National Adult Literacy Database

Skilled Trades: A Career You Can Build On

Authors: Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF), Skills Canada

Collection: Learning Materials

The Skilled Trades: A Career You Can Build On campaign, a joint initiative between the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum - Forum canadien sur l’apprentissage (CAF-FCA) and Skills/Compétences Canada (S/CC), undertook regional consultations across Canada to discuss a range of challenges, solutions and grassroots initiatives taking place to help promote skilled trades and apprenticeship. Among the challenges identified during these consultations was the difficulty in getting employers to register apprentices.

The goal of this guide is to assist organizations with their outreach efforts by providing resources and tips that have been tried and tested in the field. Specifically, this guide provides information on how to:

- Identify and respond to common objections to registering an apprentice.
- Identify and prioritize employers that should be approached regarding apprenticeship.
- Develop a “pitch” that will convince an employer to register an apprentice.
- Identify the types of follow up activities that should be done with employers.
- Organize an employer outreach program.

Added: 2008-01-17

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See also:

• Guide de sensibilisation des employeurs

Authors: Jaime Malcolm

Collection: Learning Materials

This document describes a project undertaken in 2010-11 to increase understanding and awareness of the concept of Literacy and Essential Skills (LES) among literacy and adult educators, employment service providers, employers, and workers or job seekers in British Columbia’s southern interior region.

The project used workshops to reach practitioners, and targeted marketing to reach employers in the area. Workers and job seekers were assessed, then offered a variety of options for improving their skills, including one-on-one learning support and facilitated group instruction.

Among results of the project are increased knowledge of the LES concept and LES resources for all the stakeholders from literacy/education and employment service communities, and the creation of an LES network to strengthen relationships between members of a variety of organizations.

The authors note that because of the project, 14 employers decided to use LES tools and resources for employee recruitment, retention, and skill development. They also point to increased levels of LES in reading, document use, numeracy, and computer use in 72 workers, learners, or job seekers.

Added: 2012-02-07

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Authors: Western Canada Workplace Essential Skills Training Network (WWestNet)

Collection: Research Materials

The focus of Essential Skills and the Northern Oil and Gas Workforce was on effective training with a particular emphasis on the role of essential skills enhancement in the development of the northern workforce. It was hoped that this conference would help to raise awareness of essential skills and provide a jumping off point for increased essential skills integration in education and workplace training programs.

Added: 2006-05-05

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Final Report

Authors: Robyn Cook-Ritchie

Collection: Learning Materials

This report describes a review of the training and certification system used by Laubach Literacy Ontario (LLO) to ensure that tutor and trainer competencies required by all levels in LLO’s current certification system were identified. The project, which began in January 2009, was considered one of the affiliated projects in support of the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum initiative.

Prior to that point, LLO’s training system required all trainers to participate in a 12-hour live workshop to complete their certification. Through this project, all trainer workshop segments were converted to an e-platform to make delivery flexible enough to meet the needs of those who are unable to attend a full live workshop.

In addition, a video was developed to support each segment or module. The online training segments for trainers were reviewed, developed, and peer-reviewed by LLO’s Training, Development and Certification (TDAC) system and are now available to all literacy practitioners across the province, not just those belonging to member agencies.

The updated certification system was launched on the LLO website during 2011. For more information, please click here: http://www.laubach-on.ca/teach/training/forms.

Added: 2011-10-28

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Authors: Literacy Link South Central

Collection: Learning Materials

This guide offers a foundation for literacy practitioners who want to learn more about the nine Essential Skills and the Essential Skills Profiles.

The authors have included a number of case studies that identify current best practices for integrating Essential Skills into Literacy and Basic Skills programming.

The authors have also included facilitation resources for three workshops, entitled The Plain Goods on Essential Skills; Integrating Essential Skills; and Essential Skills and the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum.

Added: 2011-02-04

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Authors: New Brunswick Community College (NBCC)

Collection: Learning Materials

This video is one of a number recorded during an Essential Skills in the Workplace learning event, funded by the Government of New Brunswick and held in Moncton in April 2012. It focuses on a presentation by two members of the Saint John Workplace Essential Skills (WES) team, which is part of the Community Adult Learning Services Branch of New Brunswick’s Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour.

