Many adults face barriers in their daily lives due to low levels of literacy and numeracy, including social isolation and mental health issues. A significant body of research shows that with improved literacy and numeracy skills, Australian adults could better engage with society and play a more active role in our communities and in the workforce.
The State Library Victoria and Victorian Public Libraries have jointly published Reading and literacy for all: strategic framework for Victorian public libraries 2015–18, which includes recommendations on delivering adult literacy activities in Victorian libraries. These recommendations also include collaborative partnerships that seek to share resources and problem-solving capacity to ‘build strong, productive relationships across the education, community and business sectors to enhance and extend opportunities for … literacy development’.
Adult Learning Australia was consulted during the development phase of this framework and strongly supports the role that adult and community education (ACE) providers play in providing opportunities for adults to receive language, literacy and numeracy assistance. Most state and territory ACE strategies or policy statements also recognise the important of ACE in delivering language, literacy and numeracy programs.