Canadian Apprenticeship Forum - The Link Between Essential Skills and Success in Apprenticeship Training

The Link Between Essential Skills and Success in Apprenticeship Training

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Appendix H

1.0 Introduction

The British Columbia (BC) Construction Industry Skills Improvement Council, known as SkillPlan, was launched in 1991 as a joint labour and management initiative of the BC construction industry. Leaders in the industry sensed that Essential Skills issues were important for maintaining a supply of certified trades workers. As a not-for-profit society, a key element of SkillPlan’s mission is to develop strategies to help improve the Essential Skills of tradespeople working in the unionized construction industry in BC and the Yukon Territory.

The Council is the industry’s response to an evolving workplace that requires greater reading, writing, math, problem solving and oral communication skills. SkillPlan’s premise is that a solid foundation of these Essential Skills is the Velcro to which all other skills stick, and that these skills are part of an adult’s life not only at work, but in their unions, and in the wider community. The organization maintains that lifelong learning for everyone is essential to the economic success of the organized sector. Changing government policy and on-the-job requirements, such as health and safety, demand that workers obtain certification, often by written examination. Workplace instructions and manuals have become more necessary and more difficult to read, reflecting the complexity of new machinery and processes.

SkillPlan provides two major services to the apprenticeship community. First, direct assistance to its members is provided through a well-established individual skills upgrading program. Working in partnership with a network of training plan administrators and instructors, SkillPlan supports apprentices in fulfilling their Essential Skills upgrading needs. As part of this program, SkillPlan offers instructors professional support for course development, test development and clear language. A second service SkillPlan offers to the broader apprenticeship community is a series of trade-specific publications, developed from its experience working with apprentices. These documents provide supplementary materials to assist workers while they are in training and on the job, and have been distributed throughout Canada and internationally.

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2.0 Description of Programs

Type

In 1991, SkillPlan undertook a formal needs assessment to determine the impact of Essential Skills barriers in the industry. Funding was secured from the National Literacy Secretariat, unions, and employers. Over a six month period, interviews and focus groups with carpenters, plumbers, pipe fitters, operating engineers, managers, union training plan coordinators, industry health and safety councils, and educational institutions were conducted. The needs assessment produced recommendations, including the need for courses in basic skills, Document Use, and Reading skills for tests/exams. The report also called for a literacy task analysis of selected jobs, research into a variety of skills issues and initiatives related to English as a Second Language, and Plain Language in documents.

With the needs assessment report as a guide, SkillPlan began the development and provision of services. Staff carried out job task analysis to learn more about how Essential Skills are used on the job and in training. The results helped SkillPlan’s educators to focus on trades applications of Reading, Document Use, Numeracy and Writing.

Today, fifteen years after its inception, SkillPlan offers well-established services to the apprenticeship community. It sees itself as a unique organization that can rapidly adapt to industry needs. Two key services provided by SkillPlan include assistance to training institutions and individuals, and the production of publications.

Assistance to Training Institutions and Individuals

SkillPlan works with a network of training plan administrators and instructors to support apprentices in fulfilling their Essential Skills upgrading needs. Many of the referrals and services are a result of a close relationship with training plan coordinators and union training schools for Painters, Operating Engineers and Sheet Metal Workers for example. Collaborations also occur with both private training institutions, (Pacific Vocational College, for example) and public institutions (BCIT and Kwantlen College, for example) that deliver training to both unionized and non-unionized apprentices.

Accessing SkillPlan services is straightforward. SkillPlan has two or more workplace educators who visit institutions on a regular basis during periods when apprentices are in school for technical training. The educator will work with the trades’ instructors and will also offer a group tutoring session after the class. He or she will assist individual students to organize study groups and workshops, and will help with classroom delivery when requested.

Apprentices are able and encouraged to access the tutoring services on their own initiative because the program is funded primarily through a collective bargaining agreement. Depending upon the educator’s availability, sessions can be held at any time of the day or evening, and in a location that suits tutor and apprentice. Since 2002, when formal statistics were kept, SkillPlan educators have tutored an average of 151 apprentices each year. Most require three to four hours of help on average, though some use only an hour, and others may need months of support because of fundamental gaps in their Essential Skills. SkillPlan offers tutoring on a year-round basis, with the slowest months being July and August due to high employment on construction sites.

