One of the few examples of an employment preparation program for adults with low literacy skills was an analysis of the program from an intellectual capital and critical education perspective. In his case study of the Cooking and Basic Skills (CABS) program, St Clair (2001) found that literacy was taught in the same way despite students' diverse employment goals; literacy instruction was separated from vocational instruction; literacy instructors had a lower status compared to vocational instructors; and at times there was animosity between the trades and literacy instructors. Based on Bourdieu's intellectual capital perspective and related concepts of social and cultural capital, St. Clair argued that the work of the literacy instructors was viewed as less important and valuable for several reasons compared to the work of the vocational instructors. To address the tensions between the two groups, the author suggested there should be a collaborative approach in which literacy and vocational skills are delivered simultaneously. In addition, instructors should work together to develop a curriculum that also addressed the "demands of the workplace and the needs of the worker", and broader measures of success needed to be developed. Although not stated specifically, St. Clair's findings may hint at the distinction between literacy and learning, similar to Zieghan and Quigley's findings. In addition, the need to have a collaborative approach between literacy and vocational skills that is directly connected to the needs of the workplace, fits into a sociocultural approach that will be fully explored in this study.

In her study of the language and literacy challenges experienced by adult learners in a pre–apprenticeship job–training program, Bell (2000) analysed literacy competency amongst both native and non–native speakers on English. Using the Luke and Freebody (1997) four–tier model of literate competency, Bell found that native speakers of English took longer to complete the program than non–native speakers and this may have been related to literacy challenges. More specifically, students experienced difficulties with three of the four literacy competencies: text–meaning practices (such as vocabulary); pragmatic practices (such as understanding the purpose of written text); and critical practices (such as critical analysis and questioning the content of text). She also found that those who learned initial literacy in a second language had lower success rates. For example, a student born in Canada who learned to speak Italian or Greek at home, then went to school and learned English was weaker than a student who had strong literacy skills in a first language before learning a second language. Bell suggested that job–training programs should better address the needs of changing workplaces, and teach literacy skills that go beyond the initial level of decoding.