In the past few years, the training and recognition of Workplace Education Practitioners has attracted increasing attention across Canada. A variety of local and national training initiatives, many of them funded by the National Literacy Secretariat (NLS), have been undertaken. These initiatives (conferences, certification programs, training events, summer institutes) have helped Workplace Education instructors, peer tutors and consultants to enter the field, expand skills or stay abreast of current trends. Shorter workshops have been offered to augment basic training by providing information on more specialized topics. Mentoring and networking, both electronic and in-person, have created other important opportunities for professional development.

Now discussions have turned to ways of documenting and recognizing the growing expertise, so that the continued growth and diversification of the field can be supported.

To explore common needs and interests among Canadian practitioners, and to consider how issues of training and recognition might be approached in the future, the NLS invited a group of field experts to a Workplace Education Practitioners' Forum in Winnipeg, Manitoba in March 1999. This Forum was attended by 30 practitioners with Workplace Education experience in a variety of areas: educational institutions, provincial and federal government, labour, industry, ESL, community-based literacy, train-the-trainer, vocational and rural programming, etc.

Objectives

First and foremost, the objective of the Forum was to create an opportunity for participants from across Canada to have an initial discussion on practitioner development and recognition. More specifically, the Forum hoped to bring out participants' views on:

• the roles and working contexts of Workplace Education Practitioners in different regions
• the identification of basic competencies required for a variety of practitioner roles
• different methods of professional development and expertise-building
• common needs and interests in training and/or recognition
• potential models for more comprehensive training and/or recognition
• a national communication infrastructure

Based on the collective feedback, a process was to be suggested for addressing issues with broader representation from specific stakeholder groups in the future.

Workplace Education Practitioners' Forum
Summary Report