Northern Territory Adult Literacy And Numeracy Best Practice

What is the program?

Training providers across the Northern Territory were interviewed for the purposes of this project. Summaries of each literacy and numeracy program are outlined below:

Building pathways to employment

Case Study 1 Partnership of training providers, remote school, a national park and an Indigenous-owned hotel

Designed as a ‘pathways program’ to re-engage disassociated youth (aged between 15-19 years of age and living in remote areas), this literacy and numeracy program included three different training phases. These phases were:

General education classes, based on improving literacy and numeracy in the context of the defensive driving course, including the theory required to obtain a Learners licence
Structured work experience, eg traineeships at a local Indigenous-owned hotel, or employment as Junior Rangers in the region’s national park, and
First Aid certificate.

Educational facilities to support the program consisted of an Area School which caters mainly for children from Pre-School to Year 10, although in recent years more options have become available to senior secondary-aged students.

Case Study 6 Medium security prison

This literacy and numeracy program is part of a specific short course in Deckhand skills, which is taught as part of the Certificate II in Seafood Industry. The students are Indigenous male prisoners in a medium security prison. Units of competency are chosen according to the practical issues involved with on-site delivery in a medium security prison. There are two courses with twelve (12) students each, of which fourteen (14) have completed the course requirements.
Two lecturers conduct the program – one delivers five hours per week practical training and the other provides literacy and numeracy training and support. Individual Learning Plans (20-25 hours) form part of the program and are delivered from 3.5-4 hours per week to improve literacy and numeracy.
Students must be able to complete 110 hours of training, therefore no short-term prisoners are included. It is preferable that the students originate from communities on the coast or near large rivers, where skills developed as a result of the training may lead to future employment.

Case Study 12 Indigenous Employment Management Board

Local Indigenous youth benefit from literacy and numeracy training programs offered by an Indigenous Employment Management Board at this remote island location. Students are offered support, appropriate training and gain skills that link with ‘real jobs’. Training and employment opportunities are based locally. Related programs such as Accelerated Literacy in schools provide local Indigenous youth with basic literacy and numeracy skills which the trainers then build on.

Meeting community needs

Case Study 2 Workplace English Language and Literacy in Arnhemland

In literacy and numeracy training programs based in Arnhemland and funded by DEST-WELL grants, four trainers from a university regional centre flew into remote locations on a weekly basis to conduct training. Programs focused on the delivery of literacy in the context of employment opportunities through a local community-based employer. At first, three Outstations were involved, but this increased to five in response to requests from the Outstations’ occupants.
Outcomes were identified at the commencement of the program by staff at the community-based Association in conjunction with the local Outstation inhabitants. This ensured that local needs and employment literacy and numeracy requirements could be met. An additional program involving school-based apprentices at the local school also commenced and costs of travel were shared between the school and the university training provider. Students included Indigenous youth on homelands and communities surrounding this remote location in the Northern Territory.

Contextualised learning through on-the-job training

Case Study 3 Administrative training for Indigenous staff at a national park

This literacy and numeracy program began as a partnership arrangement between a university regional training centre and a national park. The training program aimed to assist the national park’s Indigenous staff, as well as trainees involved in a local Youth Employment Scheme, to become proficient in the national park’s Governmental internal administrative procedures and processes. Task competencies to be achieved as part of this training included:

Forms
Protocols
Email
Excel spreadsheets

All resources used in the delivery of the program were in current usage by national parks staff in their daily tasks, so the literacy and numeracy training was immediately useful and contextualised.

Case Study 7 A partnership in the metalliferous mining program

Literacy and numeracy training forms part of the Certificate III and IV in Open Cut and Processing conducted on-site by a large mining company in a remote location in the Northern Territory. Students are employees and Indigenous trainees at the mine.

Case Study 9 Indigenous health workers course

Literacy and numeracy training is offered by this prominent Indigenous health organisation as part of an 18-month health worker course. Students are predominantly mature-age Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people with a literacy level of at least Year 10. They graduate from the program as Aboriginal health workers after completing 400 hours of clinical training, the highest requirement in Australia. Health worker trainers often have nursing backgrounds and assist in contextualising the literacy and numeracy training to be job-specific. Interstate applicants for health worker jobs in the Northern Territory are carefully screened and provided with additional clinical training by this organisation, if required.

Case Study 11 Registered training organisation (industries-related)

Literacy and numeracy skills are improved during a Building Construction training program, including skills for using heavy machinery and transport. This training provider is located at a state-of-the-art training centre with specially constructed classrooms and workshops as well as outdoor space, enabling all training to be delivered on-site. Apprentices across a range of fields participate in self-paced training in the classroom two days per week and on-the-job training three days per week. The training provider integrates literacy and numeracy within each program. This ensures that learning occurs on-the-job and is contextualised.

