Ministère de l'Éducation

Equitable access to knowledge requires accessible, high-quality enrollment, assistance and referral services.

Priority Area for Intervention: Changing the Manner of Responding to the Needs of Groups and Individuals

Clarifying Responsibility for Enrollment, Assistance and Referral Services

Adults who wish to return to school or upgrade their skills need assistance in order to clarify their objectives and determine which training programs or activities are most appropriate. The same is true for businesses and groups looking for the type of continuing education best suited to their needs. In recent years, enrollment, information and referral services have been provided by various ministries and government bodies in various locations. During the Estates General on Education, there were many calls for the establishment in each region of a one-stop, multi-level service point. The results drawn from the experiences of the regional enrollment and referral services established during the 1980s call for a careful appraisal of the need to create a new structure that would not overlap with other structures presently being introduced and deprive school boards and educational institutions of one of their major functions, a function provided for in the legislative and regulatory provisions governing their activities.

Nevertheless, every educational institution must be able to provide, in an integrated fashion, the enrollment, information and educational services needed by citizens, together with services to assist individuals in returning to school or joining the workforce. This does not mean that all needs will be met on the spot, but rather that, through the educational institution, citizens will be able to discover the services available in the region. The range of educational needs is extensive, and varies considerably from one person to another according to personal characteristics, experience, prior schooling and goals. It is essential that the education system maintain a balance, in the educational services it offers, between the responsibilities of each institution and the need to provide adults with access to resource persons to assist them in clarifying their learning plan, exploring possible avenues and carrying out their learning plan. This is why changes will be made to the Basic school regulation respecting educational services for adults in general education, specifying the nature of enrollment and assistance services.

The same balance must also be maintained between the response made to requests for education leading to employment and the response made to requests for education to meet personal and social needs. The same problem arises in connection with the active measures taken to support employment, whereby the overriding importance given to training designed to increase employability and integration into the workforce leaves less room for certain individual and group projects with other objectives.

3.3 Diversifying the Forms and Locations in Which Educational Services Are Provided

Review the organization and funding of enrollment and assistance services, by specifying the nature of these services in the basic school regulations for general and vocational education.

Elements of Government Policy
The Ministère de l’Éducation and the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité

Clarify the responsibilities for enrollment, assistance and referral services of the Ministère de l’Éducation and the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité in order to settle by agreement their respective roles. This will, first, enable local employment centres (LECs), as part of their mission, to provide information on the educational services provided at the secondary, college and university levels and second, enable the enrollment and assistance services of educational institutions to provide information on training support programs and customized measures to individuals who have not been reached by their LEC.

Educational services adapted to the lifestyles of adults wishing to enroll in continuing education must be provided in various locations, and in a range of forms.

Priority Area for Intervention: Diversifying the Forms and Locations in Which Education Is Provided

The Forms and Locations in Which Education is Provided

The decision, for adults, on whether or not to enroll in continuing education often depends on their ability to reconcile education with their professional and family responsibilities. It is unreasonable to expect most adults to attend school on a full-time basis, especially in the daytime; many also live at a distance from the place where services are currently provided. However, there are alternatives to full-time attendance that can meet a wide range of needs, if they are properly supported and publicized.

Various options such as part-time education, distance education, on-the-job training and popular education must be maintained and consolidated, along with the new forms of education made possible by information and communications technologies. In addition, true accessibility requires that education be made available to adults both in the community and in the workplace and, in certain cases, in customized programs.

Part-Time Education

Part-time education meets the needs of individuals who wish to upgrade their skills or retrain by taking courses without enrolling in a complete program, and individuals who, for example, have functional limitations. Timetabling constraints, though, especially at the college level, tend to restrict the possibility of part-time attendance. This situation must be corrected, in particular as regards technical education. In other words, the provision of part-time courses depends to a large extent on more efficient scheduling of the time available.

Distance Education

Thanks to distance education, adult students no longer have to travel to school and can progress at their own pace. Distance education is an important means of bringing education to the public and can be facilitated by new information and communications technologies, provided the way services are offered is brought up to date at the same time.

At both the secondary and college levels, most distance education courses in recent years have been provided in the general education sector. A special effort must be made to extend course availability to the popular education and English-language sectors and, as far as possible, to the vocational and technical education sector. In its present form, distance education is best adapted to the needs of general education and would be hard to use in large-scale vocational and technical applications, since the competency-based approach requires the acquisition of skills through practical training and job-related knowledge.

