As the previous section shows, each province provides several different options for individuals who want to pursue high-school-related upgrading. How many adults actually pursue each of these different options? Answering this question is more difficult than it may seem. Few provinces are able to report accurate adult participation counts for all program types. Thus, while every effort was made to obtain accurate figures, the numbers presented below must be taken as rough estimates. Consequently our analysis focuses on the overall estimate of the proportion of adults who are engaged in adult learning rather than on any specific program by program comparisons.
Table 4.4 shows the number of learners in each province for each of the five high-school-related learning options. The most striking finding of this Table is that only a very small fraction of adults without a high-school diploma are engaged in high-school-related learning. British Columbia has the highest proportion of engaged learners, and Nova Scotia and Alberta have the lowest.
| Option | Alberta | BC | NS | Ontario | Québec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular and adult diplomas, and academic upgrading |
6,5001 | 18,811 (secondary system) 25,000 (post-secondary)2 |
2,0763 | 28,620 (adult day schools)4 20,000 (Independent Learning Centre) 1,500 (academic upgrading) 5 |
70,32813 |
| Literacy and basic skills |
4,0006 | Not available | 2,3367 | 42,0088 | (included above) |
| GED9 | 1,946 | 1,493 | 1,427 | 3,751 | Not available14 |
| TOWES10 | 2,615 | 541 | 212 | 1,673 | 810 |
| Total Learners | 15,061 | 45,846 | 6,051 | 97,552 | 71,138 |
| Population of adults between 20 and 54 without diplomas11 |
359,459 | 394,422 | 110,806 | 1,103,395 | 979,96515 |
| Total Learners as a % of target population12 |
4.2 | 11.6 | 5.5 | 8.8 | 7.3 |