Tailored Literacy and Numeracy training

Case Study 4 Indigenous Employment Program at Indigenous-owned hotel

Literacy and numeracy training formed part of this Indigenous Employment Program based in an Indigenous-owned hotel at a remote location. This program initially ran full-time for 13 weeks and students graduated with a Certificate II qualification in their chosen field. Traineeships were offered in Tour Guiding, Hospitality, Business Studies, Horticulture and House-keeping. Students included local and non-local Indigenous people.
The program had three intakes according to different expected levels of literacy and numeracy. Students had to meet literacy and numeracy pre-requisites for Group 1 (Tour Guiding) and Group 2 (Hospitality, Business Studies and Horticulture). There were no literacy and numeracy pre-requisites for Group 3 (Hospitality and Horticulture). Assessment tasks were practical instead of theoretical and the program included developing skills in banking, personal finances, getting to work, time management, washing clothes and uniforms, attendance issues and nutrition.
Literacy and numeracy levels of the thirty (30) trainees were assessed by the university (as training partner with the hotel) when they entered the program. Results for the current program indicate that trainees ranged across literacy levels 1, 2 and 3. Students attended one day per week of literacy and numeracy training at the local university regional centre.

Case Study 5 Indigenous traineeships in a National Park

This training program involves traineeships aimed at Indigenous young people, aged 16 years and over, who have not had any schooling for 18 months. Trainees spend four days per week in employment with various local employers, including an Indigenous-owned hotel and a national park. On the remaining day, trainees attend the local university regional centre for training towards the Certificate II in Conservation and Land Management. Half of this day involves intensive literacy and numeracy training, which is tailored to each individual student’s skill levels. IT training is integrated within the program delivery.

Case Study 10 Registered training organisation (business-related)

Literacy and numeracy training is offered by this registered training organisation (RTO) to a diverse range of students enrolled in the Certificate III in Business Administration. The RTO offers this qualification on behalf of the NT Government as part of a ‘jobs plan’ arrangement. Over one hundred (100) students, ranging from school-age to mature-age, participate in on-the-job apprenticeships and traineeships, and school-based apprenticeships, in major urban centres across the Northern Territory. The qualification is delivered in a mixed mode basis over a 12-month period with three weeks on-the-job followed by one week off-the-job.
The RTO is directly engaged in the recruitment selection process, in conjunction with DCIS. As a result, the training provider has a reasonable upfront knowledge of each student’s literacy and numeracy levels and can therefore plan to provide additional support for individual apprentices and trainees as required. Feedback from supervisors and third party reports is also taken into account.
Literacy and numeracy assistance involves trainers working with students on a one-to-one basis or in small group sessions. As the course is delivered in mixed modes, it is flexible enough to allow for this extra assistance to be incorporated within the ‘week off’ blocks where necessary. Supervisors of the NT Government program are generally very flexible and if apprentices need to do additional intensive work, it is also possible to withdraw them from the job for short periods.
Reasonable levels of literacy and numeracy are required to complete the Certificate III in Business Administration in the NT Public Service. In this case study, the RTO has achieved a student completion rate of 92-96% over the last three years, almost double the normal completion rate for apprenticeships. The RTO considers that this success is due to the following factors:

Training is delivered in mixed modes with scheduled off-the-job time which students can use for intensive study in particular areas.
The RTO has a contract to manage the apprentices so they are visited by field staff on a monthly basis and individually tracked, with a view to assessing students’ ongoing performance and providing assistance or additional training where required.
This intensive level of mentoring allows training staff to stay in touch with the issues and needs of individual students during their apprenticeship. Early identification of literacy and numeracy issues is one area in which this personalised approach works very effectively.
There is also a high level of peer support built into the program. Apprentices work together on projects or individual work to assist and support each other.

Training partnerships to improve outcomes

Case Study 8 Private religious schools

Literacy and numeracy training at a group of private religious schools follows a mainstream path that complies with the NT Curriculum Framework to Year 10 and beyond. Post-compulsory education past Year 10 involves provision of Vocational Education and Training (VET). The governing religious organisation supporting fifteen private schools across the Northern Territory (ten urban schools and five remote schools) believes its quality business is to assist students to achieve success. This can involve supporting students along a number of pathways to employment, including formal academic studies, new apprenticeship programs, VET and other applied learning pathways. The organisation also supports tri-sectoral arrangements involving the Department of Employment, Education and Training (NT DEET) and other key players in the Northern Territory’s education system. These arrangements include professional development initiatives for teaching staff. One private school in a remote community has introduced Health PE and VET courses in partnership with a university to assist Indigenous students to achieve job-ready skills.