
iRead4Skills D7.5 Policy Brief 1: Skills and needs data and analysis
Date: 23/07/2024
1. Introduction
Reading skills are essential to acquire technical and scientific knowledge. This is especially relevant in the
context of formal education and training contexts, as Adult Learning (AL) and Vocational Educational Training
(VET), and in practical and empirical work contexts, such as when companies provide information and/or
specific written instructions to their workers. However, promoting and motivating reading habits and skills in
adults is quite challenging due to the lack of dedicated and/or adequate reading materials.
Supporting the adoption and diffusion of innovation in adult training, the
iRead4Skills project aims to promote the development of reading skills
through an innovative intelligent system that evaluates texts complexity
and suggests reading materials adequate to the user reading level, which
can also be used by trainers in the creation or adaptation of texts with
the appropriate level of complexity for their individual students.
This means contributing:
- to upskilling and reskilling of people,
- to developing their flexibility and adapting abilities, including staying apace with new skills related to
technology, but also
- to new educational strategies related to formal education, responding to individual and social needs,
and boosting adults’ motivation and participation, and
- to innovative and inclusive education systems, using digital technologies to provide quality training.
The goals of this project focus on reading skills and are attuned with creating the conditions for the successful
development of skills matched to needs, responding directly to many
of the issues established in the European Skills Agenda for Sustainable
Competitiveness, Social Fairness and Resilience (EU 2021) and
contributing to several European Commission's policy priorities,
such as A Europe fit for the digital age, by empowering people and
educational systems with innovative and inclusive technologies, An
economy that works for people, by contributing to the European Skills
Agenda, or A new push for European democracy, by providing people
with skills that allow them to be more informed, to deal with
misinformation and to be more active and participating citizens.
By combining an interdisciplinarity team covering different fields of expertise such as ICT, Linguistics,
Economics and Education, the iRead4Skills project will provide groundbreaking research and innovation, going
beyond the current state of the art in several key areas:
Assessing the response to specific needs from the AL and VET communities involved and devising ways to
evaluate results to inform proposals for employers and policy makers.
The training difficulties of adult learners can range from basic reading skills to motivational factors. The
development of the iRead4Skills system goes beyond existing studies and tools due to its relational and
cooperative nature. Based on input from end-users and covering their real needs, the project will provide a
new way to assess the response of individuals, skill development institutions, and employers to issues on
reading skills and to gather data to inform policy makers on the conditions for the successful development of
skills. At this stage of the project, we have reach out and secured the involvement and cooperation of both
trainees and trainers in AL and VET and compile some interesting data on reading skills needs and preferences.
Literacy: oral reading fluency;
reading comprehension; spelling;
writing.
Reading Skills: reading fluency;
reading comprehension.
“Literacy and numeracy skills form a
Foundation for developing higher-order
cognitive skills such as analytic reasoning
and are essential for accessing and
understanding specific domains of
knowledge. In addition, they are relevant
across a range of life contexts, from
education and work to home, social life,
and interaction with public authorities.”
(OECD 2019:36)