Angela Parkin is the manager Get SET (Skills, Education, Training) and Learner Intake for the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board Continuing Education Department. She defined literacy using the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies report of 2024. "Literacy is accessing, understanding, evaluating and reflecting on written texts in order to achieve one's goals, to develop one's knowledge and potential and to participate in society." She reviewed how socio-economic connections affect literacy. Things like generational problems where children of low literacy parents tend to have low literacy. Low literacy can lead to multiple low paying jobs that allow little extra time to improve skills in literacy. And poor literacy often leads to social isolation and challenges accessing financial opportunities. Studies indicate that 20-25% of adults are below the minimum literacy needed and that a 1% increase in literacy rates could improve economic output by 2.5% per worker or $80 billion in economic opportunity and at the same time reduce poverty in Canada.