WWestNet's The bottom line

The lead article in this issue describes a Calgary company’s initiatives to help employees whose first language is Vietnamese improve their command of English with the goal of making the workplace safer.

Another article describes Applications of Working and Learning (AWAL), a one-day professional development activity to help teachers show students how the curriculum they are learning in the classroom is used in the workplace.

This issue focuses exclusively on BHP Billiton Diamonds Incorporated’s Ekati Diamond Mine, located in the Barren Lands of the Northwest Territories. It outlines the company’s commitment to building a sustainable Aboriginal and Northern workforce, while dealing simultaneously with the low literacy skills of a significant portion of the pool of available employees.

This issue’s lead article focuses on the award received by Winnipeg-based Bristol Aerospace for its efforts in workplace literacy. Bristol implemented its Adult Basic Education (ABE) program in 1995.

This issue contains an article dealing with an impact study carried out in Alberta to identify and address essential-skills needs in food-processing plants. The study was undertaken by the Alberta Food Processors Association (AFPA), in partnership with the Alberta Workforce Essential Skills Steering Committee (AWES)

This issue includes an account of a Winnipeg conference on training for the high-performance workplace and an update on trials for the first sets of questions for the Test of Workplace Essential Skills (TOWES).

An article in this issue focuses on the political issues underlying the development and delivery of essential-skills programs in the workplace. During a two-day workshop, practitioners and expert speakers discussed the need to understand the values and positions of stakeholders in workplace education.

This issue includes an article about a partnership between Bow Valley College (formerly Alberta Vocational College – Calgary) and educational institutions in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, the project combines skills-based technical instruction with hands-on entrepreneurial experience. Canadian labour representatives are also involved in the project.

This issue features an article on the movement by organized labour, particularly in western and northern Canada, to increase its role in providing basic education to working people. The goal is to see literacy become a tool for workers to effect social and economic change.

This issue includes an article on the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour’s Worker’s Education for Skills Training (WEST) program, which received a Training for Excellence award from the Saskatchewan Labour Force Development Board.

Another article deals with the lack of awareness of workplace essential skills revealed by the Linkage Project undertaken by Workplace Education Manitoba.

This issue of the newsletter contains articles about the completion of a needs assessment of essential skills by the Construction Owners’ Association of Alberta; crossing cultural gaps with workers for whom English is a second language; and the establishment of WoodLINKS, a partnership between the British Columbia education system and the wood-products industry to increase awareness of careers in that field.