Essential Skills Projects
Name of Group Title of Project Description
Workplace Education Prince Edward Island Workplace Literacy Workplace Education PEI will undertake a project to develop and pilot a workplace literacy program intended for three distinct groups (plumbers, cooks and administrative staff), as well as develop and launch a public awareness and outreach campaign for out-of school youth aimed at increasing the profile of the trades and increasing literacy skills. The workplace literacy program will assess and ensure basic literacy and essential skill levels to improve occupational performance, and to prepare tradespersons for certification and changing job demands. The pilot will focus on three areas of literacy (document, prose, and quantitative) with the goal being the acquisition and application of new literacy skills. Using the workplace education model, the pilot will take place at each work site and job specific curriculum will be developed for each group. In addition to addressing the common literacy issues among these groups, each program will be specifically based on the needs of learners as determined by the Individual Needs Assessment (INA). Based on information from the “Skills Canada Focus Group Report” (2001), a report surveying youths' perceptions of the trades, the public awareness and outreach campaign will highlight successful tradespersons through various media outlets specifically targeting youth, and encourage youth to enter literacy programs that will lead them to trade certification. An advisory committee will be established to oversee the project, and assessment will take place via several informal evaluations. This project will result in the development of a workplace literacy program for tradespersons and administrative staff that will benefit employers and employees, both occupationally and educationally, as well as promoting the importance of literacy and education in obtaining employment as a tradesperson.
Yukon College Arctic Plumbing and Literacy The Old Crow campus of Yukon College will develop a curriculum that will upgrade participants' reading, writing and numeracy skills through a preapprenticeship level arctic plumbing course. To do this, the college will pilot a fulltime, ten-week course that combines the range of literacy skills with plumbing practice. The resulting curriculum will be distributed throughout arctic communities in Northern Canada.