Learn with NALA – Introduction webinar

Slipping Skills in a Digital Age

The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) serves as Ireland's leading organisation tackling adult literacy, numeracy, and digital skills deficits. Recent data underscores why attention has sharpened: the OECD's 2023 Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), published in December 2024, shows a clear deterioration. Literacy at or below Level 1 now affects 21% of working-age adults, up from 18% in the prior cycle, equating to about 700,000 individuals who may struggle to read instructions, complete forms, or follow written health advice.

Numeracy challenges are even more pronounced for many, with 25% at low proficiency, complicating everyday tasks from budgeting to interpreting statistics. These figures matter because low skills correlate with tangible hardship: higher unemployment, reduced income, poorer physical and mental health, and lower trust in institutions. In Ireland's increasingly services- and tech-oriented economy, where even routine jobs require digital navigation, these gaps erode competitiveness and entrench disadvantage.

Policy momentum exists but faces headwinds. The cross-government Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) strategy, a 10-year plan run through SOLAS, aims to address unmet needs, backed by initiatives like NALA's 'Learn with NALA' e-learning programme, which earned one of three UNESCO Confucius Prizes for Literacy in 2025 for its flexible online support. Yet Budget 2026, announced October 2025, increased overall further and higher education spending but allocated no additional resources specifically for adult literacy, disappointing advocates who point to the OECD evidence and persistent barriers to participation.

Non-obvious tensions include the uneven impact across demographics—lower skills often concentrate among older workers, immigrants, and those with limited prior education—while adult learning participation has actually risen in Ireland over the decade, driven by non-formal job-related training. This suggests demand exists, but structural obstacles (time, cost, stigma, access) prevent many from closing the gap. Without renewed investment, the strategy's goals of universal basic proficiency risk remaining aspirational, particularly as digital exclusion compounds traditional literacy challenges in an AI- and online-services era.