Identifying Key Transition Tasks for Each Path

The team attempted to identify key transition tasks unique to each path. This met with uneven success. The employment path was able to draw on the HRSDC’s occupational profiles to identify key tasks and core skills. As mentioned, PTP had already developed curricula and assessments for this path. All that remained was to assign complexity levels to the tasks. The path to independence, which also has a highly functional focus, used the organizing structure of learners’ goals based on CLO’s research to identify tasks and skills.

Learners’ goals include

  1. manage basic needs
  2. manage health
  3. manage personal issues and relationships
  4. participate fully as a member of the community

Both paths were able to identify key transition tasks early on in the initiative. As expected, the three paths with an academic focus had a harder time of it. Although it was easy to identify numerous tasks for these paths, it was difficult to determine which tasks were most effective in facilitating learner transition.

Fortunately, the framework initiative afforded an opportunity to investigate the transition of adult learners in some depth. The transition of high school students to postsecondary education has traditionally been an area of extensive study. Increasing attention, however, is being paid to the transition of adult basic education learners to postsecondary programming, to the extent that a national website in the United States has been established strictly to address this issue. The National College Transition Network provides information on research, policy and promising practices. It provides updates on initiatives such as the New England ABE-to-College Transition Project. There is even an on-line professional development course related to strategies and models for adult transition to postsecondary education. The abundance of literature on the topic of adult transition helped in the identification of “core components” of transition for the LSA project.

Core Components of Transition

In reviewing the information on successful student transition to postsecondary education, a number of themes or components related to successful transition emerged. These included