Survey on service-sector workers with skill barriers

The National Skills Coalition is working on a report about service-sector workers who have limited reading, math, or spoken English skills. If you work with jobseekers or adult learners who fit this definition, we would appreciate your participation in this brief 6-question survey.

The survey focuses on two issues:

1) Barriers that service-sector workers encounter in doing their jobs because of their low basic skills. For example, a worker might struggle to understand food safety instructions if he can't read well, or he might avoid talking to customers if his English skills are not good.

2) Creative solutions or work-arounds that workers use to compensate for their skill gaps in order to do their jobs. For example, a worker might use her cell phone to take a picture of the order-input screen at her fast food job so she can practice the vocabulary at home. Or she might rely on her teenage son's help with Excel to generate her monthly sales report. 

We are looking for real life examples of these situations, focusing on people who work in retail, hospitality, food service, or entry-level healthcare jobs. Please take the survey and share your thoughts. 

Thanks on behalf of Amanda Bergson-Shilcock of the National Skills Coalition.