National programs and initiatives in workplace basic skills learning
Workplace basic skills trainings have been developed and evaluated during the last 20 years in many countries of the European Union and beyond e.g. Canada, New Zealand, USA, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland and Germany. In the framework of this OER unit there will only be a selection of programs and projects portrayed: New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Germany.
New Zealand
The Skills Highway has been established to help employers learn how workplace literacy and numeracy training can help them improve business performance. The Workplace Literacy and Numeracy (WLN) Fund is provided by the Tertiary Education Commission and manged by the Industry Training Federation.
Norway
The aim of SkillsPlus is to give adults the opportunity to acquire the basic skills they need to keep up with the demands and changes in modern working life and civil society. Skills Norway has the administrative responsibility for a programme directed towards developing basic competence for working life. The programme was established in 2006. Since then 30 000 participants received training at the workplace.
Switzerland
The Swiss national Program “Basic skills at the workplace” is funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SBFI). The program will be operating at from 2018-2024. The GO Modell is the conceptual basis of the implementation of trainings at the workplace. The Swiss Association of Adult Education (SVEB) developed and tested the model in three GO projects together with experts, adult education providers and companies.
Germany
Workplace learning in Germany can be approached through three projects and initiatives: AlphaGrund Bildung für den Arbeitsplatz, BasisKomPlus (Arbeit und Leben) and the Toolbox: Arbeitsorientierte Grundbildung (AoG). This section aims to give a basic introduction to the key materials of these initiatives.