National Adult Literacy Database

The Business and Labour Partnership Program is a program of the National Literacy Secretariat, Human Resources and Social Development Canada started in 1988. Its aim was to develop and sustain partnerships between business, labour, education, and government sectors that would support adult work-related literacy.

The projects and activities supported through the Business and Labour Partnership Program affected five groups of people involved in workplace literacy and essential skills: business organizations and employers; labour organizations and their local constituents; educational practitioners and experts; project participants and the community at large.

This case study documented the ideas and approaches that were used by the National Literacy Secretariat to implement the Business and Labour Partnership Program. It also outlines the different types of partnerships that developed under the Program. The aim of this report is to demonstrate how this partnership program worked so that government employees and literacy practitioners can learn from the approach.