Introduction

The roles and responsibilities of the Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) college practitioner are complex, challenging and demanding. These roles include but are not limited to:

• meeting the learning needs of an often hard-to-serve and diverse student population
• working with large multi- level classes and continuous enrolment
• applying the principles of goal-directed assessment
• collaborating in the development of training plans for all students
• employing effective instructional strategies based on principles of adult education, students’ individual learning styles and special needs
• selecting and developing appropria te learner-centred curriculum/materials
• participating in ongoing professional development opportunities
• contributing to ongoing program development and evaluation of the program
• attending to various administrative duties such as record keeping and reporting

LBS college practitioners face the additional challenges of keeping their own knowledge of the ever-changing field of adult literacy research current. How successfully new practitioners are trained for these demanding roles depends on a number of factors including their previous experience in the college setting, their experience with adult education and/or adult literacy, the quality and length of the ir orientation process, and their ongoing access to the program manager and other practitioners. Even under ideal conditions, there seems to be a huge amount of information for new practitioners to assimilate during their orientation.

The primary goal of the Orientation Guide is to help you, the new practitioner, maximize your orientation process. It is not intended to be a comprehensive or stand-alone training manual. Instead, it is meant to help you prepare for and supplement the orientation you receive from the manager and/or other practitioners.

How to Use the Guide

The Guide is divided into 8 units. The selection and content of the units are based on consultations with eight new college practitioners (with less than 2 years experience) and twenty-eight experienced practitioners (with more than 2 years experience). As a whole, the units provide important context/background information, statistics, terminology, organizational charts, websites, resources, checklists and most importantly, examples of practitioners’ roles and responsibilities. The objectives for each unit are clearly indicated and tasks related to the content are suggested.