Adult literacy levels - what do they mean?

Very few adults can be described as 'illiterate' - most will have some level of reading or writing skills, and strengths or weaknesses in particular areas. The Skills for Life adult basic skills strategy, launched by the Government in 2001, developed national standards for literacy, numeracy and ICT. Each framework outlines what an adult should be able to achieve at entry level (divided into three sub-levels), level 1 and level 2 or above. The frameworks recognise that an adult may be classified at an overall level of skill but have higher or lower levels of ability in different aspects of that skill - what has been described as an uneven or 'spiky' profile. The framework for literacy is outlined below. It should be noted that skills levels and tests for adult literacy refer primarily to reading skills, rather than writing.

Level	Literacy (reading) An adult classified at this level...	Equivalent to...
Entry level 1	- Understands short texts with repeated language patterns on familiar topics - Can obtain information from commons signs and symbols	National curriculum level 1
Entry level 2	- Understands short straightforward texts on familiar topics - Can obtain information from short documents, familiar sources and signs and symbols	Level expected of a seven-year-old (national curriculum level 2)
Entry level 3	- Understands short straightforward texts on familiar topics accurately and independently - Can obtain information from everyday sources	Level expected of an 11-year-old (national curriculum levels 3-4)
Level 1	- Understands short straightforward texts of varying length on a variety of topics accurately and independently - Can obtain information from different sources	GCSE grades D-G (national curriculum level 5)
Level 2	- Understands a range of texts of varying complexity accurately and independently - Can obtain information of varying length and detail from different sources	GCSE grades A-C (national curriculum levels 6-8)

These levels descriptors are taken from The Skills for Life Survey: a national needs and impact survey of literacy, numeracy and ICT skills, published by the Department for Education and Skills in 2003.