Australian Council for Adult Literacy (ACAL) 2019 Conference
Sydney 3, 4 & 5 Oct Hurry – Early Bird Registration closes on the 3rd of August. This year the Conference is entitled: “Critical Re-imagining: adult literacy and numeracy practices for sustainable development”. Participants are invited to consider the role of adult literacy and numeracy education in promoting the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly Goal …
Visit to South Australia
Last week, The Hotline’s manager, Vanessa Iles visited Adelaide to meet with representatives from various LLN sectors to gather information on the courses on offer there. It is important that the Hotline staff remain up-to-date on the details of the courses that we refer our callers to, and hearing it ‘from the horse’s mouth’ is …
Community Colleges Australia Conference – Brisbane 19-20 November
This year’s conference theme is Expanding Possibilities, with a focus on how Australia’s not-for-profit community education providers are expanding how they serve their communities, in education, training and community services. More information about the 4 workshop strands and conference details are at: https://cca.edu.au/what-we-do/2019-cca-annual-conference/ The conference will include awarding the Community College Student of the Year award. …
Adult Learners’ Week 1-8 September
Adult Learners’ Week is a UNESCO initiative supported in Australia by the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training and coordinated by Adult Learning Australia. Adult Learning Australia (ALA) want to hear stories of the power of learning and how it brings life changing opportunities to people; with an emphasis on those who need a little …
Good News Story
A Rockhampton employer called the Hotline for urgent assistance to locate an LLN teacher/ tutor for a young Indigenous glazier apprentice who was struggling both on the job and in his studies, particularly in numeracy, and was not progressing in his apprenticeship because of this. The caller stressed that it was now rather urgent. The …
The greatest journey starts with a footstep.
Jim recalls his difficult school years, missing a lot of school due to illness and then having to leave school to become the family breadwinner when his dad died. “I lost a lot of time at school due to illness when I was very young…. this put me on the back foot regarding my high …
No more hiding in the background – Diannes story
Greg is one of a number of the Hotline teachers who work both on the Hotline and teach literacy to adults in various adult learning environments. From time to time this gives us the unique opportunity to follow up on one of the callers to the Hotline. Dianne’s story was one such story that Greg …
The Hotline event celebrations – State Library NSW
The Reading Writing Hotline celebrated its 25th anniversary with an event at the State Library NSW. What a wonderful day! Our brilliant guest speakers Lyn Wilson from TAFE NSW, Don Perlgut from Community Colleges Australia and David Riordan from City of Sydney each brought a unique piece of adult literacy history to the Hotline’s 25th …
It’s the Reading Writing Hotline’s 25th birthday!
The Hotline started in 1994 as a help line for the ABC’s ‘Reading Writing Roadshow’. Since then, we’ve answered calls from 160,000 people wanting to improve their literacy and change their lives. Three wonderful students shared their literacy journeys for our 25th anniversary. Thank you Langi, James and Nigel for helping us to open doors …
The Reading Writing Hotline Story
The story of the Hotline begins in 1990. This was International Literacy Year, and TAFE’s Adult Literacy Information Office (ALIO) was funded to trial a free literacy hotline. Soon after, the ABC started screening their adult literacy TV series, The Reading Writing Roadshow. The present Hotline was first set up by the Federal Government as …
A Critical Lens ACAL’s 2020 National Conference will place a critical lens on contemporary issues facing the field 20 years on from the launch of the transformational Multiliteracies Framework (Learning by Design). It will seek to respond to topics that continue to pose challenges for teaching and learning. The...
LLN educators play an important role in ensuring Australian democracy thrives, by providing education and training, particularly for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society. The Australian ACE sector and indeed the whole of the VET sector provides a great deal of value to support Australian democracy. Community...
In January we reported on the shrinking number of adult literacy and numeracy teachers in the field due to retirement, casualization of the workforce, policy changes and the closure of specialist tertiary training programs. Whilst Graduate Diploma courses are not currently offered by any university...
Wednesday 25 March, 2020 1:00PM – 1:45PM AEDT 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM ACDT where it’s being hosted but (check local times) This 45 minute ‘invitation only’ webinar will focus on the aspects of VOCEDplus that will support those working in the field of adult literacy/numeracy/foundation skills. VOCEDplus...
As part of its VET skills package, the Australian Government recently announced two new initiatives in the adult literacy space, starting in 2020. Foundation Skills for your Future Program More details Note:this tender has now closed for more information contact Employment-FoundationSkills@dese.gov.au This program focusses on employees who need...
Hotline Manager Vanessa Iles was also in Brisbane last month for a presentation at the fantastic CCA Conference. As usual, the conference was outstanding in bringing together really stimulating ideas and people from the adult learning and community capability worlds. Vanessa was also thrilled to...
The mid north coast of NSW has been the Hotline’s focus for a range of awareness-building and promotional activities in recent months, and was selected because it has relatively good adult LLN provision. The Hotline reached out to community centres, churches, libraries, clubs, service organisations...
Despite the fact that LLN is universally acknowledged as a vital underpinning skill for adults in all walks of life, it appears that qualified adult LLN teachers are becoming very hard to find. Specialist graduate qualifications in adult literacy/numeracy will not be offered by ...
The Hotline has held productive conversations with the Commonwealth to clarify guidelines around eligibility for outcome payments under the Transition to Work and ParentsNext programs, and other issues around SEE/AMEP. The Hotline has regularly been fielding calls from students, program providers, RTOs and community organisations...
Barry is an old shearer who was a 'ratbag at school' and never learnt to read and write properly. He said his desk was outside the principal’s office. He got to Year 7 but was always disruptive. Now he is finding day to day life difficult...