There is help for the many adults who have inadequate literacy skills and who want to take vocational adult education and training. A new evaluation concludes that word and rain workshops improves low-skilled adults opportunities to achieve the goals of their education while they break down taboos.

Kirsten educate themselves to data technician. She always had a hard math, but find that it helps to get a word and rain workshop because she gets the help with math tasks she needs. Kirsten has made a special arrangement with her employer that she is free every Wednesday morning, where she has an appointment with the teacher in word and rain workshop. "Without the help I would never be able to do the math," she says. Kirsten is one of many who in recent years have taken advantage of an attempt by word and rain workshops on vocational education. Here adults offered individually tailored support and training in reading, writing and mathematics while they participate in their education. There is first of all talk about help with academic tasks but also help for example job applications. The users are either at AMU courses, for example in food hygiene or take vocational training such as data technician or carpenter organized for adults. The trial has lasted four years. An evaluation by the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA) concludes that the offer of word and rain workshops make a positive difference for users, so that more school leavers with literacy and numeracy problems can complete and pass tests in vocational adult education and training. Participants in the workshop are typically people who need to brush up on their schooling, which is verbal or talblinde or are bilingual, who have insufficient skills in Danish as a second language. Some users also have negative experience of going to school. Three quarters of users are from AMU. It is particularly men between 25 and 54 years in a labor market training using workshops. In 2008, a quarter of the workshop users bilingual. The evaluation highlights the need to work very systematically with recruitment for the workshops. One of the things that have the greatest effect is that educational institutions systematically screen the participants to uncover their literacy and numeracy skills. It also helps to break down the taboos about having problems with reading and arithmetic. Evaluation concluded that bring pleasure to Education Minister Bertel Haarder. "It is important that everyone gets an education, and it should be no obstacle that you are not particularly good at figuring or read. As we can see, that aid works, then it is certainly worth considering to make these arrangements and rain workshops a regular part of vocational adult and continuing education, "he says. All the nine schools that are part of the trial, want to continue the activities, and the Ministry of Education is now investigating the possibility of being able to make the offer on the system and rain workshops on vocational adult education permanently. Source: Ministry of Education