- When: Thursday 4 June 2026 @ 1:00pm AEST
- Duration: 1 hr
- Cost: FREE for ALA members | $65 non-members
About the session
This webinar explores how global capitalism, digital disruption, and changing worlds of work have reshaped how we understand language, literacy and numeracy (foundation) skills in Australia.
The session invites critical reflection and discussion on how today’s foundation skills landscape increasingly positions learners as consumers and what this means for practice, policy, and the future of adult education.
Garry and Peter are co-authors of the book: On the Problem of Foundation Skills and the Futures of Work, Series, Global Education in the 21st Century, Volume: 13
Book link: https://brill.com/display/title/71873
This book provides an analysis of how global capitalism, digital disruption, and new worlds of work have reshaped ideas about language, literacy and numeracy (foundation) skills in a neoliberal foundation skills apparatus in Australia since the 1980s.
Scroll down to register and learn more about our presenters.
Dr Garry Argent
Garry is a lecturer in the School of Education at Deakin University, Australia, in initial teacher education programs and vocational education.
His research focuses on the role that education, language literacy, numeracy (foundation) skills and vocational education play in the lives of various groups such as the culturally and linguistically diverse, people with a disability, young people and displaced workers.
He has also worked as a teacher in the fields of language, literacy, numeracy, and vocational education for over 20 years.
Peter Kelly
Peter is a Professor in the School of Education at Deakin University, Australia, in initial teacher education programs. He is a co-founder of the Young People’s Sustainable Futures Lab a Not-For-Profit incorporated association (YPSFL – https://youngpeoplesfutureslab.org ). The Lab partners with young people, educators, employers and policymakers to co-design and test interventions that strengthen wellbeing, learning and transitions into work.
He is a social researcher who has published extensively on young people and new cultures of education/work/democracy in the context of the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis/COVID pandemic, the emergences of artificial intelligence, and with the challenges associated with the climate crisis.