SkillPlan also develops short courses that can be delivered routinely as apprentices pass through each level of technical training. These courses cover a wide range of topics, including study skills, test taking, and coaching. Trainers involved in theses workshops with apprentices often go on to deliver these sessions on their own. SkillPlan is often asked to consult on projects involving curriculum development with an Essential Skills and plain language focus.

Publications

From the beginning, SkillPlan workplace educators developed trade-specific worksheets and handouts to assist in the tutoring of apprentices. This learning in context is crucial to success; a workplace educator noted: “If someone tells me they just did their GED (General Education Diploma) in math, then I know they understand the basics. But they also have to learn to apply mathematics in a trade context, which is different.”²⁸

As it worked more closely with institutions and industry on various projects, SkillPlan began to produce low cost publications that met specific industry needs. For example, in 1994-95, it developed the Apprenticeship Handbook, (later renamed Tools for the Trade: A Guide to Success in Apprenticeship). This document grew out of employer, training organizations, and apprentice concerns. For example, during focus groups apprentices said they wanted answers to such questions as where they should sit in the lunchroom and how they were to conduct themselves on the job site. Training institutions wanted to reinforce acceptable attitudes and behaviors. Employers wanted apprentices to understand such basics as appropriate clothing for the workplace. With funding from the federal government and industry, SkillPlan was able to produce documents like the Handbook and through the years developed a suite of trade-specific publications related to Essential Skills.

Today, SkillPlan offers a series of resources for the trades. These publications enable apprentices to prepare for technical training by working on Essential Numeracy Skills and science skills, using trades applications and illustrated explanations mirroring on-the-job tasks. For example, a worksheet teaches apprentices how to convert fractions to decimals so that they can use a calculator, and then shows them how to convert back to imperial measurements so that they can use an imperial measuring tape.

The publications SkillPlan offers include:

Measurement and Calculation for the Trades
Numeracy Rules Kit (worksheets, rulers and a Pocket Guide)
Science for the Trades (physics and chemistry)
Tools for Trade: A Guide to Success in Apprenticeship (A guide for individuals considering or completing an apprenticeship in the building trades).

Since 2002, the Pocket Guide has been SkillPlan’s most popular document, with sales of almost 3000 copies. 29% of the Guide was sold outside of BC and across Canada. In fact, Ontario organizations are the largest purchasers of SkillPlan documents, followed by BC and Nova Scotia.

Target Audience

SkillPlan provides direct assistance to members of the unionized construction industry in British Columbia and the Yukon. It carries out most activities in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, but makes arrangements, through an informal provincial network of tutors, to work with apprentices outside this area.

The trades with which SkillPlan works include: boilermakers, bricklayers, cement masons, insulators (heat/frost), ironworkers, operating engineers, painters/glaziers/drywall tapers, plumbers, refrigeration workers, sheet metal workers, floor layers, and carpenters. While SkillPlan keeps no formal demographic statistics, generally 95% of its individual tutoring is with men, ranging in age from early 20s to early 40s.

Recruitment is carried out in several ways. The Executive Director of SkillPlan meets monthly with union training coordinators, who in turn meet regularly with instructors. The instructors may refer apprentices to SkillPlan. SkillPlan’s workforce educators have also built individual relationships with instructors. Apprentices also may get in touch with SkillPlan directly.

Workforce educator retention has not been an issue: most apprentices want the help so that they can pass weekly class tests in each level of technical training, and ultimately their inter-provincial or Red Seal exams.

Resources Required

As a not-for-profit society, SkillPlan is partly funded through a collective bargaining agreement in which B.C. unions pay one cent (and in some cases, two cents) an hour for every hour their members work. Since the program was developed as a collective bargaining agreement, apprentices can access it through their union, at their own discretion, or with assistance from their union representative. SkillPlan generates additional revenues through a fee-for-service for special projects. Government-funded projects are also undertaken when the scope of work falls within SkillPlan’s objectives.

