In the third period, the period of program change (2001-2006), pockets of best practices were spreading to regions where workplace literacy development had just started up. For example, Nova Scotia field officers were training other Atlantic province field officers on how to conduct Organizational Needs Assessments and Educational Needs Assessments. Strategies that had been used to encourage Sector Council involvement in active provinces were now being considered by provinces in their own period of development. In other regions of the country, such as Manitoba and Nova Scotia, the sheer increase in workplace education programs provided support for building a case with provincial governments and the release of additional resources. Training modules for practitioners and union stewards were now being revised to reflect the changes in economics, demographics, and special interest groups of workplace learners. New insights on the lived experiences of workers and how they use literacy at work were published in the book Reading Work. Empirical studies with a focus on labour and workplace literacy, funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the NLS Joint Initiative Valuing Literacy in Canada, were well underway during this period.

Cutting across all three periods was the impact of the National Adult Literacy Database as a clearinghouse for current information on workplace education and the impact of both the International Adult Literacy Survey and the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey. Business, labour, and education groups used this information to attract attention to literacy as a workplace issue. In addition, conferences and training events sponsored through WWestnet continued. These are described in the following excerpt.