Read to Succeed / Lire pour réussir Project

Working with an internationally recognized team of assessment and literacy experts, with funding provided by

• Human Resources Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)
• The Alberta Association of Colleges and Technical Institutes (AACTI)
• Bow Valley College (BVC)
• Corporate sponsors such as Nexen Inc.

The TOWES Department at Bow Valley College is developing a suite of new products under the Read to Succeed/ Lire pour réussir Project banner.

Each product will be part of a comprehensive online, adult literacy assessment and instructional system, for use in literacy, Adult Basic Education, English as a Second Language, French as a Second Language and Essential Skills programs. These products will greatly enhance Bow Valley’s ability to respond to the needs of the literacy community, colleges and other training institutions and employers.
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As a group, Aboriginal adults are among the most diverse in Canada. Living in urban, rural, on-reserve and off-reserve settings, they may earn their livings traditionally or in ways that make them indistinguishable from their non-aboriginal peers. This diversity means that there are dramatically different levels of literacy amongst aboriginal adults and very different economic and social demands for literacy skill use, depending on where and how one makes a living.

The TOWES department at Bow Valley College has received funding from HRSDC’s Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES) to complete a market segmentation analysis of the Aboriginal literacy market.

TOWES is working with T Scott Murray (DataAngel) on the project titled:  A Market Segmentation View of the Aboriginal Literacy Market. The main objectives are to complete the analysis of adult Aboriginal populations and to undertake a process of consultation in each province and territory in Canada.

As part of the consultation phase, TOWES and Mr. Murray, supported by the NWT Literacy Council, will participate in a session at the Baker Centre in Yellowknife, NWT on June 29.

At the session, Mr. Murray will outline the findings from the analysis and speak to what the findings mean for communities, literacy instruction providers and individuals. The market-segmentation approach to the analysis provides a much more finely differentiated view of adult Aboriginal literacy rates than traditional analyses.

Ms. Gardner will describe the OLES funded online literacy assessment tool and instructional system which Bow Valley is developing with an international team of experts in literacy and assessment. She will also outline opportunities for participation in the validity testing and/or field-testing of the tool and the system.

Session attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session and to discuss the current state of literacy instruction within their own organizations and how it might be strengthened or refined, based on the results of the market segmentation analysis.

Date: Tuesday June 29, 2010

Time: 9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Where: Baker Centre 50^th Avenue Yellowknife

RSVP by June 25 to:  mbarton@bowvalleycollege.ca or 403 410-3198

nwtliteracy@nwtliteracy.ca