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Assessments are tools that sample a person's knowledge in order to develop a pathway for the planning of learning. Many factors affect the outcomes of assessment, some pertaining to the tool itself and others to the context in which the tool is used. This report focuses on the second set of components, those that go beyond the actual tool itself. In particular, it focuses on common or centralised assessments in the literacy field, defined as assessments administered by a trained assessor who has a neutral interest in a client's potential pathways. Using the Educational Essential Skills Assessment (EESA) as a case study, it examines the strengths and weaknesses of common assessment in Ontario. EESA is an assessment tool developed by the Adult Basic Education Association of Hamilton-Wentworth (ABEA). The assessment is individualised, indicates both the literacy and basic skills (LBS) and the essential skills (ES) levels the client requires to achieve their goal, and provides an Educational Action Plan to move a client from a current level of skill to a required level of skill for their training and employment goal. In 2009, the EESA was piloted in several regions of Ontario to explore the concept of centralised assessment, and to expand an already identified process and practice to a broader region. The target audience was clients accessing Second Career (SC) and Ontario Skills Development (OSD).

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This report is one of a series that explore a number of the most important issues currently impacting the skills ecosystem in Canada. Whether it's new technology or global events driving the pace of change, Canadians are being asked to adapt in the workplace. Canada needs an essential skill framework that includes and looks beyond simple literacy and numeracy. It needs to include the 'soft skills' that industry leaders say are key to success and other essential skills that will help Canadians adapt, no matter what comes their way. Each needs to be measured and tracked to ensure Canadians remain globally competitive, and this paper argues that renewing Canada's Essential Skills framework is the place to start.

Key messages are: (1) it is estimated that half of working-aged adults are without the literacy skills required to perform well in the majority of jobs in the economy or to learn the skills required for new ones; (2) there is growing demand not only for technological skills, but also 'soft skills', such as resilience, emotional stability, flexibility and adaptability; and if skills and competencies are the new workplace 'currency', we need shared approaches to understanding how to define, evaluate and develop them; and (3) in spite of evidence of the positive impact and return on investment from literacy and essentials skills upgrading, the private sector is not stepping up; Canadians lag behind a number of countries in participation of many forms of adult education and literacy training; and a lack of employer investments in essential skills training is an important barrier for many adults with low literacy rates.

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This project addresses the nationally recognized need to develop and deliver a robust package of work-based assessment (WBA) tools for health professional students in diverse clinical settings as a means of testing their teamwork competencies and interprofessional collaboration in the workplace. Teamwork competencies are included as both graduate attributes in general and in healthcare curricula in particular but are rarely assessed. The authors provide an assessment framework that not only assesses students individually as team members but also considers a team as a single entity with a view to enhancing team performance. This partnership of one Canadian and four Australian universities reviews and evaluates existing WBA tools for teamwork across the health professions and develops a framework and instruments for formative assessment - including the iTOFT (individual teamwork observation and feedback tool) - that are valid, reliable, feasible and suitable for the provision of timely and constructive feedback to students. The authors will pilot the instruments at multiple sites and evaluate their educational impact over the project's three years. Show less

In agreement with the E. J. Barker Fellowship awarded in 2004 by the University of Ballarat, a study tour of Canadian correctional institutions was undertaken in June/July of 2005. Canada is considered a world leader in corrections. Correctional Services of Canada maintains regular contact with corrections systems in other countries to share experiences and work together to develop solutions to correctional issues. Specifically areas of interest were the Canadian educational programs, their assessment processes, their indigenous programs and their reintegration programs for ex-offenders. [The paper provides a brief overview of the mission, role and programs of Correctional Services of Canada].

Published excerpt reprinted with permission from ACEA.

