacy include increased hospitalizations and misinterpreted medication instructions.
- Literacy skills are the strongest predictors of an individual’s health status.
POVERTY
- Between 22% and 50% of adults with lower levels of literacy live in low-income households compared with only 8% of those with high-level literacy skill.
Community Literacy of Ontario
Source: Laubach Literacy Ontario; Adult Literacy and Life Skills survey (Statistics Canada and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2005, ABC Canada, and North Bay Literacy Council’s Literacy and Health Project).