56. We recommend that federal and provincial/territorial governments, in collaboration with community groups, establish integrated services addressing the unique, ongoing learning needs of adults. Innovative models must be developed, including counselling, prior learning and employability skills assessment, orientation to training, and flexible learning schedules and approaches.

PLA is both efficient and cost-effective. It can reduce the time and resources needed to acquire a formal education, both for the adult learner and the educational institution. In an era of scarce resources and fiscal restraint, this is an important characteristic. The prior learning and skills assessment approach can be formalized in a "skills portfolio," which shows the accumulation of certified skills and validated experience on which an individual builds further training and experience.

57. We recommend that all labour market partners legitimize a "skills portfolio" approach to help Canadians progress in their careers. This approach provides formal recognition of the knowledge and skills accumulated through past learning and work experience, determined by prior learning assessment.

For workers whose qualifications were earned in other jurisdictions, PLA can promote speedy transition into the labour force by ensuring that barriers to employment are eliminated and that wasteful underemployment of highly qualified people does not occur. In addition, through PLA the unnecessary lengthy and costly retraining of immigrants, whose education has not been properly evaluated, can be avoided.

During the hiring process, employers perform an informal PLA when they evaluate job applicants on the basis of their resume and through the interview process. The employer community follows the development of formal tools for PLA with great interest, looking for relevant ideas to enhance some of their personnel management practices.