The challenges encountered by case study organizations during the development and implementation of the initiatives, as well as some of the planned and actual solutions to the challenges are identified in this section of the report. While some of the challenges identified are specific to a particular case study organization, a number of issues were common across most of the seven initiatives reviewed. These include: a lack of public awareness and understanding of Essential Skills, the capacity within communities to support an initiative, human resources, and a lack of resources for curriculum development.

5.1 Challenges Common among the Case Study Initiatives

A lack of public awareness and understanding of Essential Skills

A lack of public awareness and understanding of Essential Skills and the need to conduct training continues to be a challenge for different stakeholders. SkillPlan faced this issue in its early years when it had to raise industry awareness and, more fundamentally, arrive at a common understanding of the term “literacy”. Industry lacked the understanding that while few apprentices demonstrated difficulties in reading, the main problems related to their ability to find and use information and comprehend trade documents in context. Some managers felt that the instruction of Essential Skills was the responsibility of the school system, and were therefore reluctant to get involved in upgrade training initiatives, especially since the workforce in the construction sector was so mobile. Today, these challenges are still present for SkillPlan. Many still view Essential Skills and literacy as the same issue. Some organizations that used to equate an apprentice’s number of years in school with increased potential for success on the job have since changed their philosophy and selection requirements. Although many apprentices have a Grade 12 education, many still require assistance to master Essential Skills as they apply to the trades.

Similarly, the CARS Council continues to face this challenge among industry stakeholders. During one phase of the CARS Essential Skills project when CARS attempted to recruit participants for an assessment activity, stakeholders’ lack of understanding of Essential Skills issues and their potential impact on current and future industry performance created problems. Skepticism among industry stakeholders still exists as many ask: “What does this mean to me?” The CARS Council faces the continual challenge of finding ways to communicate to the industry about Essential Skills and their relevance. Recognizing this need, the CARS Council has included communications activities in the national Essential Skills strategy for the automotive repair and service sector. Based on the findings and recommendations from the phase I project, CARS Council has recently begun phase II of the Essential Skills project to promote the findings of its research to key stakeholders, develop additional occupational Essential Skills profiles, and develop assessment tools for Essential Skills that are hard to measure using a paper and pencil format (e.g. communication skills).

Nova Scotia identifies the challenge of raising awareness and educating members of the skilled trades community (businesses, educational communities, and employees) about the importance of Essential Skills. Awareness of this issue has improved among employers, but employers’ acceptance of their role in supporting Essential Skills training is another challenge. Awareness and acceptance of Essential Skills differs among employers of small, medium, and large businesses. Employers of smaller and medium-sized businesses are less aware and accepting of their role in supporting Essential Skills training than employers in larger sized businesses. One reason for this may be the lack of financial, human, or material resources characteristic of small- and medium-sized businesses.

Another challenge relates to the need to get information about Essential Skills training to non-organized groups such as small and medium-sized employers and Internationally Trained Workers. This is also linked to the issue of educating these groups about the support available for Essential Skills training.

Raising awareness about Essential Skills is also an issue within the educational community. In the case of SkillPlan, some instructors in public and private training institutions had concerns about working with SkillPlan; some interpreted SkillPlan’s presence in the classroom as an unspoken criticism of their teaching capabilities. One way to address this challenge is to inform educators that Essential Skills training is about teaching skills and not about content, and that there are different methods of delivering training of equal value. Nova Scotia recognizes this need and wherever possible, staff gives presentations to stakeholders (including other government departments) in an effort to communicate and educate about Essential Skills.

Finally, raising awareness among employees and apprentices about Essential Skills is challenging, particularly among mature or experienced employees who do not readily see the value in Essential Skills. Nova Scotia finds this to be the case with some apprentices of today’s generation who do not see how Essential Skills applies to the particular trade in which they are employed. “We’re trades people…we’re told what to do”²¹ is a perception held by those employees and apprentices who are reluctant to take Essential Skills training.

Keyano College often has to overcome participant resistance in acknowledging that they require Essential Skills training. Some participants feel uncomfortable acknowledging that they have problems with their reading skills and will more readily admit to problems with math. In 2000, this was the main reason for the low enrollment in the ERIC and SAM programs. The ERIC and SAM programs were initially advertised as “Adhoc Adult Literacy” programming rather than “Essential Skills”. Keyano College discovered that people did not want to be associated with a literacy program because it implied that they may be illiterate. As a result, the College changed its advertising. To address the overall issue of resistance, Keyano College ensures that the instructor presents material in a non-threatening way to help enhance participant confidence and overcome their reading or math fears.

