SkillPlan is a joint labour and management initiative of the BC Construction industry and since 1991, has participated in research, development and the promotion of Essential Skills (ES) as extremely valuable in the construction sector. TOWES has had opportunities in the past to work closely with SkillPlan in several ES initiatives.

Late October 2009, SkillPlan hosted the “ESSENTIAL SKILLS in Instruction” Conference in Ottawa. The purpose of the conference was to bring together ES practitioners and policy makers in order to participate in a discussion about ES in the classroom. TOWES was invited by the SkillPlan conference advisory committee to educate ES practitioners about our exciting new online ES curriculum. Approximately 200 representatives from across Canada and from as far away as Australia attended the conference.

Keynotes were delivered by Scott Murray and by Michael Hardt. Scott Murray (President of DataAngel Policy Research Inc) spoke to how the shortage of literacy skills in the workforce affects the Canadian economy and how important it is to invest in ES training to manage the risk and negative impact of these skill shortages. Michael Hardt (President and Co-Founder of Performance by Design Inc) addressed how we learn, the process of transforming information into knowledge, and translating that process into effective teaching and training.

Both days of the conference offered attendees and opportunity to participate in several breakout sessions that examined such diverse topics as ES & Aboriginal Programs, Workplace Materials Developer Training, and Open Space Technology. Meghan Barton and Erin Haines, Project Officers with TOWES, were scheduled to present in the final time slot on the final day of the conference.

 In an effort to make our allotted time engaging and exciting for more than 50 delegates who had already been attending sessions for two days, we decided to incorporate some interactivity into our presentation. Using a “Clicker” system recently acquired by Bow Valley College, we were able to surprise the educators who attended our session with a “Pop Quiz”. Rather than presenting slides outlining the background of ES and the creation/mandate of TOWES, we hade all attendees participate in a multiple choice trivia test of their knowledge.  After baiting our audience with something a little different, Erin Haines presented TOWES Essential Skills Online (ESO). ESO is an interactive, online curriculum designed to improve ES in Reading Text, Document Use and Numeracy. This project was initially introduced in its pilot phase at the last SkillPlan Conference and Erin took the opportunity to detail some of the results of the field testing and how the application has been used since its introduction.  I then announced our newest online application, Essential Skills Direct (ESD).  This tool builds from ESO and allows disadvantaged users to develop their ES in the same three areas as ESO, but in a sector- specific interface. Using the same “Clicker” technology, I allowed users to test out the interface and sample the types of sector specific tasks users of ESD would complete.  To wrap up our presentation Erin and I announced some of the exciting upcoming endeavors for TOWES including TOWES Online (an adaptive algorithm linked to TOWES databases that can provide accurate skills assessments in 30-40 minutes), ESO for LPN (an integrated ES curriculum for Licensed Practical Nurses), Learning to Read –LtR (an online, literacy diagnostic tool) and THUNDER (an online architecture for hosting ES assessments and training).

 Overall, TOWES participation in the SkillPlan conference was a success. We were able to educate ES practitioners on the uses and benefits of TOWES suite of products, touch base with our faithful network of distributors and proponents, and connect with other experts in the field of Essential Skills.