The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) manages the Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) Program for adults who need assistance in developing literacy skills or who seek admission to Academic Upgrading (AU). Employment Ontario delivers the LBS Program. Employment Ontario funds literacy agencies (community-based organizations, school boards and colleges) to provide LBS training.

MTCU also promotes literacy in Ontario by encouraging and supporting research and development initiatives in literacy, as well as by ensuring that agencies offering the LBS Program have the support necessary to provide quality literacy services. Among those supports are provincial coalitions, regional literacy networks, sectoral networks, and literacy services.

The LBS Program recognizes that the issue of literacy in Ontario reflects the province’s diversity. Thus, the program supports literacy upgrading for Anglophone, Francophone, Native, and Deaf and Blind learners, an approach that improves access to literacy services for all Ontarians.

The Objectives of the LBS Program

The objectives of the Literacy and Basic Skills Program are to:

• help Ontario move towards a seamless adult education system that supports lifelong learning
• support literacy agencies in providing quality services that meet learners’ needs
• design literacy services for those adults most in need of them
• ensure accountability to government, to the public, and to learners
• foster closer links between literacy training and employment.

The LBS Program focuses primarily on people who are unemployed, with a special emphasis on Ontario Works participants. It recognizes the close links literacy training has with employability and independence.

The LBS Program currently provides funding support to 219 service delivery agencies in Ontario across four cultural service streams (Anglophone, Francophone, Native and Deaf and Deaf blind).

In 2007–2008, 51,000 learners received LBS and AU training services in 350 program sites that are based in community, school, and college settings across the province. AU is delivered only by colleges. In the past two years, colleges have partnered with deliverers in other sectors (community and school board) to expand accessibility to AU. Thirty-five Adult Upgrading Partnership sites provide Academic and Career Entrance (ACE) courses to under-served and under-represented groups, including first generation learners, Aboriginal and Francophone learners, persons with disabilities, and remote/rural learners.

MTCU, Employment Ontario and the LBS Programs
LBS and other Employment Ontario programs serve similar clients. Ensuring that each client receives the type of support required makes it important for Employment Ontario programs to understand how LBS programs work.

How LBS Agencies Work with Other Employment Ontario Providers

LBS agencies have both a responsibility and a mandate to refer adults to the most appropriate program to help them meet their personal, training, and employment goals.

Any EO delivery agency is a doorway into the LBS system. The system is customer focused; therefore it is not based on putting people in seats but on identifying which services need to be brought together to support an individual’s pathway. For example, a literacy client might have need for employment counselling, housing services, child care services, and income support. The LBS agencies will help the client access those services. They will also ensure that the client is directed to the literacy program most suited to their needs. Literacy agencies do inter-agency referrals as well as referring to other services in the broader community such as Ontario Works, Job Connect, Apprenticeship, Early Years, etc.

Literacy learners frequently graduate or transition from programs with goals that take them on to other Employment Ontario stakeholder programs. Depending on a learner’s desired destination, literacy programs leverage the relationships they have nurtured with other Employment Ontario stakeholders such as Job Connect and Apprenticeship to create a seamless pathway towards the learner’s goal. Job Connect and literacy staff often cross-refer EO clients to ensure that those who are experiencing literacy as a barrier to employment get the basic skills and employment supports they need to be successful.

*The following information is taken from OLC’s publication Literacy in Ontario, OLC, 2009