Nunavut and NWT Literacy Councils

Over the past several years the Nunavut and NWT Literacy Councils have worked hard to build capacity and to create resources for community-based family literacy. Right now they have limited capacity or resources for workplace and workforce literacy.

Their family literacy experience shows that optimal learning takes place when it involves elders, parents and children; when it’s culturally relevant; and when there is a community context for learning.

Community capacity builds as local people take interest and learn to run a program or participate in one, and as people use and develop resources such as manuals and other tools.

These programs are part of the learning continuum for adults with low literacy skills. Less formal training is often a needed first step between the isolation of low literacy and more formal training. The basic principles that promote successful family literacy programs may provide some useful ideas and models for effective workplace and workforce literacy.

Collaboration models

Other jurisdictions provide some examples of models for stakeholder partnerships. See Appendix B for details of eight different models. Some common elements of these collaboration models include the following:

• Individual members vary depending on the main objective of the partnership. Potential partners include government, labour, business, educational institutions, instructors, workers, industry and apprenticeship associations and boards, and non-profit groups.
• Each partnership has a clear vision and objectives. Most aim to serve a particular target group such as people with low literacy skills or workers for a particular industry such as construction.
• Collaborations do actual work to achieve their objectives that may include one or more of the following:
  • Carry out needs assessments; develop and deliver customized workplace and workforce literacy programs.
  • Promote workplace and workforce literacy, and share information about the benefits.
  • Provide workshops and other activities to train instructors who specialize in workplace and workforce literacy.
  • Develop and share resources, including program materials.
  • Partnerships often identify principles of best practices to guide their work.
• Partnerships share the costs to carry out their work. Funding comes from federal and provincial/territorial governments and other partners.