4. Responsibility for Essential Skills and the Relationship to Apprenticeship

The second aspect of the project was to provide information for each province and territory about:

• the responsibility for Essential Skills
• the structure of the apprenticeship program
• the apprenticeship curriculum development process
• entry requirements for apprenticeship programs

We subsequently confirmed that information about the structure of the apprenticeship program, the apprenticeship curriculum development process, and the entry requirements for apprenticeship programs was not required, although the CLBC did need to be aware of those facts in assessing the information it uncovered.

Surveys were sent to every jurisdiction to ask the following questions:

• Which official in your province/territory is responsible for Essential Skills?
• Which official in your province/territory is responsible for ‘workplace literacy’ and/or ‘workplace education’?
• How do you relate to your province/territory’s apprenticeship office? (Same department, same Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM), informal relationship, not housed in the same department)?
• How does your province/territory define Essential Skills (use HRSDC’s ES; have our own list; do not use the term Essential Skills)?
• Does your province/territory have a policy governing Essential Skills?
• Does your province/territory support a mechanism to bring business, labour and government together to discuss Essential Skills?
• Have you sponsored projects that link Essential Skills to apprenticeship?

To date we have received information from nine jurisdictions - PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, Alberta, Nunavut, NWT and Yukon. In Ontario, our initial inquiry was referred to the ADM responsible for federal/provincial relations, and all other jurisdictions have received at least one reminder.

Findings

Below is a compilation of our findings to date.