 |
 |
|
|||||
français
Tell a Friend
Print this page
Case Study: Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) – Essential Skills Upgrading Project1.0 IntroductionThe Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) is a First Nation community adjacent to the town of The Pas, Manitoba and has a population of 4,779 of which 2,957 live on-reserve. The OCN has a long history of economic development success with over $40 million in capital assets that include a shopping mall, casino and hotel. The Band initially assumed that human resource development issues would be handled by local education and training institutions. However, when it became clear that the community’s skills development needs were not being addressed to the extent the community had expected, the OCN took responsibility for developing the skills they required. The Building Construction Apprenticeship Program was created in response to this need, and in response to challenges the institutional educational system posed for Aboriginal trainees. As part of the OCN’s Building Construction Apprenticeship Program, an Essential Skills Upgrading Program for carpenters was developed to help prepare participants for apprenticeship technical training that was being offered in the community. A community-based delivery model was planned because, in some cases, community members felt that they would be unable to adequately manage the college environment or the academic requirements of a more traditional classroom-based course. The requirement to attend institutional training as a component of an apprenticeship was found to be a barrier to success with upgrading and technical training. Approximately 48% of without community-based life skills training experienced success in technical training, compared to 82% of community members who completed the post-secondary courses as well as life skills training in their home community. The OCN also found that many external training providers were not able to be flexible enough with their programs to address the specific needs of their trainees in terms of academic upgrading. For example, Adult Basic Education programs start at a grade 9 level. This grade level for the majority of OCN trainees was too high, given that Canadian Adult Achievement Test (CAAT) tests on 34 OCN community members aged 18-30 revealed that 60% achieved academic levels below the high school level. Externally-delivered academic upgrading programs were generic and did not tailor the content to the trade for which trainees were seeking skills upgrading. Trainees that had taken these more generic courses described the content as abstract and not related to their training environment, which impeded learning. The Essential Skills Upgrading Program for carpenters was delivered by the OCN Employment & Training unit which was established in 1994 with an annual budget of $120,000. This budget has since grown to just under $2 million in large part due to the many successful funding partnerships both within the First Nations communities and with outside funding sources. The idea of developing a local Essential Skills upgrading program came to the OCN Employment & Training staff after some discussion with local Manitoba Employment & Training Centre staff. The Essential Skills Coordinator from the Apprenticeship Branch was later invited to consider a partnership project with the OCN around curriculum development for the Essential Skills upgrading program. The OCN and its partners developed an Essential Skills upgrading program which was cost-shared between OCN Employment & Training and Manitoba Advanced Education & Training. As shown in figure 1, the key element of the program is the combination of Essential Skills training, along with work experience and life skills training to develop a holistic set of skills and knowledge that greatly increases the trainees’ chances of successfully completing their Level 1 carpenter technical training, and ultimately achieving their certification with a Red Seal endorsement. Through this process, the program serves a number of purposes. The main purpose is to provide trainees with a solid base upon which they can become self-sufficient and productive. The secondary purpose is to ensure that trainees obtain the trades skills required to build high-quality housing, which is greatly needed in the community. Figure 1: The OCN Building Construction Apprenticeship Process 
The Essential Skills upgrading program began February 21 and concluded June 23, 2006. Fifteen trainees started the process, which includes the work experience and life skills components. Of these original fifteen, 13 remained in the program, one was deemed ready to enter technical training without additional upgrade training, and one relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
