All but one of our respondents (Nunavut) indicated that the responsibility for Essential Skills and the responsibility for workplace literacy/education lie within the same department. In all cases except Alberta, the department that has the responsibility for Essential Skills also takes responsibility for apprenticeship. It is also interesting to note that the responsibility for literacy in general lies within another department altogether for Alberta and New Brunswick.

In Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, Yukon, NWT, and Newfoundland and Labrador, responsibility for apprenticeship, essential skills, and workplace literacy/education are all in the same department. In all provinces, except New Brunswick, these departments are also responsible for the partnership with the NLS, which mirrors the relationships within HRSDC.

All respondents used the HRSDC list of Essential Skills and none had developed its own list. One province, New Brunswick, has been developing profiles for entry to apprenticeship, as the existing profiles are based on workers who are fully functioning in the occupation.

Manitoba is the only province that has a policy on Essential Skills. In addition, Manitoba is the only province with an intra-departmental Essential Skills committee.

All provinces have mechanisms that bring together workplace partners to discuss Essential Skills issues. Unfortunately, we did not ask for more detail on this aspect, and so are not able to report on the nature of the mechanism.

All but one province reported some activities and projects related to Essential Skills and Apprenticeship. We have these projects in the database, except for the province of New Brunswick, which did indicate that its work was just beginning, and the nine courses that Newfoundland has developed.

In conclusion, we found that people were willing to identify an area responsible for Essential Skills. Manitoba appears to have embraced the issue quite readily a draft policy and an intra-departmental committee.