In total, 65 organizations sponsored the 121 projects we identified. Of these organizations, most were labour unions (including training centres). Sector councils had the next largest grouping - however please note that we also included all joint organizations in this category (e.g. SkillPlan and Workplace Education PEI). Colleges, employers and their associations, government groups and community groups made up the rest of the organizations.
| Sector council |
College | Labour | Employers | Government | Community | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | 11 | 12 | 24 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 65 |
| % | 17 | 19 | 37 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 100 |
In terms of regional coverage, we looked at where the project took place or the location of the organization mounting the project. While this is not a precise measure as it places national projects within a particular province, it does give a good indication of coverage.
| BC | AB | SK | MB | ON | QC | NB | NS | NL | PEI | NT | YK | NU | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | 26 | 13 | 3 | 15 | 40 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 121 |
| % | 21 | 11 | 2 | 12 | 33 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 100 |
Most projects were sponsored by organizations based in Ontario. However, most of these projects were national in scope, with Ontario-only projects numbering 20. Not surprisingly, British Columbia had the most projects. This is due in large measure to SkillPlan, the BC Construction Industry Skills Improvement Council, which has been one of the most active players in the area of essential skills. Manitoba has the next greatest number of projects identified. The only anomaly we noticed was that we had expected more activity in Alberta given the work of Bow Valley College and the Alberta Workplace Essential Skills Committee. We would like to note that the one Northwest Territory project was facilitated by Bow Valley College. Perhaps the reason for the low number is that the projects that have taken place were not specifically targeted to apprentices.
We had no projects identified either by respondents or by our Internet search in Quebec. It is unclear whether this is due to a difference in how Essential Skills are defined or if there is no activity. Much of Quebec’s literacy training is provided by the commissions scolaires (school boards), which might explain the lack of stand-alone targeted workplace programs.