2.0 Description of Program/ProjectType The OCN Building Construction Apprenticeship program begins with an assessment of the trainees’ academic level, aptitude, and life skills. From this assessment, a training plan is developed. Trainees spend the next 6.5 months completing work experience with a qualified carpenter by building a house in the community. The work experience provides the trainees with exposure to the skills required in the carpenter trade, builds a sense of team within the crew, and qualifies participants for Employment Insurance support through the subsequent stages of their training. Following the work experience, trainees enter seven weeks of life skills training which helps to build greater self -awareness. This is achieved by giving each of the trainees a better understanding of themselves, how their behaviour affects others, how to communicate effectively, and how to take responsibility for personal choices. The life skills training also builds a foundation of self-confidence that helps the trainees feel ready to move on to academic skills upgrading. In addition to the work experience and life skills training, the Essential Skills upgrading program involves 18 weeks of training in the classroom, and hands-on instruction in the woodworking shop and on community building projects. This split between theory and hands-on learning was designed to keep students stimulated and engaged throughout the 4.5 month training process. The OCN program focused primarily on the four Essential Skills of Reading Text, Writing, Document Use and Numeracy. However, the Essential Skills of Continuous Learning, Thinking Skills and Working with Others were addressed within the other Essential Skills and/or in other areas of the Building Construction Apprenticeship Training program. Computer use is the only Essential Skill that is not addressed by the program because these skills are not required until the final levels of the carpenter apprenticeship program. Target Audience Band members who did not have the education or skills to take advantage of job opportunities in the community were the primary audience for the OCN Essential Skills Program. Consequently, the program’s selection process gave priority to individuals who had low academic skills, a positive attitude, and an interest in becoming a certified carpenter. Resources Required The program budget required to develop the curriculum, resource materials, shop materials, and deliver the 18 week Essential Skills Program was $124,000. Of the total budget, it is estimated that the program development costs were approximately $15,000 and delivery costs were $109,000. $51,000 in funding was cost-shared between OCN Employment & Training (the OCN also contributed an additional $20,000 in training allowances for the seven week life skills program), and Manitoba Advanced Education and Training, who contributed $93,000. The program’s curriculum was developed locally using content drawn from Writing, Reading, Document Use, and Numeracy content commonly used by carpenters. Local instructors (2 carpenters and 1 teacher) developed the curriculum through a DACUM (Developing A Curriculum) process facilitated by the Essential Skills Coordinator from the Manitoba Apprenticeship Branch. Since trade-specific Essential Skills resources were scarce or non-existent, local instructors developed resource materials for the program over a seven week period immediately preceding the delivery of the course. Examples of locally-developed resource materials included math exercises based on building geometry, and reading and writing exercises that used relevant materials that included carpentry terms such as the building code, and materials catalogues.
3.0 Benefits of Essential Skills Program/ProjectInitial feedback from the students and teachers indicate that the program is successful. “There’s lots of math in carpentry. This has really helped; I would have had a hard time without it. Everything is really positive”. “This program has been real good to me; it’s helped me a lot”.19 “I wish we had an Essential Skills program when I did my apprenticeship. Our upgrade training was at the Adult Learning Centre. The instructors were hard on the students and just marched us through the curriculum”.20 “It (the program) taught me how to work in a group and be part of a crew where we help each other”.21 Another benefit of the OCN’s Essential Skills project is the community’s ability to share the experience with other communities in Manitoba. OCN Employment & Training staff travels to other communities who are developing apprenticeship training programs to share their past challenges and the solutions their current training process offers. This has provided the opportunity for one community to promote and communicate the benefits and importance of Essential Skills training to another. The process of developing and delivering the program using local people has been beneficial to the community. Trainees gained practical construction skills, and community members gained skills in program development and instruction. Local instructors gained experience with Essential Skills program development and alternative delivery models. Consequently, the community can apply these skills to train other community members to participate in future programs.
