Appendix C: Survey Introduction and Invitation

School-to-Work Transitions Synthesis Project Inventory

Welcome

Thank you for agreeing to participate in this survey!

Background

The Work and Learning Knowledge Centre (WLKC) has contracted with the Canadian Career
Development Foundation (CCDF) to create an inventory of measures aimed at improving school
to work transitions for three school leaver groups. These groups include youth who are:

• At-risk;
• Graduating from high school or PSE (university or college, private vocational); and,
• Leaving high school or PSE without graduating.

We are looking for innovative, effective and promising school-to-work transition:

• Programs: initiatives that are formally organized, regularly delivered and/or funded by
  governments, non-governmental organizations, employers or unions.
• Practices: initiatives that are informal and that may be more ad hoc in nature, not eligible to
  be termed a ‘program’; and,
• Policies: statements of principle or broad approach, most often used by governments,
  intended to guide the creation and operation of programs and practices.

For inclusion in the inventory, these programs, practices and policies need to be:

• Innovative: practices which differ from other approaches in order to achieve their objectives
  more effectively, more efficiently, more quickly, on a wider scale, or on a more sustainable
  basis.
• Effective: practices which have evidence, through formal/quantitative evaluations or
  assessments, that they reliably achieve their objectives. These may include long-standing
  practices which have proven their worth over time, even though they may not be termed
  ‘innovative.’
• Promising: newer practices which have not been evaluated or assessed or standing practices
  which have been only assessed informally or qualitatively; yet, their approach is deemed to
  have the potential to achieve their objectives successfully.

To build the inventory, CCDF will:

• Survey the members of the of the WLKC Transitions and Access Working Groups to access
  their knowledge of innovative, effective and promising measures that improve school-to-work
  transitions for each school leaver group listed above;
• Follow-up with referrals gathered through the survey; and
• Conduct a literature review to search for supplementary information on the survey findings and provide additional programs, policies and practices that do not emerge from the survey.