Workplace trainers are often faced with the situation where a group of participants has wide ranging LLN levels. In these cases you need to balance the differing needs of the learners so that everyone receives the level of help they require.

For example, some learners may want to rush ahead - not necessarily because they're more knowledgeable about the subject matter or quicker at understanding new information - but simply because they are faster at reading classroom handouts or completing written exercises. Other learners may need more time and assistance to work methodically through the written material presented in class, and to write down answers to questions.

Again, it doesn't necessarily mean they are less capable of understanding the subject material or are slower on the uptake. It simply means that their LLN skills are poorer and therefore require more support.

Experienced trainers know that there is no direct correlation between literacy skills and raw intelligence.

This is especially the case with industrial trades and hands-on jobs, where there are many examples of expert operators who have excellent hand skills and mechanical aptitude but relatively poor literacy skills.

There are also many successful business people and public figures who have famously had to cope with dyslexia or other reading disorders.

As a trainer, you need to be able to pick up on the individual needs of different learners and deal with them without being condescending or treating the learners as lesser students. It is entirely possible that they may turn out to be among the star performers when it comes to the practical aspects of the training.

Presenting theoretical knowledge

There are particular challenges in presenting theoretical topics to learners with poor literacy skills, because the background material is almost always provided in the form of written text. However, the same general principles of delivery can be used with all learners in a group, regardless of their literacy levels. The only exception would be students who have severe difficulties and need intensive support from an LLN specialist.

For more suggestions on suitable delivery strategies for learners with poor literacy skills, see 'Hints for training operators' in Section 1 of this guide.

Assessment strategies

The fundamental rule in choosing or designing assessment tasks is to ensure that the LLN demands of an assessment event are no higher than the demands that would be placed on a 'competent' worker doing that job back in the workplace.

In the case of practical assessment tasks, LLN problems are not normally an issue because you can simply observe the candidate physically performing a task and tick off the performance criteria while you watch them.

But assessing the candidate's theoretical understanding or background knowledge is often not so easy. For suggestions on ways to test theoretical knowledge without placing an undue burden on the candidate's literacy ability, see the chapter 'Gathering evidence' in Section 3.