The conference CD-ROM is indexed at TD/TNC 83.352. Selected papers are indexed from TD/TNC 83.353 to TD/TNC 83.377. Show less

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to highlight the contradictions in the current maritime education and training system (MET), which is based on competency-based education, training and assessment, and to theorize the failure to make the training useful. Design/methodology/approach - A case study of education and training in the international maritime domain was conducted. Data sources include historical documents, rules and regulations concerning MET, syllabi, handouts, sample questions, field notes, an ethnographic study in a maritime college and interviews conducted with experienced mariners and course lecturer. Findings - There are contradictions in the education and training system that do not allow the targeted objectives to be fulfilled. Fundamentally, the assessment system has changed the objectives of the education and training practices from learning skills and knowledge required on-board ships to passing competency examinations. Practical implications - The practical implication of this research is valuable for the International Maritime Organization, marine administration and maritime training institutes to think over the competency-based system in practice today and how to improve the present maritime training and assessment system in order to achieve its authentic objectives. Originality/value - This research identified and bridged the gap in literature and research of competency-based training and assessment in the maritime domain and provides practical solutions for improving this system.

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This report responds to OECD's questions by providing information on policies and activities in British Columbia. Formal education, non-formal and informal learning in British Columbia occur within a diversified post-secondary educational system, consisting of both public and private institutions. Components covered include: Demographic change; Internationalization; New ICT; Economic development and skills shortage/mismatch; Social developments; Description of institutional arrangements; Government and the role of government; Resources; Qualifications, qualification systems, qualifications framework; Credit accumulation and transfer; Assessment methods and procedures; Characteristics of stakeholders; Access; Participation; Incentives and disincentives; Economic benefits; Educational benefits; Social benefits; and Personal benefits.

The pan-Canadian overview is indexed at TD/TNC 92.610. Individual province/territory reports are indexed from TD/TNC 92.611 to TD/TNC 92.620. Show less

An early consensus in the ongoing discourse about graduate student preparation for diverse careers was that graduates lacked competencies relevant to non-academic professional settings. Lists of missing 'skills' were developed that universities and agencies sought to address, most commonly by the offering of generic (transferable) skills workshops or courses. In this paper, [the authors] critique this framing of the issue and discuss the limitations of the common approaches taken to address it. [The authors] propose a more integrated approach, where students' thesis research itself is oriented to their possible futures (a practice already occurring in many areas), and where assessment of the competencies so developed is integral to the awarding of the degree. [The authors] illustrate the concepts through the stories of two students, and discuss policy ramifications and the substantial challenges to its realization presented by a highly competitive research environment and established ways of assessing success in faculty and students.

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This literature review on measuring non-academic outcomes in adult literacy programs is meant to provide information and, possibly, direction for the research team involved in a project to measure non-academic outcomes in learners from community based programs in Ontario. The author has gathered over 100 references related to this topic, some of which are very relevant and some of which are only peripherally so.

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Quality in higher education matters. Quality is achieved when graduates of Ontario's colleges and universities master a rounded set of skills essential to success in their lives and careers. Quality is achieved when graduates enter the labour market with skills that support the needs of a modern, knowledge-based, fast-evolving economy. Given that graduates often end up working in jobs unrelated to their field of study, transferable skills are as much the responsibility of higher education as is traditional discipline-specific content. The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) and 20 institutional partners conducted two pilots - the Essential Adult Skills Initiative and the Postsecondary and Workplace Skills project - to assess literacy, numeracy, problem solving and critical thinking using field-proven tests that were administered on a voluntary basis to first-year and final-year students. These pilot studies confirmed that the implementation of this kind of skills evaluation is entirely feasible on a large scale. The authors also witnessed a thirst among institutions to know more, and a willingness among students to participate.

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This study empirically addresses the claim made by Gibbons et al (The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 1994) that a novel form of quality control (associated with Mode 2 knowledge production) is supplementing the ‘traditional’ peer-review process (associated with Mode 1 knowledge production). A qualitative design was used to explore faculty members’ views on the criteria for assessing scientific research. Ninety-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with biomedical scientists, clinical scientists, and social scientists working in Canadian universities. Results show that the vast majority of participants are aligned with the ‘traditional’ Mode 1 peer-reviewed procedures for assessing research and defining scientific excellence. These participants asserted that peer review is the best quality control mechanism for assessing scientific research, and peer recognition the key attribute for legitimacy in the academic arena. In contrast, participants ascribed a low value to non-academics’ judgment of their work. While the study findings do not provide support Gibbons et al.’s claim, they add to a growing body of evidence that supports the continuing importance of peer review in academic career success.

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