Workforce Literacy
Changes in the nature of work, requiring increased skills and training put individuals who cannot read at a severe disadvantage. Illiteracy also costs businesses and threatens the foundation of our democracy. A 1992 study by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), reported that individuals with higher levels of literacy were more likely to be employed, work more weeks in a year, and earn higher wages than individuals with lower proficiencies. The study also found that approximately 40-44 million adults performed in the lowest category for literacy proficiencies. The Association is committed to training and education and encourages work site instruction as well as supporting efforts to combat this problem.
Workforce Literacy Resolution
WHEREAS, a 1986 study by the U.S. Census Bureau on the low reading levels of the American workforce found that 27 million adult Americans cannot read, that the literacy skills of another 30 million are so limited that they read poorly and have difficulty coping with everyday activities, and that each year, 2.3 million people join the functionally illiterate population; and
WHEREAS, the cost of functional illiteracy to business is hard to measure, but some conservative estimates range in excess of $6 billion annually; and
WHEREAS, such a deficiency is not easily assessed by employers when selecting candidates for employment nor is it information readily or willingly revealed by employees for fear of ridicule and even job loss; and
WHEREAS, many workers affected by large scale terminations, plant closings, and technological changes in the workplace are disadvantaged by the lack of basic literacy, computation skills, and problem solving skills and are unable to successfully retrain for public or private sector jobs requiring different sets of occupational skills; and lack of such basic skills effectively blocks from participation in training programs many undereducated and disadvantaged persons thereby thwarting the aims of affirmative action; and most importantly
WHEREAS, an illiterate electorate jeopardizes the very foundation of our democracy; now therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the International Personnel Management Association endorses the proposition that instructional programs in basic skills preparation and remediation offered at the work site present an effective way to confront and overcome illiteracy at the workplace, and that agencies should encourage the provision of remedial reading instruction to be offered to their employees; and be it further
RESOLVED, that there is a need to establish closer relationships between public sector employers and agencies which provide literacy and basic academic instruction to adults in need of that instruction by forging regional and local alliances between public employers and the schools, vocational centers, colleges, libraries, community based organizations and volunteer agencies which provide literacy instruction to adults working through the state agency responsible for administering the Federal Adult Education Act; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the International Personnel Management Association and its affiliate chapters promote awareness of the problems of illiteracy in the workforce through programs at future meetings, workshops and conferences; and support efforts of the national association to effectively combat and mitigate this increasingly serious problem; and be it further
RESOLVED that the IPMA Executive Council shall determine the best method for implementing this resolution.