The Winkler and District Chamber of Commerce agreed to take the lead on this project on behalf of businesses throughout the Pembina Valley.
Implementation of the project began with the formation of an Advisory Board, representative of regional employers, and Chambers of Commerce. Every effort was made to include representatives from each town and municipality in the Pembina Valley Region. The main activity of the project revolved around the application of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) practices to occupations within the workplace. * It should be noted that during the course of the project, the terminology was changed from Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) to Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)
In the Pembina Valley area, a few key employers identified that there was a need to take a systematic approach to recruitment and training of immigrant employees. When introduced to the concept of Workplace Prior Learning and Recognition, they expressed an interest in implementing WPLAR as part of a Determining and Addressing Workplace Needs project. Employers made a commitment to stabilizing and growing immigrant worker opportunities by developing the DAWN Project.
The next step was to identify existing partners for the project. For DAWN, this meant local groups/organizations, as well as provincial partners, who provide services for immigrants.
Provincial and local agencies that support immigration, worker skill development, and Workplace Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (WPLAR) were approached, and expressed strong support of the DAWN Project:
- South Central Settlement & Employment Services
- Pembina Valley Language & Education for Adults
- English at Work
- Red River College, Winkler Campus
- Workplace Education Manitoba (WEM)
- Competitiveness, Training & Trades Manitoba
- Manitoba Immigrants’ Safety Initiative
PROPOSAL FOR FUNDING
Once the need for the project is established, application to an appropriate funding body may be made. The DAWN Project proposal was developed in response to a call for proposals from the Government of Canada’s Workplace Skills Initiative.
ROLLS OF STAFF/ADVISORY BOARD
Clearly defined roles were established for the Advisory Board Members, Project Manager and Staff.
TOOLS:
- Hiring of Staff -Once funding was secured, staff was hired to carry out the objectives of the project.
Initial Plan
The DAWN Project commenced with the hiring of 2 key positions: a full time Skills Developer, and a part-time Project Coordinator. The initial plan was to have the Coordinator responsibilities taken on by the Executive Director of South Central Settlement and Employment Services.
Challenges/Learnings
As the project evolved, it became apparent that aside from the Skills Developer, it was necessary to have a Project Coordinator on staff on at least a part-time basis, as well as additional support from an administrative/ tech support position. This was beyond the scope of the original plan, so a part-time Project Coordinator was hired, as well as an Administrative Assistant.
Best Practices
What worked for this project was to have a full time Skills Developer (40 hrs/week), a part-time Project Coordinator (24 hrs/week), and a part-time Administrative Assistant (24 hrs/week).
DATA COLLECTION
The first months of the project were devoted to broadly identifying the training needs of employers and immigrant employees in order to provide insight into the types, intensity ,and duration of training needs from the employers’ and employees’ perspectives. Employers, project staff, and immigrant job resource providers worked together to establish formal and informal occupation specific assessment and training processes based on a PLAR process. Where available, the project accessed existing occupation specific training profiles for review and editing during PLAR training.
During this stage of the DAWN Project, the following needs were identified.
- Human Resource officers in the region expressed a definite concern and awareness of a considerable language barrier issue among immigrant employees in the region
- Employers know there is a training need, based on other problems that are a product of the lack of employee knowledge, such as low productivity or a high error rate, but have been unable to pinpoint the specific base concern. At this point, the HR officers who were interviewed were very vaguely, if at all, familiar with Essential Skills.
- The provincial coordinator for the Industry Training Partnerships (Province of MB) has found that on the whole, employers in the Pembina Valley Region have not seen the need for improving employee Essential Skills.
- The challenge identified for the DAWN Project was to attempt to adjust this mindset in order to show employers that improved Essential Skills will, in fact, improve and solve many of their concerns.
- HR officers stated that, on average, top management need to have time to buy into a philosophy. It was suggested to have a short training session for management and owners of participating businesses regarding the need for Essential Skills and the knowledge of Workplace Culture.
- Employers expressed considerable concern regarding the issue of the DAWN project covering the cost of replacement workers. In an area where the unemployment rate is low, this has been identified as an unworkable aspect of the project.
- Further consultation with the Province of MB. Industry Training Partnership staff advised against following a traditional “PLAR Portfolio” (consisting of items such as copies of certification, resume, letters of reference, work samples, and career/educational/training/employment goals). Rather, the suggestion was to provide a Skills Portfolio including a built-in progress monitoring document as the main item, with accompanying documents for data collection (such as a job description, a form of the Essential Skills Profile, the DAWN Outcomes form, a Needs Assessment before and after intervention, and similar documents).
- Discussion and research with employers and employees revealed that technical skills (or lack thereof) were not the main problem. Needs assessments clearly showed that among the largest immigrant group (from Germany) in this area, there is a low level of English language abilities. This immigrant group tends to have large families (7 or more children). This coupled with the fact that there are large numbers of immigrants within the workplace and the community at large with whom they can converse in their first language leads to a lack of motivation to attend English language training outside of the workplace.
- This low level of English ability makes training difficult, and Health & Safety training, in particular has been a problem, resulting in the region having one of the highest Workers’ Compensation Rates in the province.
- A prosperous economy, with high production demands has left employers strapped for time to meet with DAWN staff. The Skills Developer has also found that many employers have not had the time to develop job descriptions for their employees, and it has meant extra work for him to help them in this regard.
