Conduct assessments

Literacy task analysis

A literacy task analysis determines the literacy and related basic skills required for the tasks (reading a code or inputting data, for example) in a job. You can use the resulting inventory to identify gaps, where employees need skills upgrading. In some cases you will ask workers to assess their own abilities, either in general or as they relate to particular tasks.

Educators find such analysis useful when new job responsibilities arise because of technological change; when cross-training, promotions, and transfers become important; or when retraining older, experienced workers for new jobs.

A literacy task analysis can give a broad view of jobs, a detailed account of a job, or a comparison of jobs. Or it can examine a few key tasks. Different techniques (such as interviews, daily logs, task descriptions, task matrixes, flow charts) can meet different purposes.

A literacy task analysis subdivides work into discrete tasks with their requisite skills. As an information source for curriculum development, it fits well with workplace training, which deals with discrete tasks learned in a sequence.

Workplace education, on the other hand, demands a more holistic understanding based on the social and technical organization of work and the interrelations of tasks, people, and procedures. Therefore, we recommend that a literacy task analysis be used cautiously and always with an eye to how the entire workplace affects the jobs under analysis.

To set the scope of a literacy task analysis you must know the purpose and audience. You may need only an informal description of tasks from your learners and supervisors rather than a lot of data to be analysed and summarized. Ask yourself these questions before you decide on the breadth and depth of any investigation.