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Issue Eighteen July 2010

 

← Releases 19 August 2010 | Home Page | Issue Seventeen May 2010 →

In this newsletter we announce the release of two new reports adult literacy and numeracy in New Zealand, outline our upcoming reports, draw your attention to the draft Knowledge and Skills Domain Plan and highlight some conference papers of interest.

Adult Literacy and Numeracy in New Zealand: key factors and a regional analysis

Two complementary reports have just been released using data from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills survey. The first report identifies three key factors which can account for a large part of the variation between people in their literacy and numeracy skills: completed education, language background and computer use. Computer use was strongly associated with higher literacy and numeracy, especially the combination of work and home computer use. There was a large overlap between the groups of people with low literacy and low numeracy, and the group of people who did not use a computer at work.

The second report investigates whether there were geographical concentrations of people with higher literacy and numeracy and with low literacy and numeracy. The report finds that the factor which most closely paralleled the regional distribution of literacy and numeracy was the percentage of people in a region using a computer at work.

Both reports are available on the Education Counts website:

• Adult literacy and numeracy in New Zealand - Key factors
• Adult literacy and numeracy in New Zealand - A regional analysis

Upcoming reports

We will shortly be releasing a report comparing Modern Apprenticeships with industry training. The report looks at factors associated with completing Modern Apprenticeships and other forms of industry training, and matches the characteristics of provision and trainees to make a comparison between them.

We are finalising a report on the outcomes of tertiary education using the recent New Zealand General Social Survey (from Statistics New Zealand), that covers social, economic, health and environmental outcomes.

A further report in our series of studies on the transition from school to university will be published soon. This report addresses the question of whether particular school subjects are associated with better performance at university.

The annual Profile and Trends report for 2009 is in the final stages of compilation and design. The report will be released by mid August. This is several months earlier than in the past and responds to requests from our readers for the report to come out sooner.

Knowledge and Skills Domain Plan: 2010 – draft for consultation

Statistics NZ and the Ministry of Education have worked together to develop a draft Knowledge and Skills Domain Plan to inform Statistics NZ’s work in this field. The process to develop the plan involved consultation with a range of organisations – both producers and users of statistics – and Statistics New Zealand now seeks submissions from data users and people with an interest in knowledge and skills related policy or research.

This domain plan specifies data needs in the areas of: level and distribution of knowledge and skills; attitudes and participation; background influences; pathways and transitions; outcomes of knowledge and skills; and research and knowledge creation. Though there is a wide range of official statistics about knowledge and skills, there are gaps in the statistical information base and prioritised recommendations are made for filling gaps.

The plan is part of the Programme of Official Social Statistics, which identified knowledge and skills as one of 12 topics of importance for individual and societal well-being requiring development for statistical information purposes.

The draft plan and suggestions for feedback are available on the Statistics NZ website. The submission period runs until close of business on Friday 20 August 2010. Submissions and questions should be sent to knowledgeandskills@stats.govt.nz.

From the conferences

A set of three papers on business strategy and skills in New Zealand will be presented at the New Zealand Association of Economists annual conference at the end of this month. These papers cover work commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Development looking at the determinants of skills shortages, business strategies and training decisions. The papers have been posted on the conference website under “Concurrent Session 2”.

The papers from the New Zealand Workforce Literacy and Numeracy Forum hosted by the Industry Training Federation on 10 June 2010 are now available on their website.

← Releases 19 August 2010 | Home Page | Issue Seventeen May 2010 →