Abstract
The world witnesses a rapid change as a result of the technological revolution thatshapes people's daily lives. This new lifestyle demands from 21st-century students new skills such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and computer skills. However, it is noticeable that literate people in Lebanon lack these skills which hinder their success at the professional and social levels. In this way, functional literacy is needed to help the literate to read, write, do calculations, and solve technical problems in the social and professional context. Therefore, this research conducted descriptive research on 100 EFL literate in the Beqaa using a questionnaire and a poll to test functional literacy level and to determine the challenges that prevent adult literates to act as functional literate in the 21st-century. The results affirmed that nearly half of EFL adult literates in the Beqaa district can act as functional literates, but the majority of them are at the intermediate level. The results also revealed that they need more improvements regarding developing English skills, technological skills, and numeracy skills. Thus, it is recommended to design training courses that develop functional adult literacy skills by presenting them in a procedure that depends on promoting communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and computer skills so that that the adult learners can substitute the gaps they missed in their educational systems and contribute in the sustainable development of the society
Highlights
Globalization changed people's lifestyle and their way of thinking. 21st citizens need specific skills to be accommodated with fast global changes
The participants are from different majors as they fluctuate between teaching, engineering, health, do not work, and humanitarian manager. 50% of them have a relationship between their education and job, while 36% did not have and the others sometimes. 66.7 % of them attend training programs and 78.3% of them affirmed their need for training programs in different majors especially developing communication skills, presentation skills, computer skills, methodology, etc
This descriptive research provides us with the status of functional literacy in Beqaa by answering the first research question: To what extent the EFL-educated adults in Beqaa are equipped with functional literacy skills? The poll and the questionnaire analyses revealed that 50% of the adult literate in the Beqaa were considered as functional literate and 83.3% of them were at the intermediate level
Summary
Globalization changed people's lifestyle and their way of thinking. 21st citizens need specific skills to be accommodated with fast global changes. According to Fadel and Trilling (2013), education in the developed world is working to match 21st-century skills. They asserted that the current age is experiencing a gap as a result of poor learning that did not meet the labor market needs. This sample is representative of the research objectives as 90% of our sample lives in the Beqaa district. All the participants are literate as 53.3% of them have a bachelor's degree, 23.3% are in the master or Ph.D. stage, 1.7% are university students, the others were either in technical or secondary schools They have different specializations (languages, science, nursing, technology, and business...). The participants are from different majors as they fluctuate between teaching, engineering, health, do not work, and humanitarian manager. 50% of them have a relationship between their education and job, while 36% did not have and the others sometimes. 66.7 % of them attend training programs and 78.3% of them affirmed their need for training programs in different majors especially developing communication skills, presentation skills, computer skills, methodology, etc
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
