This report provides the College Sector Committee with the demographic data and TOWES test results for participants of the TOWES Baseline Testing portion of the Learner Skill Attainment Framework Initiative in Ontario. Participants from colleges across Ontario were approximately half way through the adult upgrading program ACE (Academic and Career Entrance) and completed TOWES assessments in either a paper or online format. TOWES was approached by the College Sector Committee to provide an analysis of participant demographics in comparison to TOWES scores.
The Test of Workplace Essential Skills (TOWES) is a competency-based test that uses problem sets and authentic workplace documents to assess Essential Skills proficiencies in three domains: Reading Text, Document Use, and Numeracy.
Reading Text - includes written information contained within notes, letters, memos, manuals, specifications, regulations, reports and journals. This includes forms and labels, print and nonprint media (for example, text on a computer screen), and paragraph-length text found in charts, tables and graphs.
Document Use – includes data presented in lists and tables and in visual displays such as icons, scale drawings, maps and schematics. This includes all materials in which words, numbers, icons and other visual characteristics (lines, colours and shapes) are organized within tables and lists or given meaning by their spatial arrangements.
Numeracy - includes numerical information and calculations involving money math, scheduling, budgeting and accounting math, measurement and calculation, data analysis and numerical estimation.
The TOWES General Series Level 2 test was used for this project in a paper and online format. This particular series assess skill levels 1 – 4, but most accurately measures skill levels 2 and 3 (standard error 0.04 or less). The test does not assess skills above level 4. The paper test contains 18 problem sets with a total of 70 questions. The online version varies slightly with 19 problem sets and 63 questions. Each question requires the test taker to assume the role of a worker in various occupational settings common to the workplace.