Literacy & Basic Skills Update SDAG August 18, 2009

1. Literacy & Basic Skills Update SDAG August 18, 2009 Employment and Training Division Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities

2. Table of Contents • Background • Literacy and Basic Skills • LBS Budget Initiative FY09/10 • Literacy and Basic Skills Services 1

3. Background • 2009 Budget allocated $45M annually for two years to expand literacy and basic skills training helping up to 13,000 more Ontarians each year. • $30M has been distributed across the current Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) delivery and support system to address pressures being experienced by both in-person and e-channel literacy delivery as more people are seeking literacy skills training to prepare themselves for new training and employment • The $30M was distributed according to the existing LBS funding framework and therefore more of the money was allocated to programs serving learners at LBS levels 1 to low level 4 • $15M remains for Literacy Projects 2

4. Literacy and Basic Skills • Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS), including academic upgrading (AU), serves primarily Adult Learners who want to improve their literacy and numeracy skills to achieve their goals of further education and training, employment, or increased independence; whose literacy skills are below Grade 12 of the Ontario Curriculum; and who have facility in English or French • The LBS Program is delivered through a service delivery network of 200 transfer payment agencies including colleges of applied arts and technology, school boards, and community-based organizations at about 300 sites throughout the province. • LBS programming is available to Anglophone, Francophone, Aboriginal, and Deaf adult learners. • The LBS program, including academic upgrading (AU), assisted about 48,528 learners in 2007-08 with 67% of exiting learners going on to further education and employment. The number of learners served and their rate of success has increased steadily since 2003-04. 3

5. Literacy and Basic Skills Observation: Close to 80% of current LBS learner activity is focused at the elementary level; this does not mean, however, that employment is not an expected outcome at lower levels 4

6. Literacy and Basic Skills • TCU has agreements with 11 LBS support organizations: • Provincial Sectoral Networks: Delivery Agencies fit into three delivery categories or sectors. These three sectors are Community-based, School Board and Community College. Each of these sectors is supported by a Provincial Sectoral Network organization. • Provincial Umbrella Organizations: The four delivery streams, Anglophone, Francophone, Native and Deaf/Deaf blind, are each represented by a provincial umbrella organization. • Support/Service Organizations: There are also three provincial organizations providing support services, primarily the publishing of stream-specific resources and resource support for programs in all streams. • Network: The province of Ontario has been divided into 16 regions each of which has a Regional Network Organization. These are managed by TCU consultants in the regional offices. 5

7. Literacy and Basic Skills • Since March 2000, MTCU has embraced the potential of “distance and flexible” delivery of literacy and basic skills training. E-Channel is an innovative way to deliver online literacy training to assist individuals who face barriers due to rural and remote locations, transportation, conflicts with work schedules or family and dependant care commitments. 6

8. LBS Budget Initiative FY09/10 • The 2009 Ontario Budget announced $90 million over two years to expand literacy and basic skills training. • On July 2, 2009 the Minister of Training Colleges and Universities announced details about the investment in literacy training resulting from Ontario’s 2009 Budget. This announcement outlined that an additional $30 million to LBS Service Delivery Agencies to support an increase for in-person delivery • All LBS delivers will receive a portion of this funding.  The formula that we used to distribute funding is $20,000 flat increase plus a 26.5% increase based on 2008/2009 based funding. 7

9. LBS Budget Initiative FY09/10 • There will also be a $20,000 flat increase to umbrella and support organizations. • $5M to support a service increase for e-channel delivery • This funding included an increase for each of the 3 e-channel stream leads- Anglophone, Francophone and Native; additional funding for ACE on-line; funding for coordination and management of platform and PLATO Essential Skills Online curriculum; and funding for equipment upgrades • The recommended option supports the diverse characteristics of the literacy service delivery network. It offers both small and large service delivery agencies the ability to increase their services levels while taking into account the challenges of capacity faced by smaller agencies. 8

10. Literacy and Basic Skills Services • 59% of training delivered is literacy level 1 – 3 training; 22% is literacy level 4 – 5; 17% is academic upgrading. • Training in provided through classroom, small group one-on-one or on the web. • The success of LBS is supported by over 3,400 volunteers who spend approx 70% of their time delivering training to learners (approx. 196,700 volunteer hours). • Funding is also provided to support LBS research & development projects. 9

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