Tag: adult education

New iRead4Skills Policy Brief Highlights the Impact of Literacy on Employment

Written by iread4skills on February 27, 2025. Posted in News.

The iRead4Skills project has released a new Policy Brief focusing on the importance of reading skills for lifelong learning and employability. The report, based on surveys conducted in Portugal, Spain, and French-speaking countries, reveals how literacy challenges affect daily life, professional opportunities, and digital inclusion.

Low Literacy Affects Employment and Confidence

The study found that 70% of participants felt more self-confident after improving their reading skills, and 65%reported feeling better prepared for the job market. However, many adults still struggle to understand complex documents, including rental contracts and medical leaflets, highlighting the need for clearer communication in essential services.

Key Policy Recommendations

The Policy Brief proposes several measures to improve literacy support:

Simplifying public documents through plain language initiatives.
Creating real-world learning materials tailored to adults’ daily needs.
Training adult educators (AL/VET) in digital literacy tools to enhance reading support.

The findings reinforce the need for stronger literacy policies that connect reading skills with digital and employment opportunities, ensuring a more inclusive society.

🔗 Read the full Policy Brief here: https://zenodo.org/records/14936989

New iRead4Skills Deliverable: Annotated Corpora by Level of Complexity for FR, PT, and SP

Written by iread4skills on February 5, 2025. Posted in News.

We are pleased to announce the release of Dataset 2: Annotated Corpora by Level of Complexity for French (FR), Portuguese (PT), and Spanish (SP). This dataset is a collection of texts categorized by complexity level and annotated for complexity features, presented in Excel format (.xlsx). The corpora were compiled and annotated under the scope of the iRead4Skills.

Dataset 2 is derived from the previously released Dataset 1: Corpora by Level of Complexity for FR, PT, and SP (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10055909), which consists of written texts of various genres and complexity levels. A sample of texts from Dataset 1 was selected for classification and annotation, providing additional data and test sets for the complexity analysis systems in the three project languages.

Data Collection and Annotation Process

The classification and annotation tasks were carried out through a structured methodology:

Texts were distributed to Adult Learning (AL) and Vocational Education Training (VET) Centres, where trainers and students participated in classification tasks.
The classification was conducted via the Qualtrics platform, ensuring a standardized approach.
Participants assigned texts to one of four complexity levels:
- Very Easy (140 texts) – Easily understood by all.
- Easy (140 texts) – Understandable for those with less than 9 years of schooling.
- Plain (140 texts) – Readable at a 9th-grade level.
- More Complex (42 texts) – Challenging for individuals with a 9th-grade education.

For full details on the annotation process, data descriptions, and inter-annotator agreement, refer to the documentation available at Zenodo.

iRead4Skills featured on EPALE – Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe

Written by iread4skills on January 31, 2025. Posted in News.

We are delighted to appear on EPALE, a European, multilingual, open membership community of adult learning professionals, including adult educators and trainers, guidance and support staff, researchers and academics, and policymakers.

EPALE is part of the European Union’s strategy to promote more and better learning opportunities for all adults. The platform supports and strengthens the adult learning professions by enabling members to connect with and learn from colleagues across Europe. It provides a space for knowledge exchange through blog posts, forums, and the Partner Search tool, complemented with physical gatherings. EPALE also offers high-quality, accurate information relevant for adult learning practitioners, fostering engagement and collaboration within the community.

We are pleased to share an insightful interview with Raquel Amaro, the coordinator of the iRead4Skills.

Q&A highlights

What are the goals of this international project?
The iRead4Skills project is dedicated to enhancing adult reading skills by developing an automatic system capable of assessing text complexity. This system will help individuals find suitable reading materials or assist in the creation of such materials. Ultimately, the goal is to bridge skill gaps, improve professional competencies, and enhance access to information and culture for vulnerable and often overlooked populations.

How has it been to work with experts from different nationalities and disciplines?
Collaborating with a diverse, international, and multidisciplinary team has been both rewarding and inspiring. It brings challenges, as different perspectives and expertise must be integrated, but this also results in stronger outcomes. The iRead4Skills project is particularly enriching as it combines knowledge from computational sciences, information technologies, education, social sciences, and humanities.

How can the project contribute to adult literacy improvement across Europe and globally?

Our system is designed to be easily accessible and freely available to trainers, librarians, publishers, and individuals with low literacy skills. By offering tailored reading recommendations, we aim to make reading more engaging and less discouraging. The ability to choose materials that match one’s reading level is crucial for motivation and success, whether in educational settings, informal learning environments, or workplaces. Currently, the system covers Portuguese, French, and Spanish, benefiting speakers of these languages worldwide.

Read the full interview on EPALE: https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/blog/iread4skills-interview-raquel-amaro