As for “Basic Skills”…

Supplemental Business/Labour Survey

“If someone were to ask you what ‘basic skills’are, what would you tell them?”

NOTE: As many respondents gave more than one answer, percentages do not total 100%

The majority of employers and union representatives defined basic skills as reading and writing, numeracy and technical skills, and communication. Interestingly, employers were more likely to mention communication and union representatives were more likely to mention numeracy and technical skills.

“Lifelong Learning” Resonates…

• Respondents in the BC Leaders Survey were asked: “If someone were to ask you what the phrase ‘lifelong learning’ meant, what would you tell them?” Despite the expansiveness of the concept, virtually all of the respondents seemed comfortable with it and were clear and articulate about its meaning. While they used different words, they described “lifelong learning” in terms of an ongoing process and mindset and culture wherein people are empowered to and engaged in whatever learning or skills improvement they need or seek to fulfill their potential as students, family members, workers, or citizens – at whatever stage of life.

Adjusting Our Vision

The following are our reflections on what all of the foregoing implies in terms of future action around literacy and learning in BC:

3) Reconcile the “Disconnects” in Our Own Definitions of Literacy

Some of the murk around literacy is a result of the sometimes contradictory ways it is talked about. We recommend engaging educators and those in the literacy community in strategizing and agreeing on messaging that reconciles the two most problematic “disconnects” this consultation identified:

Firstly, there needs to be some way of reconciling grade level vs. continuum notions of literacy.