They had been called in to help a group of six pipefitters who had all repeatedly failed the Red Seal exam, which is a national certification program that allows qualified tradespeople to practise in any province or territory. Each had 10 or more years experience in the trade and all were highly respected by employers and colleagues, but, if they didn’t pass the exam, they would lose their trade certification.

At first, the WES team focused on the skills of reading text, numeracy, and document use. However, they soon discovered that the pipefitters were already highly proficient in those skills.

The team realized that their most pressing task was to teach these men how to learn and, in the process, help them understand the importance of continuous learning. The team trainer spent a week talking with them about how memory works; learning strategies; test anxiety; and test-taking strategies. Then the men moved on to five weeks of upgrading.

At the end of the five weeks, all six passed the Red Seal exam with marks of at least 80 percent and, in one case, more than 90 percent.

Funders:

• Government of New Brunswick

Added: 2012-09-25

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Authors: New Brunswick Community College (NBCC)

Collection: Learning Materials

This video focuses on the ongoing efforts to help home-support workers at one branch of a national company learn new skills and improve existing ones. It was recorded during an Essential Skills in the Workplace learning event, funded by the Government of New Brunswick and held in Moncton in April 2012.

In the video, the Saint John area director of Bayshore Home Health explains how he partnered with the provincially-funded Workplace Essential Skills (WES) team to offer training. The initial impetus was the decision to replace traditional paper time sheets with an electronic format. The company quickly realized that the new system would demand computer skills that many employees lacked.

The program developed and implemented by the WES team had to meet some specific concerns. Home-support workers earn low wages and the company wanted to make sure they didn’t lose any work shifts because of training.

As well, many employees didn’t have computers at home, so the training had to emphasize privacy and security features to use when using computers in public places or in the homes of friends or relatives.

The initial 10-session training program, which began in March 2010, was a success. In 2011, the company decided to implement another training program, this one focusing on oral communication, document use, writing, and other skills. Based on the success of that program, the company is looking forward to offering more training.

Funders:

• Government of New Brunswick

Added: 2012-09-25

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Authors: New Brunswick Community College (NBCC)

Collection: Learning Materials

FundyPros is the largest specialty construction firm in New Brunswick, carrying out both residential and commercial projects. In this video, the company’s president discusses effort to empower its workforce by investing in training.

The company pays for in-house training, during work hours. The training is focused on the Essential Skills that enable all learning, not on specific construction-related skills.

The goal is to foster a learning culture and to try to change mindset of the industry. Employees are not measured on their grades but, rather, on their ability to put aside their fears and tackle new ideas and practices.

For FundyPros, the rewards have included a better safety record, improved productivity, and a workforce with greater confidence and self-esteem.

This video is one of several recorded during an Essential Skills in the Workplace learning event, funded by the Government of New Brunswick and held in Moncton in April 2012.

Funders:

• Government of New Brunswick

Added: 2012-09-25

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Authors: New Brunswick Community College (NBCC)

Collection: Learning Materials

This is one of several videos recorded during an Essential Skills in the Workplace learning event, held in Moncton in April 2012. The event was funded by the Government of New Brunswick.

In this video, an official of the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick (TIANB) describes a research project the organization has been involved with since 2010. The underlying goal of the project is to determine whether Essential Skills training has a positive, negative, or neutral effect on return on investment in the industry.

The project is focused on the accommodations sector, with specific attention to four occupational groups: front desk agents; servers; line cooks; and housekeepers. Six main business indicators will be examined: revenue; cost control; health and safety; retention and absenteeism; customer service; and maintaining service excellence.

The speaker points out that the returns on investing in Essential Skills training will not be realized in a matter of months, but over a period of several years.

He also notes that TIANB wants people to see the tourism sector not as a place to work because there is nothing else someone can do, but as a viable career path.

Funders:

• Government of New Brunswick

Added: 2012-09-26

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Final Report

Authors: Workplace Education Manitoba

Collection: Research Materials

The results from a round of TOWES at a Winnipeg aerospace company in 2007 spoke loudly and clearly. Essential Skills refresher training works. After just six months of Essential Skills training, one group's pass rate on the test was 55 per cent higher than those without the refresher, while the second group's pass rate was 100 per cent higher.

Added: 2009-06-05

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