The available data shows that students enrolled in distance education, at both the secondary and college levels, tend to fail or drop out of almost as many courses as they pass, meaning that the pass rate is far below the rate for students enrolled in regular programs. Studies currently under way should shed light on the causes of this situation. It nevertheless appears that, without focusing exclusively on an andragogical approach, it will be necessary to apply vigorous corrective measures to provide adult students with appropriate support and supervision and enable them to develop a maximum of independence and personal discipline. This method will increase the credibility of distance education as a form of continuing education while retaining its comparative advantage over other forms, especially in terms of cost.

At the secondary level, the efforts made to decentralize services have led to the creation of over fifty service points in approximately the same number of school boards, resulting in a significant decrease in the number of adults enrolled, higher infrastructure costs, and the difficulty of providing appropriate promotion and pedagogical support services, especially given the limited numbers of students involved.

Lastly, despite the number of players in the field of distance education, no efforts have been made to rationalize the offer of services.

Employee Training

The number of adult students receiving employee training has increased as a result of the coming into force of the Act to foster the development of manpower training and the implementation of apprenticeship and qualification schemes, together with the introduction of the work-study formula.

For several years, the Ministère has collaborated with the Société québécoise de la main d’oeuvre, and more recently with Emploi-Québec, to facilitate the development of employee training, and to establish productive links between the world of education and world of work through the development of vocational and technical education programs and by providing recognition of prior learning.

Popular Education

Individuals for whom school was a bad experience, or who have little schooling, tend to take less advantage of educational services that, in theory, are open to all. In addition, not everyone wants to return to the classroom in order to acquire qualifications, and some people prefer to learn by experience, in particular through social involvement. The popular education system has, over the years, developed expertise and a unique approach to serving students whose needs cannot be met by the formal education system or who are unwilling to enroll in an educational institution.

Popular education groups are active at the local, regional and provincial levels, offering a broad range of services covering literacy and various other fields, such as good citizenship, effective parenting and awareness of the problems caused by violence and other social phenomena. The adults enrolled in popular education activities acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes that allow them to become more independent and take increased responsibility for their lives and the life of the community, and also to take their place as citizens and members of society.

It is important that the mission of the popular education groups be clearly established and recognized within a legislative framework.

Information and Communications Technologies in Education

Continuing education providers must take into account the far-reaching changes and new challenges involved in integrating new technology into teaching and learning activities. Technology is playing an ever greater role in our everyday lives, so that we must redefine the knowledge relationship, develop new paradigms, and design new methods based on new teaching and learning models. The transmission of knowledge and the development of basic and cross-curricular skills using the new media require an in-depth review of existing programs of study, evaluation methods and pedagogical practices to reflect the lifelong learning approach. The transformation must, however, take place in a manner that reflects the characteristic culture, language and values of Québec society.

Elements of Government Policy

Encourage college-level institutions to reschedule class time to make their programs more accessible to adults who wish to attend as part-time students.
Provide legislative recognition for the role and contribution of popular education.
Transmit information on educational services and continuing education methods using new information and communications technologies.In collaboration with other partners in the network, define objectives to be used in a review of the organization of distance education, leading to the modernization of teaching materials and better coordination of human and financial resources.
Encourage the organizations responsible for distance education to provide for the use of new technologies in theirevelopment plans.

The Ministère de l’Éducation and the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité

Seek agreement with the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité on the target clientele for vocational and technical education, and on the most appropriate ways of organizing services and funding sources.
Seek agreement with the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité and other socio-economic partners on the best means of improving access to education for adults who do not hold the necessary prerequisites or do not meet the admission requirements for programs of study.
Request that the Commission des partenaires du marché du travail (the commission of labour market partners) ensure tighter control of the rules governing the accreditation of those providing training.

Socio-Economic Partners and Union Groups

In collaboration with other social and economic partners and union groups, establish services to provide public access to the information highway, through public service points giving access to communications tools, production and distribution services, value-added content and educational services.
Encourage the Ministère’s partners and union groups to use the services offered by community organizations in order to increase the clientele with access to continuing education, especially in underprivileged areas.

Employers, School Boards, College-Level Institutions

Seek agreement among labour market partners, school boards and college-level institutions on measures to provide adults with better access to work-study programs.

