Vocational literacy and basic education

Illiteracy is a difficult topic in Germany, which is usually hardly discussed in public. But it is noticeably there. In Germany, it is estimated that 14% of the population is functionally illiterate. Most of these people are not recognizable as illiterate.

For many of these people, this situation is concealed, outwardly the reputation of communicating with one’s fellow human beings without problems is maintained. This is also our experience: Only after a stable relationship of trust could be established with those affected did the problem very often arise: The language skills ready to use, especially in writing, are not sufficient for communication! And in many cases, this applies to people with a migrant background, who have had hardly any learning success despite extensive language courses but a lack of learning experience. If they are still “trapped” in their culture, there will be little progress in acquiring the German language.

But even those born in Germany sometimes have glaring weaknesses in mastering the German language. Here, reading comprehension is often not sufficiently developed. There are also deficits in writing and in the area of basic education.

The state of Saxony provides funding for overcoming illiteracy in matters. We started 3 courses at the beginning and middle of the year on this basis. Our goal is to support the course participants continuously and in a goal-oriented manner to the extent that they develop their written language skills and basic education to such an extent that the opportunities for social participation are significantly improved.

Participants improve:

• their employability,
• their chances of integration into working life, and
• their general opportunities for social participation (culture, sports, community work).

We are aware that the group of participants will be very inhomogeneous. The existing, mostly rudimentary language skills will differ considerably in some cases and the learning ability will also be different.

Participants for whom German is a second language may be primarily illiterate. This usually means hardly any hand motor skills for writing and this is usually combined with a lack of learning experience.