04_Anne Ramsay
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This document describes an essential skills program for unemployed women over 40. The program was developed in response to needs in the local community and is funded by the Canadian government. It focuses on developing skills through a woman-centered and culturally sensitive lens. The curriculum is divided into 3 modules exploring the self, community, and future. Activities are experiential and aim to improve essential skills. Field tests showed increases in literacy skills. The complete adaptable curriculum is available online.
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04_Anne Ramsay
- 1. An Essential Skills Program for Unemployed Women over 40
- 2. Project Overview Local gap in programming – women displaced by the recession Needed by Immigrants and Citizens Women-positive and focused Local and national partners Advisory Team Funded by the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills, Human Resources & Skills Development Canada
- 3. Content design 4 Cornerstones Women-centred & Gender-based Culturally Sensitive Age & Life Stage Relevant (40 yrs+) Principles of Adult Education
- 4. Woman-centred & Gender- based “How could a nineteen-year-old know what it feels like to be fifty-five, a mother, a wife, a breadwinner for a family without a father? How does a sixty-year- old man know what a middle-aged woman feels like competing with a twenty-five-year-old as she sits in an interview experiencing hot flashes?” ~ Spotlight on Change participant
- 5. Age & Life Stage Relevant “It was very helpful to hear how other woman within my own age thought, felt and dealt with circumstances in their lives. In the act of observing my classmates, in hearing what they had to say, I was able to change my perspective on many things.” ~ Spotlight on Change participant
- 6. Linked to Essential Skills “Pulling the transferable skills out of their hobbies was interesting for the women. We came up with such things as: Sewing - good hand-eye coordination; following patterns/directions. Baking - creativity; following directions. Yoga - ability to focus and concentrate; good coordination; patience. Artwork - hand-eye coordination; creativity; patience.” ~ Field-test facilitator
- 7. Learning Methodologies o Cooperative & Collaborative o Mentoring o Group Discussion/Transformative o Learner-centred & Participatory o Community-based o Real-life Context o Experiential & Reflective o Holistic
- 8. Experiential & Reflective “Through this unit, I found out about learning and training opportunities, and came to a conclusion about what I have to do from here onwards. I now have a definite idea of what my skills are, and what course I need to take to upgrade my skills and find a job.” ~ Spotlight on Change participant
- 9. Field tests Full Pilot: • Focus for Ethnic Women, Waterloo, ON • Douglas College, Coquitlam, BC Specific Activities: • The Literacy Group of Waterloo Region, ON • Cambridge YMCA Immigrant Services, ON Can it be used as a whole and/or in parts? Yes
- 10. PDQ – Assessment Tool PDQ is an online assessment tool designed to help assess someone’s functional literacy skills. PDQ stands for Prose, Document, and Quantitative. There is a full length test and a shorter “locator” test. We used the PDQ full test as both a pre and post test. Available from Educational Testing Service http://www.ets.org
- 11. PDQ Results – Skills Increases #6 pre post Prose 285 290 +5 Document Use 335 365 +30 Quantitative 305 400 +95
- 12. Curriculum Overview The curriculum is adaptable to a variety of settings and timelines: • Run the whole program from start to end • Select specific activities and units • Adapt the activities to fit specific timeframes • “Sharing time” was instrumental to the success of the program and the learning of the women
- 13. Role of the Facilitator Resource Guide Support Catalyst Critical Reflection Innovator Participant
- 14. 3 Modules 1. Exploring My Self 2. Exploring My Community 3. Exploring My Future
- 15. #1 My Self Outcome: The participant creates a skill, knowledge and personality profile and uses the profile to identify areas of employment that reflect her interests and strengths.
- 16. #2 My Community Outcome: The participant creates a profile of the employment and training opportunities in her community and identifies options that match her interests, strengths and needs.
- 17. #3 Action Plan: Exploring My Future Outcome: The participant creates an Action Plan for employment or training based on her needs and goals, and sets this Action Plan in motion by initiating the step of her choice.
- 18. Types of Activities • Group discussion • Flip charting • Using the information to shape follow up activities • Group and individual activities • Guest speakers
- 19. Types of Activities • Create a portfolio – save work to use later • Using a learning journal – reflection • Computers – build skills, mentoring • Independent research
- 20. Download the curriculum package at: http://www.projectread.ca/publications.html Wrap Up “I am more confident now. Learning about myself has been so very helpful.” ~ Spotlight on Change Participant
Editor's Notes
- How project came about Funded by OLES Managed by Project READ Literacy Network
- We established a set of guiding principles that we used to shape both the content itself and the design of the content Consulted with Women’ s Studies professor Dr. Lorraine Vander Hoef, WLU
- The content respects and is firmly situated within the perspectives and “ways of knowing/learning” of women, while at the same time recognizing and making room for individual differences
- The content focuses upon the perspectives and issues of women seeking to re-enter the workforce at mid-life
- focuses upon the Essential Skills needed for work, learning and life - reading text, document use, numeracy, writing, oral communication, working with others and computer use – and specifically, the combination of skills that will help the woman make employment-related transitions based on her goals, and initiate change in her life in ways important to her.
