The SCALES Project

Supporting Canadian Advancement of Literacy & Essential Skills

Although a shortage of skills and labour has been reported, many recently laid-off workers and workers attempting to rejoin the workforce are winding up un-and underemployed, due to an inability to identify and document their skills. CONNECT, funded by HRSDC, has developed an exciting multi-year project, the SCALES project, with a national scope, that will catalogue the LES tools currently available to employment counselors.  Once the tools have been collected, a gap analysis will be done, and a series of models and tools will be developed to fill in the under-developed areas. From there, CONNECT will pilot and market the resulting tools/models to employment counselors and will also work on LES awareness-raising amongst the workers seeking employment. Remember:

LES is MORE

Literacy and Essential Skills is My Opportunity for Rewarding Employment

Project Documents

Please click here to download the SCALES Project Executive Summary.

Please click here to download the SCALES Environmental Scan.

Please click here to download the SCALES Research Report.

Goals

Objectives

The project has the following objectives:

  • Integrate an LES approach into existing employment counseling measures,
  • Increase the capacity of service providers and employment counselors to provide accurate assessment and referral services
  • Introduce and build confidence of adult learners in relation to LES in order to assess their skill levels to develop action plans for re-entry into the workforce or retraining options.

The project’s overall goal is to provide models/tools to identify the literacy and essential skills of adults, improving their employability and supporting them in obtaining jobs and/or increasing their employment prospects.  Ultimately this will ensure Canada’s workforce will be skilled and trained to meet new job demands and narrowing the labour gap.