3.4 Revising the Procedure for Recognizing Prior Learning

The recognition of prior learning is an essential component in the process to improve access to continuing education and rationalize the cost of the system. Conditions that are favourable to its development must be established.

The First Priority Area: Ensuring That Every Adult Obtains Recognition for Prior Learning and Access to Required Training

Defining and Setting Objectives for the Recognition of Prior Learning

Recognizing prior learning means recognizing the learning that takes place outside the academic environment, on the basis of a predetermined system of reference.¹⁰

The recognition of prior learning is part of the Ministère’s mission to facilitate access to programs leading to qualifications and a diploma. It also meets other objectives: it facilitates career reorientation, allows training obtained in other countries to be recognized, and gives businesses a means to evaluate the skills of their workforce.

The recognition of prior learning is strategically important in terms of meeting the need for job mobility at a time when the new labour market realities require thousands of workers to update their skills, transfer them to a new job or acquire new ones.

Recognition should also lead to substantial savings of time and money for institutions and individuals, since it will reduce the time students spend in training.

Recognition Services

The Education Act requires school boards to provide secondary-level adult students with recognition services for prior learning.

General Education

In the general education sector, there are three ways in which the recognition of prior learning can be developed:

the first is connected with the certification of studies, and is based on the content of programs of study and the corresponding credits (examinations only);
the second is a service provided to adult students and employers and is not based on the credits corresponding to courses and programs of study (academic equivalence tests);
the third is also connected with the certification of studies and the issue of the secondary school diploma (SSD); it is based on the generic skills required at the SSD level, even if they are not specifically mentioned in the Ministère’s programs of study.

In general education, for 1996-97, 11 222 adults applied for services that provide recognition of prior learning.

Vocational Education

In the vocational education sector, special evaluation materials have been developed for more than 40 programs. Several of the evaluation instruments were produced following the implementation of the qualification scheme and, more recently, the apprenticeship scheme, under an agreement with Emploi-Québec.

A General Development Test (GDT) has also been developed for adults who do not meet the admission requirements but whose level of general development is sufficient to allow them to undertake vocational training. It should be noted that the success rate for adults who enter vocational education after passing a GDT is comparable to the success rate for adults who gain admission by other means.

In the vocational education sector, since 1994, over 2 000 adult students have obtained recognition for their prior learning, and over 4 000 adult students have been admitted after passing a GDT. The success rate for the GDT is roughly 90%. According to the data available for the 1996-97 school year, 668 adults acquired 4 421 competencies in 45 programs.

Higher Education

The provisions of the College Education Regulations authorize institutions to grant equivalence to students who are able to show that, because of prior schooling or prior learning, they have already achieved the course objectives. The evaluation and recognition of prior learning is entirely under the responsibility of the college-level institution concerned.

The role of the Ministère de l’Éducation is limited to giving general guidelines and collaborating with college-level institutions by providing reports, leaflets, information kits, professional development, and so on. Between 1985 and 1990 several institutions developed their own materials for recognizing prior learning, with assistance from the Fonds pour l’implantation de la reconnaissance des acquis extrascolaires au collégial (or FIRAC, a fund to promote the recognition of prior learning at the college level).

At the college level, since 1995, over 1 500 students have obtained recognition for prior learning. Over 90% of the activities concerned involved technical training. At the university level, certain adult students obtain recognition for prior learning when admitted to university studies.

A Necessary Review

Since the adoption in 1984 of the continuing education policy and plan of action, which made the recognition of prior learning a priority for adult education, concrete results have been produced by the Ministère and other players in the education network: recognition of prior learning is now addressed in the Education Act and the College Education Regulations; research has been conducted; reliable evaluation tools have been introduced; and recognition of prior learning is included in funding rules. However, despite the progress made in the last ten years, certain adjustments are still needed.

Accessibility

It is generally agreed that educational institutions are not the only places where learning takes place. Reading, paid employment, community involvement and Internet surfing all offer opportunities for acquiring and mastering skills. Given the value of diplomas as points of reference and a source of social recognition, the knowledge and skills acquired by adults in a non-academic context, provided they comply with the Ministère’s system of reference (programs of study), should be recognized. However, other prior knowledge also deserves recognition, measured according to other systems of reference such as the occupational qualification system that leads to the awarding of a certificate of qualification by Emploi-Québec.

