For the purposes of CIPMS, the term “clients” refers to individuals or organizations without whom literacy agencies would not be in business. Literacy agencies are considered to have three client groups: learners, information and referral agencies, and the funder. We measure learner satisfaction through the learner exit survey. Of course, we can also use other ways to measure it, for example, during follow-up interviews. Effective information and referral are also part of customer service. We can measure that by following up to find out if people were referred to the right agencies, both from the client point of view and from the agency point of view. We measure funder satisfaction through annual program monitoring. Our annual visits and reports to MTCU let them know if we are doing what we are contracted to do.

Service coordination refers to the agency's success in linking literacy services with other service supports. This will be measured by the percentage of participants referred to services as well as those referred from other organizations. Working with our Employment Ontario partners as well as other community partners will be important in terms of measuring service coordination.

Learner Skill Attainment

Learner Skill Attainment (LSA) is one of the nine core draft measures being developed as part of the Continuous Improvement Performance Management System.

Presently, learner skill attainment is captured across the five literacy levels using a variety of assessment tools and methods and reported electronically through the Information Management System (IMS). In order to make the language of learner skill attainment more transparent to all partners in the broader Employment Ontario spectrum, MTCU is exploring the use of the Essential Skills/International Adult Literacy Survey scales as a common assessment language for all stakeholders. Currently, MTCU is focusing on three of the nine nationally recognized Essential Skills: Reading Text, Document Use and Numeracy.

Learner skill attainment describes learning outcomes in terms of what a learner will be able to do or where a learner will be able to go at the completion of his or her training. Through LSA, learner gains in skills and knowledge will be described in such a way as to be meaningful to key stakeholders such as Apprenticeship, Job Connect, Adjustment Advisory and Ontario Works.

In winter 2007, MTCU funded 17 projects to research and explore learner skill attainment in Literacy and Basic Skills. Representatives from the 17 funded projects and participants from all literacy streams and sectors were invited to participate in the Learner Skill Attainment Workgroup led by MTCU.