Check the language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) requirements of your learners

March 24, 2022 Sukh Sandhu

Check the language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) requirements of your learners

Assessing language, literacy and numeracy requirements before enrolling a student in a course is an important task for a training organisation. The best way to check the requirements is by using a Language Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) tool. An LLN Assessment helps you determine the language, literacy and numeracy levels of learners that you would like to enrol in your course. This will help you identify learners who need assistance and support and at the same time the suitability and appropriateness to enrol and complete a course.

All number of Standards, including clauses 1.2, 1.3b, 1.7, 1.8b, Standard 4, 5.1, 5.2b contain references to the RTO's responsibility to identify and respond to individual learner requirements. For more information, please refer to legislation.gov.au/Details

Suitability and appropriateness

One of the fundamental requirements for enrolling a student in a training program is to ensure the program is suitable for the student and meets the student’s needs and requirements.
For example, if a course requires you to read and understand complex texts but the learner has poor literacy skills, they will struggle to complete the course. Similarly, if a course requires the learner to use numbers and calculations but if the student has poor numeracy skills, they may find it difficult to complete the course.

Checking the LLN requirements of a course or training program before you enrol the learners will help ensure that they are able to successfully complete the training program.

Enrolment where LLN requirements are not addressed

There are a range of measures that can be put in place to help students when a gap in LLN is identified, including extra support and assistance from trainers and assessors, flexible assessment arrangements, and adaptations of the training and delivery methods and materials used. In other cases, the learners can also be advised to enrol and complete another course such as basic numeracy or a literacy program before enrolling in a course with your training organisation.

What is a validated LLN assessment tool?

The term, ‘validated LLN assessment tool’, has nothing to do with assessment validation. A validated LLN assessment tool is a diagnostic assessment used to ascertain a person’s language, literacy and numeracy skills.

Using a validated LLN assessment tool is a method of determining an individual’s LLN skill levels. It is usual for the Australian Core Skills Framework to be used as the basis to describe a individual’s performance in the five core skills: