Bob Traynor, a 46-year-old street sweeper, left school at 15 after completing his Intermediate Certificate. Even though he'd been working for Dublin City Council for 23 years, his early departure from the education system was affecting his confidence.
"There were about 40 in the class when I was in primary school and it was difficult to learn. You'd be afraid to put your hand up for fear of making a mistake," he said. "So I became afraid of the pen. And it had always been bothering me."
Traynor's circumstances changed when a representative from City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee (VEC) visited his Rathmines depot to sign up staff for adult learning courses aimed at helping council workers improve their knowledge of English, maths, computers and other basic skills.
"There was a queue forming outside the office, so I took the bull by the horns and signed up," Traynor said.
Traynor completed a series of courses, including the European Computer Driving Licence and Further Education and Training Awards Council (Fetac) level four in English, and has since been promoted to supervisor. His new computer skills came into play when the council computerised its bin tag system and his confidence grew as a result of his newfound zest for learning.
"Even the wife has taken up a 'return to learning' course. I recently found out that she had difficulties too and she left school even earlier than me," Traynor said. "Now we both fight over the crossword."
Almost 39 per cent of Dublin's population has not finished upper second-level education, according to City of Dublin VEC chief executive Jacinta Stewart. Nationwide, there are about 440,000 adults in the workplace with poor literacy skills, the National Adult Literacy Agency (Nala) says. Overall, just 6 per cent of Irish adults participate in lifelong learning.
Virtually every other developed country fared better than Ireland and the UK in the 1997 international adult literacy survey conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Indeed, the cost to industry of poor workforce literacy is at least €9.5 billion in the UK, statistics from the 1990s show. There are no figures available for Ireland.
While the Return To Learning programme for council workers and the Second Chance Key Skills programme in hospitals have proved successful, private companies have been slow to introduce basic education courses to the workplace. Recent research undertaken by Nala found that businesses had limited knowledge and understanding of workplace basic education.
The Government introduced a Workplace Basic Education Fund in late 2005 to finance training costs, which was seen as one of the major barriers by the private sector. The fund is being administered by Fás, the national training and employment authority.
"It's well established in the public sector, but private companies should take a leaf out of Dublin City Council's book," said Sue Ward, a Dublin VEC co-ordinator of workplace programmes.
Adult education at work is a relatively new concept in Ireland, though private sector programmes have successfully taken place at UDV (now Diageo), Smurfit Corrugated Cases in Dublin and Pauwels Trafel in Cavan.
Many employers may not even realise some staff members have literacy problems. However, low basic skills can undermine an employee's self-confidence, leading to workplace issues such as absenteeism, an unwillingness of staff to participate in training or take on different roles, reluctance to adopt new methods of working and technology, poor communication with customers and other employees, and a high staff turnover.
Companies that provide basic education to low-skilled workers save themselves thousands of euro, Nala says. Other benefits include increased quality and output, higher profitability, improved team performance, higher rates of employee retention, better relations between staff and management, a higher health and safety record, and organisational flexibility.
Employers' body Ibec has warned that Ireland is falling behind competitor economies in the provision of training and that this failure to plan and invest for the future will put jobs at risk.
According to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, which the Government has charged to examine the needs of tomorrow's economy, skills will be Ireland's most sustainable competitive advantage in the years ahead.
"Employers currently spend the most on people with the highest levels of education, such as by sponsoring master's degrees," Tommy Byrne, Nala's public relations officer, said. "But if we want to avoid skills gaps we have to start upskilling people who are packing boxes or cleaning so they can move up."
While more than 95,000 jobs were created in Ireland last year, many foreign companies are shutting manufacturing plants here in favour of cheaper locations in eastern Europe and Asia, creating a need for many workers to upgrade their skills to become more attractive to new knowledge-based employers.
