The aim of this paper is to provide a brief critical analysis of the adult literacy curriculum as one element of the Skills for Life Strategy and to consider how it has been used to legitimise a dominant adult literacy policy based on economic and political rationales. The term critical has many meanings. Here it is used to explore how the adult literacy curriculum sits within wider historical, social and ideological structures. This paper analyses the document at both macro and micro levels, focussing on text, discourse practice and social practice, using both critical discourse analysis and critical language awareness. It argues that the curriculum has been developed as an instructional text to support the regulative discourse of skills and competency based training and education.