Resources

 Coordinating to Bring Low Literacy and Marginalized Clients to Employment

This Labour Market Partnership project focused on individuals who have less than a grade 12 level of functional ability and who struggle to find jobs with their skill levels in the Western Region of Ontario. In Ontario, there are many programs that have been designed to address the needs of this target group. However, Literacy Link South Central saw a need for community coordination in order to effectively use this range of community programs to achieve an effective outcome for lower-skilled Ontarians – namely, employment.

Ten different strategies were piloted as part of this project, focused on how the Regional Networks can further coordinate local services to enhance employment outcomes for lower-skilled Ontarians. The strategies are shared and analyzed in this helpful report.

 Essential Skills Profiles

The Government of Canada has created a helpful “Essential Skills Profiles” website.

The Essential Skills Profiles are listed in alphabetical order by job. The jobs listed range from Appliance Servicers and Repairers, to Kitchen Helpers, to Waste Water Operators. Under each job link are the descriptions of the nine essential skills generally performed by the average worker. Tasks are rated

from basic to advanced within that job.

The Essential Skills Profiles provides a great list of tasks a learner would need for a job and an excellent way to match current skills to potential jobs. Essential Skills Profiles can be used to help learners make a plan that shows the steps to reach their career goal. This website is also a great way to explore jobs and skills prior to starting learning. 

 Ministry of Transportation Handbooks

The Ministry of Transportation has a variety of official handbooks, including:

Driver’s Handbook

This handbook is designed for anyone learning to drive in Ontario. It's all here - rules of the road, safe driving practices and how to get a licence to drive a car, van or small truck.

https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook

Bus Handbook

This handbook was created for anyone applying for a licence to operate a bus or school bus. This guide provides the information needed to qualify for class B, C, E or F driver's licences.

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/handbook/bus/index.shtml

Truck Handbook

This handbook was developed for people interested in applying for a class A or D driver's licence. This resource shares the information people need to understand what's expected during a driving test.

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/trucks/handbook/index.shtml

Air Brake Handbook

This guide provides the information people need to know when applying for an Air Brake (Z) Endorsement on their licences.

https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-air-brake-handbook/           

 Food Safety: A Guide for Ontario’s Food Handlers

The “Food Safety Guide” is an excellent resource to use with learners who are interested in employment in the food industry. Safe food handling critically important in order to keep people safe from illness and disease and to produce the highest quality food possible.

The “Food Safety Guide” covers the following topics:

• Foodborne illnesses
• Microorganisms
• Time and temperature
• Receiving and storage
• Microbiological contamination
• Personal hygiene
• Cleaning and sanitizing
• Pest control
• Food safety management

 Landscape and Grounds Worker Maintenance Curriculum

The Landscaping and Grounds Maintenance Worker Curriculum is 327 pages long and contains instructional materials, learning activities, tips, resources and practitioner notes.

This curriculum contains the following chapters.

• Introduction
• Working with Plants
• Planting
• Grounds Maintenance
• Landscaping Math
• Safety at Work

 Learning to Earning Videos

The purpose of the Learning to Earning videos is to showcase how and why literacy/adult upgrading can be part of a learner’s future success. Job seekers can view the videos for free online. The information contained in the videos shows job seekers how they can utilize the services of Ontario’s Literacy and Basic Skills Agencies to help them succeed in their job search.

The videos are:

• Learning To Earning: Music Video
• Learning to Earning: Stephen’s Story
• Learning to Earning: Preparing for Apprentices
• Learning to Earning: Real People, Real Stories

The final report can be downloaded below.

 National Occupational Classification

The “National Occupational Classification” (NOC) is Canada’s national system for describing occupations.

You can search the NOC website to find where an occupation is classified or to learn about its main duties, educational and employment requirements, skill levels and other useful information.

The “National Occupational Classification” is a massive online database of occupations and comprises about 30,000 job titles! It is a helpful resource for career planning and labour market information.

The website is easy searchable via job title or via the 4-digit NOC code.

 Ontario's Labour Market

The Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development develops and maintains an excellent website on Ontario’s labour market. This website contains a goldmine of helpful resources, including information about labour market statistics, work trends, and the skills, education and training people need for jobs today, and in the future. This labour market information is extremely useful to help adult learners assess their goals and plan for employment.

Topics covered include:

• Links to help people find jobs and search for employment in Ontario – or Canada
• A recent snapshot of Ontario’s labour market
• A quiz to help people find jobs that may be a good fit for their skills, interests and aptitude.
• Links to over 500 job profiles
• Labour market reports on current job trends in Ontario

 Skilled Trades in Ontario Website

The Skilled Trades in Ontario website houses a wide variety of information and resources pertaining to the skilled trades in Ontario. Job seekers can access a list of different skilled trades, a job bank, and resources to help them succeed in their job search.

The website covers topics such as:

• Apprenticeship
• Success stories
• How to certify in Ontario if you’ve been certified elsewhere
• How to apply to College and gain a certification
• Trade equivalency assessment
• And much more…

 Workforce Essential Skills

This guide examines what workforce Essential Skills programming is, how it can be designed and who benefits from it. Workforce Essential Skills is a pre-employment adult education approach that extends beyond job search and résumé writing, to focus on helping participants develop the abilities they will need on the job.

This resource guides organizations through a five-stage process of implementation:

• Stage 1: Needs identification
• Stage 2: Resource allocation
• Stage 3: Program design
• Stage 4: Implementation
• Stage 5: Refinement