As a means to overcome limited funding for publication and distribution, SkillPlan started to include publication and distribution costs in its funding. SkillPlan employs four full-time workplace educators to provide direct assistance programs and develop trades-related publications. The skills and attributes these people require include:

Versatility to provide “just-in-time” training on a flexible schedule, using custom-designed curriculum;
Excellent instructional skills, including an ability to present the same information in different ways;
Strong interpersonal skills to work with managers, instructors and apprentices;
A healthy respect for and interest in the trades and a willingness to learn about them in detail; and
Independence and an ability to continue to learn, quickly determine instructor and apprentice needs, and respond to them.

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3.0 Benefits of Essential Skills Programs

SkillPlan views its activities as having an important impact on the individual and on industry. As a short-term benefit, anecdotal evidence indicates that the tutoring program has helped hundreds of apprentices to pass their technical exams. In a typical example, an apprentice in Terrace, BC, who had twice failed his third year apprenticeship exams was referred to SkillPlan. SkillPlan was able to analyze the need to challenge the third year, find a local tutor for the apprentice, and provide his tutor with trade-specific teaching tools for mathematics. The apprentice subsequently passed his third and fourth years and received journeyperson status. In the words of a Board member, “The man got a career, the industry got back the training it put into that person, and the sector got another journeyperson. Who loses?”²⁹

As importantly, SkillPlan educators maintain that helping a person master Essential Skills increases self-confidence. Apprentices start to believe that they can learn, that they are good learners and that they can continue to learn in their work and personal lives. SkillPlan believes that these attitudes, as much as the acquisition of Essential Skills themselves, are of enormous benefit to industry in the long term. It is clear that SkillPlan’s partner institutions also perceive a benefit from the services it offers, given the number of years they have worked with SkillPlan. A workplace educator noted:

“What the apprenticeship community can learn from our experience is that support for individuals is important, positive and necessary. There’s a huge population of apprentices out there and people have a need to be successful. As they proceed in their careers, these apprentices will become the supervisors, lead hands, company owners, and trades instructors of tomorrow. If we can make people come out of trades programs feeling positive about learning, that’s incredible.”³⁰

SkillPlan’s publications have enabled it to offer benefits to organizations outside of the construction sector. Many secondary schools and colleges from across Canada, for example, are integrating resources such as Numeracy Rules, Measurement for the Trades into prescribed curriculum. As a result, educators have trades-relevant materials with which they can teach and prepare students more realistically for a career in the trades.

In the larger context, SkillPlan sees itself as an ambassador between two communities: the formal education system and industry. Many institutions actively seek to meet industry needs, but lack clear direction on specific requirements. SkillPlan supports both communities by enabling industry to better define its requirements, communicating effectively to educators, and by providing educators with tangible tools to help them meet industry training needs.

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4.0 Success Factors

SkillPlan links its success to its industry partnerships. The organization does not exist on its own, rather, it is completely connected to the construction industry. With this attachment, SkillPlan has a vested interest in the economic success of the sector. At the same time, SkillPlan works in partnership. It listens well and is able to take information from industry on Essential Skills issues and find a solution for them. Industry values this responsiveness. Its ongoing direct contact with apprentices keeps SkillPlan abreast of industry trends and helps ensure that the publications it produces are relevant and its teaching strategies effective. In this regard, SkillPlan has facilitated a match between the National Literacy Secretariat’s national vision of developing tools to meet workplace Essential Skills needs and the needs of the construction industry by designing tools that meet all needs.

SkillPlan acted as a mediator between the National Literacy Secretariat’s interests and the industry’s needs. Understanding both needs, SkillPlan researched and designed the tools to meet these needs. The composition of SkillPlan contributed to the success of achieving the Secretariat’s national vision, and to the success of providing the construction sector with tangible products.

