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Summer
Institute 2010: Workplace Literacy and
Essential Skills - What Counts? and Why?
June 28-30, 2010
Introduction:
What Counts, and Why?
The 2010 Summer Institute
brought together policy-makers,
literacy and essential skills
providers, and researchers to examine what is currently being counted
to evaluate the results of WES programs and whether
enlarging the frame of reference could lead to better outcomes for
workers, employers and the country as a whole.
This Institute followed
up on the 2009 Summer Institute, What
Works and Why.
At that Institute we learned that there is
significant literature about what makes
workplace literacy and essential skills (WES) program models effective,
but very limited long-term evaluation of the results for workers and
employers from these various models. We also heard about studies in the
UK and New Zealand that were examining longer-term impacts of such
programs. Since then, the UK and NZ studies have been completed and
come to somewhat different conclusions about the impacts.
The Centre has since begun baseline research on a three-year
OLES-funded project in
collaboration with Nova Scotia Labour and
Workforce Development and Workplace Education Manitoba. This project
will adapt the research model from New Zealand to capture and compare
quantitative and qualitative outcomes from workplace literacy and
essential skills programs in these two provinces that have invested in
these programs for two decades. It will also permit comparisons with
New Zealand.
Governments have tended to focus on reading and math skills, which
are tangible and testable. However, the first analysis from
the NZ study and preliminary work on the Manitoba- Nova Scotia project
suggest that growth or improvement in some of the skills and
competencies traditionally dubbed “soft” may
actually be good predictors of longterm impacts and important to
employers.
- What do employers
value most from WES programs?
- Why have studies in
the UK and NZ come to different conclusions about the outcomes of WES?
- How can some existing
tools be used to capture competencies that are not measured well by
standardized tests?
- How can we use
existing structures and mechanisms, such as labour market agencies and
intergovernmental tables to share current and emerging knowledge?
- How can apprenticeship
programs and workplace essential skills programs be better aligned or
work more collaboratively together?'
Presentations
Best
Practices
Cognitive
Disabilities
Confidence
Culture
Curriculum
Mentoring
Policy
Productivity
Program
Evaluation
Vocational
Training
Workforce Programs
(Pre-employment)
Workplace
Programs
Best Practices
What
works in workplace LLN programmes, presented by John Benseman
Cognitive
Disabilities
Adapting
Essential Skills Entry Requirements for Workers with Disabilities,
presented by Lois Peters and Saskia Stinson
Confidence
Catching
Confidence: The Tools and Process,
presented by by Dr. Janine
Eldred, Associate
Director, International, National
Institute for Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE)
- NOTE-
Double-click on the second slide to see the
video clip.
Culture
The
Importance of Culture, presented by Rick Hutchins
Curriculum
Success in the Workplace:
Curriculum for the Working Foreign Trained Professional, presented
by Laurel Madro, Bow Valley College
Understanding
Question
Structure in ES Curriculum, presented by Lynda
Fownes, SkillPlan BC
Mentoring
Six
Steps to Mentoring, presented by Kyle Downie, Skillplan
Policy
United Kingdom
Ten
Years and
Counting- The English Skills for Life Strategy,
presented by Jan
Eldred and Jim Pateman
Productivity
LLB,
skills & productivity: Close cousins or distant relatives? Looking
for the links, presented by John Benseman
Essential Skills &
productivity: Making the leap, by John Benseman
Program
Evaluation
Measures
of
Success: Workplace Literacy and Essential Skills Initiatives,
presented by Kathleen Flanagan (Project Manager), Sandi Howell
(Workplace Education Manitoba), Judy Purcell (NS Department of Labour
& Workforce Development), and John Benseman (Upskilling
Partnership
Program, New Zealand)
What Counts: Making the
Business Case to Industry, presented by Joanna Faulk, Canadian
Manufacturers and Exporters
Upskilling
- what did we learn?, presented by John Benseman
Vocational
Training
Changes in training
and skills development in the New Brunswick home care sector in
New Brunswick, presented by Rick Hutchins
Workforce
Programs (Pre-Employment)
Canada
An Integrated
Approach to Pre-Employment Service Delivery, presented by Randy
Lindsay and Tara Devreau of FutureWorx
Workplace Programs
Canada
Elevating
Workplace Literacy and Essential Skills - Focus: Health Care,
presented by Anthony Alfred, ABC Life Literacy Canada
WES
Training at a Senior Care Society in Alberta, presented by Elaine
Cairns, Further Education Society of Alberta, and Terri Peters-
Literacy Alberta
United Kingdom
Our
Lounge: Learning with McDonald's,
presented by Jim Pateman-
Tribal Group UK
United
States
English
Under the Arches, presented by
David Rosen, Adviser for McDonald's
Corporation, USA English Under the Arches Program
Health Care Learning
Network ™, presented by David Rosen, Newsome
Associates
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