In vocational and technical education, several factors limit the recognition of prior learning. The main factors involved are regional disparity, disparity between educational levels, and the difficulty of integrating prior learning within educational programs. Adults who manage to obtain recognition for prior learning often find that they have reached a dead-end: to obtain certification for their studies, they must still complete certain courses that are not always available, since the low level of enrollment means that they cannot be offered on a cost-effective basis. They must therefore complete, one by one, the courses and modules of the original program, losing any advantage they may have gained by obtaining recognition for prior learning.

Recognition of Prior Learning for Immigrants

It is generally at the college level that immigrants experience the most difficulty in obtaining recognition for prior learning. An Avis d’équivalence d’études (education credentials evaluation) issued by the Ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l’Immigration indicates the number of years of schooling corresponding to the level of education obtained outside Québec. However, immigrants who believe that this evaluation will provide recognition for their prior learning and gain them admittance to a program of study generally find that this is not the case. They are thus required either to abandon their plans or to begin the program from the beginning, a process that generates additional costs both for the students and for society. In addition, other factors further limit the ability of immigrants to obtain recognition for prior learning, such as the difficulty they may experience in demonstrating their skills, because of language difficulties or the lack of an adequate description of the courses taken outside Québec.

The difficulty of gaining recognition for prior learning is not the only problem facing immigrants: they often lack the required training. In fact, the particularities of the Québec culture, as well as the standards and requirements of certain occupations, are such that it is often necessary for immigrants to adapt the knowledge and skills they already possess. This adaptation could be done in courses that, unfortunately, are often unavailable.

The Second Priority Area: Establishing Links Between the Various Systems to Recognize Prior Learning

Encourage universities to adopt policies on the recognition of prior learning.
Review current service structures, especially at the college level, in connection with the recognition of prior learning and the related question of access to required training.
Offer in-service training for personnel working in enrollment, assistance and referral services in educational institutions, in the area of recognition of prior learning.
Encourage educational institutions to ensure that immigrants are able to obtain recognition for prior learning and thus begin or continue a program of study without having to backtrack.
Implement a large-scale communications plan to provide information on prior learning recognition services.

Elements of Government Policy

Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité

Ensure that adults are able to obtain recognition for skills likely to increase their chances of employment.
Revamp and develop the qualification scheme in order to consolidate, increase and recognize skills acquired in the workplace.

Partnerships

As in several other areas of concern in Québec’s education system, joint action and the conclusion of partnership agreements with other ministries and players in society are the key to providing high-quality services to the population. Collaboration, whether on-going or newly established, also helps to rationalize the cost of government services.

However, it is essential to reaffirm the mission of the Ministère de l’Éducation regarding the recognition of prior learning. Although it is true to say that schools are not, and have never been, the only places where learning can be acquired, diplomas still represent, in our society, an important form of social recognition and provide broader access to the job market. From this point of view, our education system, particularly at a time when it is increasingly clear that skills must be continually updated, must provide services to recognize prior learning as part of the continuing education system, in order to meet the range of needs existing in the population. The leadership of the Ministère in this area is necessary to ensure that diplomas retain their status as reference values, while allowing the sharing of information and the development of joint actions to meet the needs of the population served by other ministries and government and community organizations. For this reason, discussions must be initiated with partners in manpower and immigration in order to continue and complete the harmonization of systems to recognize prior learning.

Elements of Government Policy

Ministries and Government Bodies

Ensure joint action by all partners in developing instruments to recognize prior learning, in order to avoid duplication and ensure credibility and transparency, whatever the reference system involved.

Ministère de l’Éducation, Emploi-Québec and Other Organizations

Consolidate existing links and establish new links between the reference systems based on diplomas of the Ministère de l’Éducation, and the reference systems based on qualifications, such as those of professional orders and the qualification scheme of Emploi-Québec.

4. Condition for Successfull Implementation of the Reform

4.1 Better Coordination of Services

In every sector, the coordination of services, especially at the regional level, is an important aspect of service organization. There also exists a need for coordination between all the ministries involved in continuing education. Coordination cannot be imposed, but must come from agreements concerning the main elements that determine which services are offered and where they are offered.

The First Priority Area: Establishing Inter-Level Advisory Authorities

Ministerial Commitments

The current tendency to provide the same services in every institution must be brought under control. Since in many cases enrollment levels are low, some services are really only available in theory; adult students are sometimes left unable to complete the final courses of their program, and are thus forced to abandon their learning plan. It is to be hoped that closer collaboration between institutions will increase the accessibility of services by increasing the range of courses available.

