Work with adult learners

Bakery worker reading on a breakDo you work with adults who want to improve their reading and writing skills? The Reading Agency supports practitioners from the library and learning and skills sectors to help them reach out to adult literacy learners and emergent readers - people who can read but have yet to develop confidence in choosing and reading books for enjoyment.

On these pages you can find out more about how we do this by following the links:

  • The Vital Link principles, developed with the National Literacy Trust, that support libraries and learning providers working in partnership
  • Evidence to demonstrate the impact of engaging learners in reading for pleasure.

We also have a set of practical tools and programmes for librarians and adult literacy tutors:

  • The Six Book Challenge is an annual programme to encourage new readers to develop a reading habit.
  • The new Find a Read database which showcases our pioneering work to identify not just books but websites, magazines and digital games suitable for readers from Entry Level to Level 2.
  • Our Quick Reads learning resources support tutors to use the Quick Reads titles that are issued each year as part of World Book Day. You can download these from our Quick Reads page.
  • Chatabout, an online network for people already running or wanting to run reading groups for less confident adult readers

We have extended much of this work to embrace adults at the lowest level of literacy as we're well aware that they are underserved at present. Thanks to funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, we've run a pilot to introduce reading for pleasure to Entry Level readers in three locations - Essex Library Service working with Essex Adult Community Learning, Birmingham Library Service at HMP Birmingham and Warrington Library Service linked to Priestley College. Words for Life: Reading for pleasure for adults at the lowest level of literacyoutlines this work and the impact evaluation carried out by the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (NRDC). We've also created a Words for Life Resource Pack drawing on the activities and ideas used by the three partnerships involved.

We have also been exploring the link between digital games, reading for pleasure and adult literacy and published Game On: Ways of using games to engage learners in reading for pleasure on this topic in November 2011.

Our work with adult learners is endorsed by the Society of Chief Librarians and is supported by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). It has also been supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (formerly DIUS) which has provided funding through NIACE for The Reading Agency to promote the use of reading for pleasure and links with libraries to the learning and skills sector. For 2011-12 this funding has been focused on the gaming project mentioned above.