Apprentices in the SkillPlan case study were also often reluctant to admit that they had difficulties with their reading and math skills. In response, SkillPlan had to “find a way to be useful”²² to the industry. It drew heavily upon the research that the federal government carried out in developing the Essential Skills framework. Using the research findings, staff could link worker competency in Essential Skills to on-the-job success. As employers understood the need for these skills on the job, they became more willing to support Essential Skills training. SkillPlan also worked “one-by-one” with the trades. Meeting the specific needs of one trade, for example, the development of a study skills workshop for elevator operators, led other trades to contact SkillPlan for similar assistance.

SkillPlan’s workplace educators established relationships with individual instructors at public and private training institutions and proved the value of their teaching strategies and assistance. 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.

There is a need to commit to training

Part of this issue is the continuous challenge of commitment to training. When, apprentice candidates and journeypersons do not understanding the benefits of training and continuous learning, they lack the motivation to take training. This makes the recruitment of students a huge challenge, particularly the more mature students/workers. Offering free training and linking the training directly to a job has helped somewhat to overcome this barrier.

Apprentice candidates’ overall attitude toward upgrade training and readiness for technical training in the trades was a challenge that Manitoba encountered. Candidates who did not have a desire to learn or improve themselves were difficult to successfully recruit. Generally, there is not a strong culture of classroom training among the trades, and those who self-identify their learning needs are sometimes stigmatized.

Sustainable funding for programs is necessary

Ensuring appropriate funding of programs and projects is another challenge identified by a number of the case study organizations. Manitoba is facing this issue. It has made a significant investment in the overall strategy, but future funding and support must be assured so that Essential Skills activities can expand and multiply. Manitoba’s next step is to move successfully-piloted Essential Skills services into existing adult education infrastructure, and create linkages between the Branch and those service providers. Additional funding and support will be required to make programs and services sustainable in the long run.

The continued success of the SkillPlan programs also depend upon continued funding. This is an issue for the organization because the amount of funds it receives from the unions under a collective bargaining agreement depends upon the number of hours its members work. SkillPlan expanded its revenue-generating capabilities in an effort to offset potential shortfalls. It collects fees to develop specific projects, and applies for government funding for projects that “contribute to its objectives”.

The biggest challenge currently facing the CCQ is the need to update their technical and Essential Skills training courses so that the curriculum remains current. This is labour-intensive and costly. Nevertheless, the CCQ and its partners are currently considering this course of action.

Recruitment and retention of appropriate human resources is a challenge

For most of the case study organizations, recruiting and retaining competent and experienced instructors and staff continues to be a challenge. Recruiting workplace educators can be problematic for SkillPlan because they compete against the job security of a public school system where teaching and tutoring positions can be more lucrative. Locating the “right” educator to deliver Essential Skills training is seldom easy for SkillPlan because they require workplace educators who can be flexibile and possess a unique set of skills.

As part of its future direction, SkillPlan has identified the need to offer specialized professional development courses to trainers, K-12 educators, workplace educators, and adult learning specialists. The idea is to bring together apprentices with “on-the-ground” educators who deliver upgrade training. In this way, these groups can share experiences and discuss the best ways to help apprentices to meet their goals. SkillPlan is currently undertaking a similar project with the tourism industry and has had positive results.

The OCN was faced with a challenge to deliver training when they encountered a lack of experienced instructors who were both familiar with carpentry skills and Essential Skills. The OCN overcame this problem by using a team-teaching approach, by providing ample materials development time, by including local instructors in the creation of curriculum, and by consulting with a retired college instructor who served as a mentor during the development of the course content.

Similarly for Keyano College, finding instructors for the ERIC program has always been a challenge. The course material is complex and the instructor must to know and be prepared to manage a wide variety of workplace-related documents. With SAM, finding instructors is easier, though the instructor must be highly skilled at solving workplace-related math problems.

Despite the Nova Scotia’s attempts to employ local trainers, locating trainers in rural areas continues to be a challenge. It is much more cost-effective to provide training to a group of students than it is to provide training to an individual. Sometimes though, it is not possible to organize group training in some of the rural areas where there are low numbers of students.