Institutions at the secondary and college levels have also begun working together to avoid duplicating services. A similar approach is needed at a higher level, between colleges and universities. Each program should be examined to ascertain whether it is consistent with the educational level concerned, taking into account the complexity of the job for which students are prepared by the program.

Complementarity between institutions must lead to benefits for the students: a better allocation of responsibilities, based on the expertise of each institution, would make it possible to better meet the full range of training needs. Since each region has a considerable pool of educational institutions, and since most organizations in the community see the region as being the basic unit used to define which services are to be offered, joint action should focus on complementarity within the region concerned.

The ministerial plan of action for the reform of the education system provides for the establishment of an inter-level advisory authority in each region of Québec to foster better coordination between the various levels of education. Besides conducting research in areas of regional interest, and planning possibilities for vocational and technical education and for joint action between academic institutions and organizations involved in regional and economic development, the authorities can help to enrich, balance and increase the continuing education services offered.

The objective is not to impose uniform conditions of operation, but rather to give the authorities an opportunity to create their own dynamic contribution to education on the basis of the needs and characteristics of each region.

Encourage network partners to establish inter-level advisory authorities with responsibility for determining, in collaboration with the institutions concerned, the regional availability of the following services:
- joint enrollment and referral services and enrollment and assistance services
- recognition of prior learning;
- distance education;
- required training.

The services offered must take into account the skills and expertise available.

The Need for Inter-Ministerial Collaboration in the Field of Continuing Education

There is a clear need for collaboration to define the roles and responsibilities of ministries in the field of continuing education. Certain responsibilities must be better allocated, and others must be assessed on the basis of each ministry’s mission.

All ministries are affected in some way by continuing education. Some take occasional or regular action to upgrade the skills of their personnel; others deal directly with the population. In this last area, links must be established between the ministries concerned and the Ministère de l’Éducation.

The new spirit of collaboration should be most apparent among the ministerial departments providing services to the segments of the population that need to return to school to be able to function better at a personal, economic and social level.

Responsibility for providing French-language skills to immigrants must be clarified. Programs relating to francization must be provided by institutions located in the same vicinity as the immigrant population, not only to avoid the creation of ghettos but also to ensure access to the whole range of educational services.

The Second Priority Area: Ensuring Coordination of Government Services in the Field of Continuing Education

Ministère de l’Éducation and Government Bodies

Elements of Government Policy

Agree, with the ministries concerned, on providing a range of services related to education, employability and maintaining a job for adults and businesses, to be applied in a complementary fashion.
Design and implement mechanisms to ensure that all continuing education is transferable and leads to qualifications.
Establish rules governing the active participation of the inter-level advisory authorities in all stages of the plan régional de developpement de la main d’oeuvre (PRDMO, the regional manpower development plan) and collaboration with LECs and RDCs.

The Ministère de l’Éducation and the Ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l’Immigration

Harmonize the responsibility of the Ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l’Immigration regarding integration into Québec society with the responsibility of the Ministère de l’Éducation for providing francization services for persons newly arrived in Québec, taking into account the schooling and upgrading needs of the persons concerned and their desire to seek employment or continue their studies.
Publish a policy statement on the francization of immigrants.

4.2 Financing Priority Areas

The priorities defined in this policy will require the review of financing methods within the Ministère de l’Éducation and the sharing of certain costs with other ministries.

Priority Area for Intervention: Revising the Rules Governing Ministerial and Governmental Financing to Reflect the Priorities Established

Variations in Resource Allocation Methods at the Different Educational Levels

Resource allocation methods, particularly in the field of continuing education, tend to vary considerably from one level of education to another, on the basis of an internal logic that sometimes makes it difficult to see the overall coherence of the system. For example, financial measures to encourage educational success have been introduced for some segments of the population but not for others; graduation rates are not always taken into account in allocating financial resources, since some programs are funded on the basis of student enrollment, while others are funded on the basis of pre-established ceilings.

The financing of continuing education at the college level and the budgetary rules for adult-sector general and vocational education at the secondary level must be redefined to move toward overall management of all funding intended for regular instruction and continuing education. This new approach would be consistent with ministerial guidelines concerning decentralization and local autonomy. In addition, given that continuing education is not yet firmly established in Québec and that adult education services are in a precarious situation in some communities, existing services must be given a higher profile.

