Project Objectives

The objectives for this project were to:

• Develop an inventory of current Canadian practices, programs and policies¹ which improve school-to-work transitions for specific school-leaver groups using information gathered through a survey of the WLKC Transitions and Access Working Groups and supplemented by a Canadian literature review. The targeted school-leaver groups are:
  • Youth at-risk;
  • Students graduating from high school or graduating from PSE (university or college, private vocational); and,
  • Youth leaving high school or PSE without graduating.
• Highlight, in the inventory, Canadian practices, programs and policies which, in the view of select members of the “Transitions” Working Group, are particularly innovative, effective and/or promising; and,
• Identify potential target audiences for the inventory and suggest knowledge exchange activities that will be effective in building awareness of the inventory among these targeted groups of practitioners.

Approach

The consultants approached this project with a plan to elicit from the WLKC’s Transitions and Access Working Groups key programs, policies and practices aimed at improving school-towork transitions. The approach was aimed at creating a school-to-work inventory that:

• Identified innovative, effective and promising initiatives;
• Provided full descriptions including details on positive outcome results;
• Provided contact information and all other pertinent details to enhance knowledge exchange.

Research methods to develop the inventory and the accompanying report included:

• Survey Questionnaire: for WLKC Working Group members
• Literature Review: for supplementary information on the survey findings and additional programs, policies and practices that did not emerge from the survey.

¹ WLKC defined programs as initiatives that are formally organized, regularly delivered and/or funded by governments, non-governmental organizations, employers or unions; practices as initiatives that are informal and that may be more ad hoc in nature, not eligible to be termed a ‘program’ (many pilots in the inventory fit this category); and, policies as statements of principle or broad approach, most often used by governments, intended to guide the creation and operation of programs and practices.