4.0 Success FactorsA number of factors contribute to the initial success of the program. The integration of Essential Skills into the program is a key success feature of the program. Trainees’ practical work experience introduces them to the trade, helps them to develop team work skills, and qualifies them for Employment Insurance support for the remainder of their training. Life skills training builds trainees’ interpersonal skills and self-confidence, while the Essential Skills training fills in the academic gaps required for the trainees to enter into Level 1 technical training. A trainee-centered approach to training delivery also contributes to the success of the program. The OCN training is built around the needs of the trainees and is designed to be flexible during training delivery to suit the needs of the trainees. Instructors are committed to doing whatever is required for the group of trainees to obtain the knowledge they need. Based on the trainees’ feedback of the daily learning experience, instructors continually adjust the content and weighting of activities. The instructors act more as mentors and view the trainees more as apprentices than students. OCN instructors noted that a trainee-centred approach to training removes the pressure-filled “pass or fail” environment and fosters an environment where trainees are encouraged to learn. Similarly, students do not compete to be head of the class or finish early, but rather, support each other as a team in which all members aim to succeed together. The OCN Employment and Training staff feels that the process of developing and adjusting the curriculum is important since each class will have trainees with different needs that have to be understood and accommodated. In addition, the process also develops the community’s capacity to train other members of the community and develop training programs for other occupations. The development of local capacity is another success factor of the program. The only way for the OCN to deliver the highly flexible, trainee-centered apprenticeship program was to take control of the process and develop their own system. The OCN had to develop local people who were familiar with the community and committed to the program because there were no instructors with both trades and Essential Skills experience. “So often, teachers are just told what to do. The DACUM process allows them to show what they know needs to be done”.22 The human resources required to undertake the project were also central to the success of the program. The management staff of OCN Employment & Training was very experienced in integrating training programs and levering community infrastructure projects (such as housing construction) to create a complete training program. Manitoba Advanced Education and Training was also able to act as a funding partner and facilitated the development of the project. Local instructors had the commitment and skills to take on the task of developing the program from scratch, and adjust it as it was delivered. A retired instructor from the local college supported and mentored the program instructors. Some of the other program elements that contributed to the success of the initiative included the partners‘ ability to:
5.0 ChallengesThe OCN Essential Skills Upgrading program faced a number of challenges during its development and implementation. One challenge relates to concerns expressed by a public training institution about the OCN’s role in Essential Skills training delivery. The OCN was able to address some of the concerns by clarifying that the training it intended to offer focuses on Essential Skills training that trainees require prior to undertaking apprenticeship technical training, which is often delivered at public or private training institutions. In this manner, the OCN supports its trainees so that they are able to attend and be successful in post-secondary training. A lack of trade-specific course material particularly for non math-related areas such as Writing, Reading and Document Use was another challenge the program faced. The instructors developed their own course materials by drawing upon past experience and assembling carpentry-related materials such as code books, blueprints, material catalogues, memos, and purchase orders. These materials were then used to develop exercises of increasing complexity, which formed the basis of the training. A lack of experienced instructors who were familiar with both carpentry skills and Essential Skills presented a delivery challenge. The OCN overcame this problem by involving local instructors directly in the creation of curriculum, and by consulting with a retired college instructor who served as a mentor to the instructors during the development of the course content. Low and varied education levels among the trainees, due in part to a lasting effect of the residential school education system, meant that the Essential Skills program had to cover a broad and varied range of content. This challenge was addressed in a number of ways. First, Manitoba Advanced Education & Training had a carpentry-specific Essential Skills assessment tool that helped to identify the gaps in relevant Essential Skills. At the beginning of the Essential Skills course, trainees were asked to identify the five areas of the training program that caused them the most concern. This helped the instructors adapt the course curriculum to the needs of the trainees. This sensitivity to the learning needs of the trainees was carried throughout the program. Another key challenge for the OCN apprenticeship program was the lack of work experience opportunities available within the community at large, that is, on and off the reserve. The OCN addressed this problem by tying the program work experience of the carpenter trainees to infrastructure projects on the reserve, such as Band housing and renovations to the youth centre. The OCN also anticipates a number of future challenges that don’t pertain to the Essential Skills Program, but relate to the completion of apprenticeships. These include:
6.0 Future DirectionsThe OCN’s first Essential Skills Training program concluded June 23, 2006. The next step for the trainees will be to enroll in Level 1 carpenter apprenticeship technical training. A documentation of the entire program was completed June 2006. In the future, subsequent team of trainees will begin the skills development process starting with a 6.5 month work experience. OCN Employment & Training staff hopes to rely on the local training instructors who developed the carpenter program to develop similar programs for other much-needed trades, such as the plumbing and electrical trades.
7.0 Program/Project ContactManitoba Competitiveness, Training and Trade Eileen Johnson, Employment Training Services Dorthy Peterson, Employment Training Services Margerit Roger, Essential Skills Coordinator Opaskwayak Cree Nation Employment & Training Carolynn Constant, Employment & Training Coordinator Loretta McGinnis, OCN Trades Training Coordinator
|
|
To obtain a copy of these works in an alternate format, please contact info@caf-fca.org.
|
|||||||||
![[Government of Canada]](http://www.caf-fca.org/images/canada.gif){kind=small}