Social capital theorists argue that participation in non-work contexts is an important determining factor of the quality of democratic life and civic society. Social capital is reflected in participation in voluntary associations, norms of reciprocity and trust, and networks of civic engagement. Just as literacy skills are a prerequisite to learn efficiently on the job, participation in civic society is necessary for developing civic skills. Voluntary associations and community activities are therefore important arenas for informal learning that can stimulate the development of new skills as well as preventing others from being lost due to lack of use. Strengthening community-based education and literacy programs should therefore be a prominent element of a strategy for life-long learning. There are community initiatives that could possibly bring a 'three-to-one' or 'two-to-one' return compared with other kinds of interventions. For example, a literacy program that emphasized parent training could potentially have three benefits: better care and literacy development for the participants' children; improved literacy for the participants, possibly leading to greater self-sufficiency; and, in the longer term, reduced health care and other social costs for both the participants and their children. Similarly, a literacy program for seniors that emphasized health and fitness could have a two-fold return. In order to assist those with low literacy skills, a strategy will have to be devised that reaches out and capitalizes on the strengths of communities and the voluntary sector.
The final element to be considered in a forward-looking literacy strategy concerns access to and use of information and communication technologies. Today that access and use are sharply delimited along lines marked by differences in education and occupation. But literacy ability is a factor behind both educational and occupational attainment. Building an inclusive information society therefore presupposes the building of a learning society that enables all citizens to acquire, maintain and develop their literacy skills. Thus literacy is the common element that links the information society, the knowledge economy and cultures of life-long learning.
Success in realising life-long learning—from early childhood education to active learning in senior years—will be an important factor in promoting literacy, employment, economic development, democracy and social cohesion in societies in which globalisation and the wide diffusion of information and communication technologies are still gathering momentum. This chapter has considered 10 tools and targets for a comprehensive strategy that seeks to improve literacy by encouraging all forms of learning, whether this occurs in schools, workplaces, communities or in daily life at home. It follows that an encompassing and system-wide approach will have to be built on the efforts of many actors: learners of all ages, parents, employers and social partners, voluntary and community organisations, educational institutions, and educational departments at various levels. But the wide range of literacy-related behaviors and education and learning activities that lie beyond the responsibilities of any single department, whether federal or state, make forging the required partnerships difficult. Many of the tools and targets described in this chapter fall, in one way or another, primarily within the province of the education authorities. The next chapter makes the case, briefly, that the literacy challenges require a coherent approach, one that seeks close connections among partners and a convergence among different departmental portfolios, including employment, immigration, social welfare and health.