The first part of the dialogue was dedicated to exploring, in small group discussions, the challenges faced by Prince Edward Island with respect to the issues of skills needs in the context of its aging workforce. At the end of this conversation, participants within each group were asked to identify which topics or challenges were most important to them. In order to get a sense of individual priorities, each participant was given a budget of $5. They were then asked to indicate which of the challenges (including any their group might have added to the list) they would choose to allocate their limited resources to, and why they made these choices. Participants could put all of their money on a single challenge or could split their $5 as they saw fit amongst several challenges. Each group then summed up individual allocations and reported back to the plenary how its members had allocated their $5.
The following table summarizes how funds were allocated across all groups:
| Topic | Challenge | Total (by challenge) | Total (by topic) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $ | Voices | $ | ||
| 1 Older Workers: included notion of succession planning for Blue and Green groups | ||||
| 2 Economic Development: renamed to "Economic and Human Resource Development" by Red group | ||||
| 3 Workplace training and lifelong learning: included notion of school to work transition for Blue group | ||||
| 4 When combined with Economic (and HR) Development, gives a combined total of $52.50. | ||||
| 5 R&D: included in "Education and training" topic by Green group | ||||
| Workforce | Youth | $32.50 | 18 | $77.50 |
| Immigrants | $7.00 | 6 | ||
| Unemployed / underemployed | $13.50 | 14 | ||
| Older workers1 | $24.50 | 13 | ||
| Economic (and HR) Development2 | Job creation | $15.00 | 12 | $27.50 |
| Productivity | $4.00 | 4 | ||
| Innovation | $8.50 | 8 | ||
| Education and training | B/L/G/E coordination | $1.50 | 2 | $72.50 |
| Workplace training and lifelong learning 3 | $55.50 | 30 | ||
| Trades and technologies | $9.00 | 7 | ||
| Other4 | Research and development5 | $6.50 | 4 | $25.50 |
| Labour market information | $1.00 | 1 | ||
| Proactive FT/Seasonal labour market strategy (including review of E.I. impacts and opportunities) | $13.50 | 9 | ||
| SMB/Entrepreneurship supports | $7.00 | 5 | ||
| Change in attitudes / awareness | $2.00 | 2 | ||
| Wages / work situation | $2.00 | 2 | ||
| Literacy | $0.00 | 0 | ||
Note: the total dollar amount represents the total dollars allocated to the challenge or topic across all groups, while the "voices" refer to the number of participants who chose to allocate their funds to a particular challenge (e.g., 18 people allocated a total of $32.50 to youth-related challenges).