Literacy skills for participation in the labour market

https://www.zhaw.ch/en/linguistics/institutes-centres/ilc/news-und-events/participation-through-language/Increasingly complex life and work environments require a sustainable, research and practice-oriented approach for equipping students with general and professional literacy skills. Literacy skills and the definition of literacy has expanded from the original exclusive emphasis on reading and writing to a broader concept involving oral/multi-media/communication skills in general: “Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, express, create, and interpret concepts, feelings, facts and opinions in both oral and written forms, using visual, sound/audio and digital materials across disciplines and contexts. It implies the ability to communicate and connect effectively with others, in an appropriate and creative way.” (EU Kommission: 2018) In the symposium, we present and discuss Applied Linguistics-based approaches to investigate and promote professional literacy skills by addressing the following questions: Does vocational and educational training (VET) and profession-related language education bolster literacy skills relevant for the current labour market? What approach is needed to define relevant communicative competences in specific professional fields? What linguistic competences are cross-professional? Which teaching methods are effective? How far are these methods sensitive to learning cultures? And finally: To what extent do language competences really lead to better employability? The symposium provides good research practice examples of how the results of linguistic literacy research are transformed into sustainable solutions – solutions that benefit both the professional fields involved and society at large. It addresses methodological issues in the context of professional literacy research and critically reflects the relation between language ability and labour market integration