SkillPlan believes that it is a model that could be replicated in other provinces and for other industry sectors. The key to development is ensuring strong industry support and ongoing funding sources.

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5.0 Challenges

In its early years, SkillPlan faced several barriers. It had to raise industry awareness of Essential Skills issues and more fundamentally, come to a common understanding of the term “literacy”. A needs assessment showed that few in the industry were unable to read. The problems they faced were related to the ability to find and use information and comprehend trade documents in context. Industry needed to understand this nuance: someone with a grade 12 education did not necessarily have the math and reading skills that they needed to work effectively in a trade. Some managers felt that Essential Skills were the responsibility of the school system and were reluctant to get involved in upgrading initiatives, particularly since the construction workforce is highly mobile. Instructors in public and private training institutions had concerns about working with SkillPlan; they interpreted SkillPlan’s presence in the classroom as potential unspoken criticism of their teaching capabilities.

In addition, apprentices were often reluctant to identify themselves as having difficulties with reading and math. In response, in the words of the current Executive Director, SkillPlan had to “find a way to be useful” to the industry. It drew heavily upon the research that the federal government had carried out in developing the Essential Skills framework. Using these research findings, staff could link worker competency in Essential Skills to on-the-job success. Consequently, as employers understood the importance of these skills on the job they became more willing to support Essential Skills training.

SkillPlan also worked “one-by-one” meeting the specific needs of, for example, elevator operators for a study skills workshop, which, through its success, led other trades to contact SkillPlan for similar assistance. SkillPlan’s workplace educators built relationships with individual instructors from training institutions and proved the value of their assistance with teaching strategies. Satisfied with the tutoring they received, apprentices would refer other apprentices to the program. Slowly and largely by word of mouth, SkillPlan became known in the region’s construction industry and elsewhere.

The awareness issues that SkillPlan faced in the 1990s remain valid today. Many still view Essential Skills and literacy as the same issue. By this logic, some organizations change selection requirements, equating years in school with success on the job. In fact, many apprentices have a Grade 12 education but still require assistance with mastering Essential Skills as they apply to the trades.

Other challenges SkillPlan currently faces relate to funding and personnel. Funding is an issue for the organization because the funds received from unions under the collective bargaining agreement depend upon the number of hours worked. SkillPlan has worked to offset potential shortfalls by expanding its revenue-generating capabilities. It collects fees for specific project development, and applies for government funding for projects that “contribute to its objectives” (such as the BC ITA-sponsored project noted above).

Recruiting workplace educators can also be problematic. It can be difficult for the organization to compete against the job security of a public school system, where teaching and tutoring positions can be more lucrative. As well, as mentioned in the Resources section, workplace educators with SkillPlan require flexibility and a unique set of skills; finding the right person is seldom easy.

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6.0 Future Directions

A number of opportunities in professional development, addressing the Essential Skills perceptions issue, and ongoing program development exist for SkillPlan.

Professional Development: SkillPlan believes a need exists for further professional development of trainers, K-12 educators, workplace educators, and adult learning specialists. The idea is to bring together apprentices with “on-the-ground” educators who deliver upgrading. In this way, these groups can share experiences and discuss the best ways to help apprentices meet their goals. SkillPlan is currently undertaking a similar project with the tourism industry which is enjoying positive results.
Addressing Perceptions: SkillPlan sees a requirement to continue its work in addressing the perception that Essential Skills and literacy are the same. It wants the industry to see that the return on investment for Essential Skills interventions far outweigh the investment.
Ongoing Program Development: SkillPlan plans to expand its partnerships with trade unions and employers and continue to develop programs that benefit apprentices and are cost effective.

In addition, in 2006, SkillPlan began participating in a three-year research project, partially funded by BC’s Industry Training Authority (ITA) and Human Resources and Social Development Canada, to examine the impact of its early intervention strategies on apprentices in BC’s plumbing and pipefitting trades. This research will track apprentices enrolled in technical training at Pacific Vocational College in Burnaby, BC. They regularly work with SkillPlan workplace educators and will also provide a more formal evaluation of SkillPlan’s impact.

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