Finding and retaining good consultants (especially curriculum developers) when they are high in demand across the province is an issue the Manitoba Apprenticeship Branch continues to face. Similarly, locating and training innovative instructors to teach and develop materials for trades-related Essential Skills upgrade training was a challenge Manitoba encountered during the strategy’s implementation. Exposing more Essential Skills instructors or adult educators to the trades will ensure that a greater number of instructors are available to deliver Essential Skills training.

The Manitoba Apprenticeship Branch is also faced with the challenge of finding the necessary resources (staff and time) to forge partnerships with businesses and unions. This may become a stronger priority in the future if additional resources are available.

"There is a lack of key materials for curriculum integration

Finding trades-specific documents and materials to incorporate into the program and course curricula is also a challenge. Finding good documents and examples from the workplace to incorporate into the various course curricula was an issue for the Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and OCN case study organizations. As identified in the Manitoba case study, there is a shortage of teaching materials to which instructors can refer. Whereas a fair amount of trade math resources are available, Reading and Document Use materials are not. The burden of producing the necessary materials falls upon instructors. This can be complicated by an instructor’s lack of trades-specific experience and a lack of experience in turning authentic workplace documents into teaching resources.

The OCN program faced a lack of trades-specific course material, particularly for non-math areas such as Writing, Reading, and Document Use. The instructors developed their own course materials by drawing upon past experience and by 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 that formed the basis of training.

The CARS Council also encountered challenges in obtaining a broad sample of training curricula and materials from education/training organizations when they attempted to conduct a comparison of Essential Skills requirements for training with occupational requirements. A lack of understanding of Essential Skills issues among some education/ training organizations may explain why CARS had difficulty in obtaining the necessary material and information.

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5.2 Challenges Specific to Initiatives

This subsection briefly summarizes some of the issues specific to an Essential Skills initiative. From 2000-2003, Keyano College could not keep up with the demand for on-site workshops at Syncrude. However, in 2005 demand started to slow and the College did not deliver a single workshop to Syncrude employees because the company needed to keep workers on the job during a period of major expansion. This trend is expected to change between 2006 and 2010, since Syncrude anticipates that approximately 40% of its workforce will retire. New employees will be recruited and Essential Skills training will once again be in demand.

Within the Manitoba Apprenticeship Branch managing the many interdependencies of all projects and obtaining sufficient time, staffing, and resources for change management continues to be challenging and time-consuming. This will become more complex as the diversity of apprentice candidates and their needs grow. Related to this challenge is the issue of containing the “scope” of the strategy. That is, as the strategy evolves there is a concern that future demands will push beyond the system’s ability to respond. Managing long-term expectations and needs will be necessary to avoid this.

The OCN’s Essential Skills Program had to cover a broad and varied range of content because of the low and varied education levels among trainees, which was due, in part, to a lasting effect of the residential school system. This challenge was addressed in a number of ways. First, the Manitoba Apprenticeship Branch 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 program trainees were also asked to identify the five areas of the training program that caused them the most concern. This helped the instructors to 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 Essential Skills program was the lack of work experience opportunities available within the community at large, that is, on and off reserve. OCN addressed this problem by tying the program work experience for the carpenter trainees to infrastructure projects on the reserve, such as Band housing and renovations to the youth centre.

For the CCQ the uniqueness of the Aboriginal peoples’ culture and customs creates challenges for the integration of these workers and students into the overall construction sector workforce in Quebec. Adapting the training somewhat for Aboriginal students will address this barrier.

CARS Council faced a number of methodological challenges in its project. They needed to recruit participants from all areas of the country, for seven occupations, and for a range of candidates (students, apprentices, and journeypersons). It took considerable time and effort to obtain a representative sample of participants because CARS had to use a variety of methods to generate interest among the target participants. The timing of some of the project activities challenged the methodology and approach of the project. Out of necessity, the Assessment Tool had to be developed before (rather than after) the occupational profiles were completed. As a result, decisions regarding which Essential Skills would be assessed were made before the completed occupational profiles could identify the Essential Skills required of each occupation.

21. Ibid.
    
22. Interview from Case Study: Skill Plan – Essential Skills Project (2006).

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