Essential Skills Online

The Foreign Credential Recognition Project kicks off as a national field-test in January 2008, marking another milestone in TOWES history.

Also known as the Essential Skills Online (ESO) project, this undertaking has been in development since the beginning of 2007 when Human Resources and Social Development Canada partnered with TOWES and Bow Valley College.

TOWES has developed an online tool to aid foreign-credentialed immigrants in improving three Essential Skills (reading text, document use, and numeracy). By improving these skills, new Canadians will increase their employability and earning potential.

This Essential Skills training tool is critical for immigrants. The Canadian labour market is rapidly evolving. Statistics Canada estimates all the new labour market growth by 2011 will come solely from immigration. Many immigrants arrive in Canada with the required technical education and training for their occupation; however, they often have low levels of Essential Skills, which adds an element of risk for successful employment.

Statistics Canada also identified a gap between the earnings of immigrants when compared with Canadian workers. Nationally, it is estimated that six out of ten immigrants have inadequate Essential Skills for the Canadian workplace. More statistical information can be found on the ESO information link.

The online program is geared specifically to skills required for safe and productive employment in the Canadian workforce. The online tool uses authentic Canadian workplace documents from a variety of occupations and provides instruction for new Canadians to effectively navigate and use documents to complete workplace tasks. The content is organized into modules which cover specific learning strategies for reading text, document use, and numeracy. All of the learning strategies build upon each other throughout the modules. Learners will be presented with a lesson and will practise what they have learned several times.

The content has been designed with language that is simple and clear, the concepts are repetitive and easy to learn, the interface is uncluttered and neutral, navigation is simple and accessible, and the focus is on the concepts not animations.

For more information, see the ESO information link, which contains a list of project partners, links to research and statistics, and a one-page handout.