In order to document projects related to Essential Skills, we created an online Project Template. We asked 133 people to provide information about projects. These people included provincial/territorial literacy coordinators, provincial/territorial apprenticeship bodies, representatives of labour unions, sector councils and business groups, workplace literacy practitione rs and other people known to the research team. From this effort, we received information on 35 projects, of which four did not qualify for inclusion as they did not relate to the trades at all and were too general in their discussion of skills.
We also reviewed the National Literacy Secretariat (NLS) website, lists from HRSDC (Human Resources Partnerships (HRP) and NLS), and did an Internet search. The information gathered was assembled into an Access database. To date, we have 121 items in the database.
We cast a large net in order to find as many projects as possible. Few projects were explicitly and unequivocally dedicated to linking Essential Skills and the trades. In some cases, we have assumed the direct connection, such as projects undertaken by labour unions that are comprised of trades. In other cases, we have listed projects because we recognized that the project would directly (and not incidentally) affect the trades. However, we would warn the reader that the inclusion of several projects could be open to debate.
Some of the key challenges included:
Defining a ‘project’: We believe that our list contains most of the existing discrete projects, that is, those that have a start and an end, that have taken place. However, we have been less successful in finding activities that are more integrative in nature, i.e. where all training is based on an Essential Skill Profile or on the Essential Skills framework. In addition, where there has not been government fina ncial support, projects were difficult to find.
Describing a project: We generally used ‘official’ descriptions when the information came from the HRP and NLS listings. Whenever an informant gave us a description, we used that one. The descriptions we found were often vague as to the relationship to a skilled trade and so we had to sense whether the activity actually involved the trades.
Determining the Essential Skills component: With material found on the Internet or through the various lists, we made decisions about how to code the Essential Skills involved in the project. For projects that only listed ‘literacy’, we have checked off oral communications, document use, writing, and numeracy. For projects that only specified ‘numeracy’ or ‘oral communications’ or ‘document use’, that is the only item checked off. For projects that cited ‘essential skills’, all skills have been checked off except if only one specific skill was mentioned. We did not change what online respondents provided us in terms of the skills involved.