- drawing upon the participants’ experiences and helping them apply critical reflection to create meaning and knowledge from them; using a cyclical learning process that employs experience-reflection-experience to integrate what is learned back into real-life situations; using critical reflection as an ongoing approach to enact change (transformative learning), and to develop metacognitive (learning how to learn) skills.
- Two full curriculum test sites – one in Ontario and one in BC; at three additional test sites program coordinators selected specific activities or units and fit them into a group they were already working with.
- Two full test sites we used PDQ for pre and post testing. The test takes about 90 minutes, although it is not timed. Test takers work at their own pace within a reasonable period of time. Each literacy task is representative of a kind of text and a kind of process or strategy that is associated with adult contexts. A written “profile” is provided at the end of the test by ETS – current skills, skills to strengthen and skills to build in the future.
- While the curriculum is not directed specifically at increasing essential skill, these skills did improve Looking at the starting results, the average adult learner for this program was at: •Prose – 246 or mid-level 2 of the Essential Skills 5-point scale •Document Use – 224 or high-level 1 of the Essential Skills 5-point scale •Quantitative – 276 or beginning-level 3 of the Essential Skills 5-point scale At the end of the training, the average adult learner leaving this program was at: •Prose – 275 or high-level 2 of the Essential Skills 5-point scale •Document Use – 281 or low-level 3 of the Essential Skills 5-point scale •Quantitative – 301 or mid-level 3 of the Essential Skills 5-point scale Even using a 5-point scale, the results show significant increases in all three literacy skills.
- the Spotlight on Change materials can be used in the ways that best suit the group of women you are serving Select specific activities or units - in support of regular learning sessions and programs. We found that the length of many of the activities were dependent upon the skills and interests of the women in the group. Discussions lasted a lot longer in many cases than the facilitators had thought they would, as the women shared and learned from each other, and expressed their emotions and experiences
- As a result of participation in Spotlight on Change, it is our hope and intent that each woman will better understand herself – and her unique blend of skills, strengths, needs and interests as they relate to finding work. It is also our aim that each woman better understands her community, its unique makeup, employment needs, and the opportunities it offers her specifically. She will gain a clearer understanding of the job she wants, and how she will get it. She will make decisions based on what is best for her in consideration of her skills, interests, and life situation, and will formulate these decisions into an Action Plan. My Self: The content has been developed to encourage the participant to first look inward to discover her strengths and interests, to explore her past experiences, and to acknowledge and overcome her challenges and barriers. My Community: Next, the content provides the opportunity for each woman to look outward to explore her community to gain a better understanding of the resources and opportunities she can find there and the support available to her. It is designed to help her examine the employment landscape where she lives, and explore her skills and interests in light of her discoveries. My future: In the final section, the participants will look forward using the skills and knowledge they have gained as a result of their participation in the learning activities to develop an Action Plan for the future. This is an extremely important part of the program as it encourages participants to synthesize what they’ve learned about themselves and their community to enact change in their lives. Within each module are a number of units – and we’ll take a brief look at each module.
- Each module has a specific outcome. the content of each unit within a module builds toward demonstrating the outcome. The content of this module has been developed to encourage the participant to first look inward to discover her strengths and interests, to explore her past experiences, and to acknowledge and overcome her challenges and barriers. And it starts with activities that allow the participants to get to know one another. It provides the opportunity for each woman to reflect on her life experiences and draw positive applications from those experiences. Many of the women in the field tests had work experience but we also provided the opportunity to acknowledge the skills and knowledge from unpaid work – both formal and informal opportunities. This module also allowed the women to examine their strengths and their challenges in terms of job skills, ways of learning and personality. Unit 1: Getting to Know Each Other Unit 2: The View from Here – Living My Life Unit 3: What I Gained from My Past Work Unit 4: Skills Learned Through Unpaid Work Unit 5: My Strengths and Challenges Unit 6: How I Work and Learn Unit 7: Taking Advantage of My Personality Unit 8: Stitching the Pieces Together
- the content of this module provides the opportunity for each woman to look outward to explore her community to gain a better understanding of the resources and opportunities she can find there and the support available to her. It is designed to help her examine the employment landscape where she lives, and explore her skills and interests in light of her discoveries.
- In the final section, the participants will look forward using the skills and knowledge they have gained as a result of their participation in the learning activities to develop an Action Plan for the future. This is an extremely important part of the program as it encourages participants to synthesize what they’ve learned about themselves and their community to enact change in their lives. Each woman is also asked to initiate a step of her choice from her Action Plan with the support of the facilitator and her peers. This is crucial in helping the individual make a successful transition from the Spotlight on Change program towards her plans for the future.
- Various types of activities OR introduce an activity and ask them to provide info about the types of activities that are used?
- Review content design principles Review use of PDQ – not necessary but could be useful Mention online info session – October & Workshop at OLC conference How other people can access the content www.projectread.ca/spotlightonchange