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Peer Learning Guide mode launched in Lunenburg

They're sometimes called "co-worker instructors", "course leaders" or "peer tutors". They are facilitators who are members of the same union as those participating in literacy programs. Now, the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour (NSFL) has coined a new term to describe the idea of learning between equals, of workers instructing workers through workplace education - the peer learning guide.

The term came from a federation working group put together to develop a Nova Scotia approach to union-based literacy. The group met in Lunenburg July 14-17, 2002 to come up with a plan to add peer learning guides in the classroom. The idea was to strengthen the role of unions in workplace education.

Participants at the NSFL Lunenburg meeting.

To develop this approach, the federation linked with unions actively involved in literacy, negotiating partnership agreements with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP). Each union agreed to:

1. help develop the Peer Learning Guide model
2. identify a workplace as a pilot site
3. provide learning resources to programs.

The unions also agreed to attend a meeting to establish a working relationship with the provincial Department of Education and to take part in the NSFL Literacy Institute in 2003.

The Department of Education has a strong program of Workplace Education, with a network of Skills Development Co-ordinators across the province. The NSFL believes that adding Peer Learning Guides, who would be certified by the NSFL and the Department, will help strengthen the union's role in the classroom.

The Lunenburg meeting was an historic event. It brought together resource people with hands-on experience with sister models in Ontario and B.C., national and local union representatives, and Department of Education staff. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) sent delegates to the meeting as observers .