The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) has called on the Government to provide more resources to tackle illiteracy in the workplace. Up to 400,000 Irish workers have literacy problems and the director of NALA, Ms Inez Bailey, says lack of basic skills is costing the economy millions of pounds.
No figures are available for the Republic but a Gallup survey of British industry estimates the cost of literacy problems there at over £4.8 billion. According to the survey, the cost to a company with 50 employees with literacy problems is £165,000.
Ms Bailey was speaking after the NALA annual conference in Dublin at the weekend, where details were announced of a number of workplace pilot schemes. These include a scheme for 200 general operatives in local authorities, another for 40 manual staff - many of them immigrants - in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, and a training course for 10 workers in the UDV Bailey plant. All schemes were oversubscribed.
The president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Ms Inez McCormack, has strongly backed the initiative and has called on the Government to give more resources at national level.
She said NALA volunteers had shown "great ingenuity and imagination" in tackling the problem at local level. This now needed to be applied at national level to meet commitments on tackling the problem in the PPF.
Workers on the courses will spend four hours a week for 20 weeks receiving tuition in small groups, or on a one-to-one basis. Computers will be used for the training, which will have other practical applications, such as teaching of first aid.
Employees will be paid during the course. Half the cost will be borne by the employer and half by the State.