Figure 1 - Partnership Development Continuum

The First Phase — pre-partnership

During this stage on the continuum, the focus of interaction was to bring business and labour organizations together for the first time. This was a feature characterized throughout the foundation building years (1988-1995). An example of such a partnership type was the one formed between the United Food and Commercial Workers and Algonquin College to develop a workplace tool called Literacy Task Analysis. These initial interactions were mostly facilitated through the NLS personnel involved in the Business and Labour Partnership Program. The project activities were based on local needs and specifically defined relationships among members, so they could become acquainted with each other’s organizations. To start with, the length and time of these associations were more of a pilot stage nature but project objectives were specific enough to start the knowledge-building process. The benefits were the important network exchanges that took place among these newly formed partnerships and the recognition of the skills and knowledge each member organization could bring to a specific workplace literacy challenge.