Surrey Board of Trade

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ASSESSMENT – LEARNING – TRAINING SUPPORTS

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/workplaceskills/essential_skills/general/home.shtml

The Surrey Board of Trade, located in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, is a member of the Surrey Mayor’s Task Force on Literacy. Our Board Directors and membership of more than 3,600 business contacts, believe in a Community Vision for Literacy and Essential Skills in Surrey and White Rock.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO BUSINESS?
If you were asked how many people over the age of sixteen in Canada are considered today to have low literacy (reading comprehension) and numeracy (calculating abilities) levels, what would you guess? Likely, your answer would be fairly low.

You would probably be shocked to find out that the number is forty-eight percent, and that twelve million people in this country have challenges reading and writing English or French. Even more concerning is the fact that it is not getting any better. It will reach fifteen million by 2031.

Literacy/numeracy in Canada and in the Canadian workplace is often overlooked and under-serviced. Literacy is an essential skill that an employee needs to be productive. The economic impact of low literacy levels is massive. If literacy affects productivity and potential – imagine the benefits of drastically lowering that forty-eight percent.

In Surrey, like many other cities, literacy issues can be traced to levels of education, learning disabilities or other socio-economic or medical reasons, but the majority revolves around the immigrant population and what is referred to as English as a second language (or ESL). More than 40% of Surrey’s population is immigrant based.

Consider the following questions that we came up with that link into literacy:
  • What does it cost to hire, orient and train a new employee then find out they don’t comprehend new knowledge and cannot correctly apply new knowledge?
  • If a worker is functionally illiterate, what does that cost in terms of safety, injuries and liabilities?
  • What is the cost of workers who cannot comprehend instructions for expensive and possible dangerous equipment?
  • There is a correlation of crime and the lack of essential skills. The average education of a prisoner in Canada is grade seven
  • Comments from a survey of Surrey Board of Trade members pointed to a generally held belief that our educators are not concerned with grammar and spelling and too readily rely on calculators while not paying nearly enough attention to the basics of education, specifically reading, writing and calculating (without electronic assistance), before moving on the other course materials of modern schooling
Literacy is important in all aspects of life. For business, and also for personal reasons…for instance the Surrey Board of Trade recently created a detailed paper on ‘Flu in the Workplace’ which speaks to what to do to avoid it, what to do if you have it – part of this refers to ensuring that your workers can understand, that is be literate, to understand instructions.

WHAT CAN BUSINESS DO ABOUT IT
You know it’s about raising awareness about literacy. We have the tools to fix it, we have the programs to fix it. Even being aware of the problem, in itself, is a major step in the right direction.

Remember, that the strength of our society is derived not just from our economic wealth, it is contingent, to an even greater level, on our intellectual capital. This is our potential to continue to grow and prosper.

For a link to the toolkit, visit this site: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/workplaceskills/essential_skills/general/home.shtml
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Surrey Board of Trade