The Skill Set Design process of Bridging the Gap is somewhat unique. A Curriculum Designer at the College (Walter Smith) had developed a process in the first phase of the Pilot whereby he could assess a workplace and develop the key objectives for the Skill Set Design. He would develop this in a matter of days and this would be the course outline for the Academic & Practical Instructors to follow and build upon. Appendix 'B' includes a sample of one of the Program Plans. There is some concern about the future abilitiesof other college Curriculum Designers being able to replicate Mr. Smith's Bridging the Gap initiatives.

The College also developed the job descriptions and recruited the Academic Instructors for all the sites. Again, the college has professional Human Resource staff and process in place that were relied upon, and, in most cases, they worked well. However, in one site in particular, there were several challenges about the selection of the Academic Instructor. Because the College is unionized, there are numerous parameters within which they can operate when they are hiring. These include seniority, definitions of qualified, and pay scales.

One of the results of this Pilot was a collaboration between the provincial co-ordinator and one of the College HR managers. Based upon the recommendations of the Project Co–ordinators as well as the Academic Instructors, they developed guidelines for recruiting future Bridging the Gap Academic Instructors as well as their job descriptions. (Appendix C shows the revisions).

These focus primarily on how being an Academic Instructor (Academic Instructor) with Bridging the Gap is different from an Adult Basic Education Instructor, particularly in the areas of curriculum design and development, industry knowledge and experience and required flexibility around hours of work. Future initiatives of Bridging the Gap should work more smoothly with these recruitment and job description guidelines developed and in place.

There were additional challenges to the Academic Instructors. These included:

• They were required to learn, very quickly, a lot about the industry of the employment partner. This proved to be doubly challenging for the sites that were remote from information resources, such as a library, and were on dial–up (in some cases long distance) access to the Internet. The College sent as many materials as they could to support the instructors, but this proved to be a very stressful component of the Academic Instructors work.
• The clients/participants were at many different academic levels and some had been away from school for 2 years, some 30 years. What often occurred was the more advanced participants assisted the less advanced, but it was a real challenge for the AIs.
• Dealing with personal issues and conflicts among the participants.

Overall, all of the AIs enjoyed their work. They found it challenging, but also very rewarding. Many of them are ABE instructors and saw Bridging the Gap as a way to bring more meaning to the ABE instruction and more motivational as it was so focused on a specific workplace and a specific job.