Transition Readiness Paths

Given the above, this project identified the new concept of Transition Readiness Paths (TRPs). The criteria defining the TRPs included:

  1. Learner Goal
  2. Level (e.g., LBS, Essential Skills)
  3. Learning Profile (Strengths and challenges of learner)
  4. Next Step Expectations (The essential skills, soft skills, knowledge, aptitudes, behaviours, proficiency, and fluency that learners need in order to go into the area they want to go into and that link with the intake and outcomes of other key players in the training delivery system.)

Given the paradigm shift, the skills required to transition out of each TRP will need to be described, and in many cases will involve skills outside of the LBS program. The additional skills will include personal attitudes, behaviours, and other proficiencies that when mastered, will enable the learner to move on.

In addition, as stated by EFF, “What adults need to know and be able to do to meet the demands of life in the 21st century involves a broader range of skills, more complex skills and deeper content knowledge”. This does not mean that LBS practitioners will need to become proficient in teaching these additional skills but that the LBS system will now need closer relationships with and referrals to other agencies that can teach the additional skills and consider closer articulation with models like Essential Skills.

The TRPs also have the potential to bring agencies together to develop common curriculum, best practices and measures that will allow for relative comparisons among agencies who train learners for the same TRP.

In consultation with literacy practitioners, the project identified the following initial TRPs.

  1. Personal Goals/Foundation for Literacy
  2. Direct to Work
  3. Training to Work/Apprenticeship/Co-Op
  4. Further Education

LBS will need to consult with the other central players in Ontario’s training system to determine how the TRPs fit their intake and outcomes and to bring better skill attainment measures into the system.

Assessment Approach

Given the many uses made of assessment, the difficulties in using the matrix and the fact that practitioners developed most of the approaches to assessment in Ontario, LBS agencies now use a variety of assessment tools and methods. As mentioned, the assessments lack a firm and common theoretical foundation (except for the learning outcomes) and are not standardized with respect to their administration and assessment protocols; nor has there been any strong consideration for the psychometric quality of the tools being used.