Consistency of effort resulted in the continued growth of respect and trust between and amongst labour, business, educators as well as the provinces and territories being accorded due recognition for the contributions they were making. Over time, this steadfastness built a willing coalition of partners committed to working in concert to advance the clearly stated literacy policy agenda of the government. The importance of policy steadfastness became evident when, in the period of program change, there was a shift to a top-down accountability ethic that altered the dynamics of the Program leading to a loss of commitment and a decline in trust. The evidence suggests that the policy objective of achieving literacy gains in the workforce and the workplace became secondary to the management preoccupation with accountability. The policy lesson is that in spite of the importance of strong and appropriate financial probity (the means) government can only succeed if it retains a commitment to the bigger policy picture (the ends).
Findings from this study have provided a rich descriptive perspective of the partnership process. It has also yielded some insights of the factors that could affect the success of partnerships in this area and also some of the potential problems that could arise and mitigate this success. These findings can provide researchers with a foundation for further ideas in understanding the partnership process. As researchers are interested in generalizability of results, one such implication would be in studying how the partnership process unfolds. Is there a broad conceptual or theoretical framework that can fit this process? How can the findings from this study provide some preliminary insights of how the partnership process occurs in a different context such as in small to medium size enterprises in the private sector? Results from this type of investigation can then add to our knowledge of how to manage the partnership process more successfully.