Part-Time Adult Enrollment

Many adults who enroll in continuing education must, in light of their professional and family responsibilities, pursue their studies on a part-time basis. In addition to timetabling constraints, registration fees and childcare costs represent major expenses for many students with low incomes.

Financial Assistance for Adults

On April 1, 1998, all training programs provided under the employment insurance program were transferred to Québec and replaced by a measure known as Individual Training Support. From June 1, 1998, this measure also replaced the other educational measures for income security recipients. Within the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité, Emploi-Québec has responsibility for all training measures.

It is important to specify that the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité will continue to provide and, within the meaning of the Regulation respecting financial assistance for education expenses, pay for the training of most recipients, including those receiving employment insurance benefits. The fact that the needs of individuals attending subsidized public educational institutions are met by the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité should reduce the number of applications for student financial assistance; formerly, students registered as "independent students" and who attended such institutions were eligible for financial assistance.

Individuals who are attending institutions where not all services are subsidized and whose needs are not all covered by the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité are in a situation similar to that of individuals classified as "independent students." They should be eligible for student loans and bursaries in 1998-99, and benefits paid under Individual Training Support will be considered in their employment income.

The Literacy Challenge

Since illiteracy may hinder the future of individuals and of society, the efforts made to reduce illiteracy must be increased and diversified. The amounts reallocated to this priority should lead to an increase in enrollment, with support from the other partners.

Financial Assistance for Popular Education

The Ministère de l’Éducation provides financial assistance to popular groups through two specific training programs: the Programme de soutien à l’alphabétisation populaire autonome, or PSAPA, a support program for literacy, and the Programme de soutien à l’éducation populaire autonome, or PSEPA, a support program for popular education.

From 1993-94 to 1997-98, the amounts granted increased from $9 300 000 to $14 000 000 and the number of accredited groups increased from 757 to 922.

However, before the current financial framework can meet the needs repeatedly expressed by popular groups and allow them to play their role in the educational process, it must be reviewed and the amounts granted must be analyzed and readjusted.

Collaborative Financing

The Ministère de l’Éducation is by no means the only provider in the field of continuing education. It shares this mission with several other ministries and organizations and it is important that each contribute financially. It will also be necessary to assess how much of the federal employment insurance resources transferred to Québec should be used to meet needs in continuing education and the conditions of payment.

Elements of Government Policy

Maintain the current level of financing for continuing education.
Make recipients of the Individual Training Support program, whose needs are not entirely covered by the program, eligible for the loans and bursaries programs, subject to the conditions currently in force for individuals considered as "independent students" under the employment insurance program, beginning in 1998-99.
In connection with the recognition of prior learning at the secondary and college levels, agree with interested partners on how to achieve the level of enrollment needed to generate a sufficient volume of activity and allow the emergence of centres of expertise in each educational field, in order to provide services at an acceptable cost.
Realign funding to take account of the following priorities:
- literacy;
- financial assistance for part-time study;
- college-level continuing education.
Review the current funding framework for popular education.
Provide stronger support for the enrollment and referral services and enrollment and assistance services provided by school boards and educational institutions.
In collaboration with its partners, introduce measures for ensuring accountability, in particular in connection with the recognition of prior learning by institutions.
Require that continuing education activities be distinguished from other activities in the proposed accountability measures.

The Ministère de l’Éducation and the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité

Enter into agreements, in particular with the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité, to ensure continued access to employability measures for individuals who wish to obtain recognition for prior learning without obtaining an official diploma or meeting the conditions for admission to a program.
Agree on funding methods for the transition from passive to active measures.
Give public educational institutions access to a budgetary envelope to be used to enable adults in precarious jobs in small-and medium-sized businesses to acquire training leading to specific qualifications.

4.3 Progress Indicators

Given the importance of the investments made and the need to provide leadership in the field of continuing education, ministerial and governmental indicators must be established to measure the progress achieved.

Priority Area for Intervention: Designing Varied Achievement Indicators

Achievement Indicators for Various Situations

Achievement indicators designed for use with students in basic education cannot be used to give a true image of the situation of adult students. For example, many adults take courses for personal reasons but have no intention of obtaining a diploma. Similarly, part-time attendance, which is the path chosen by many adults because of their family or employment responsibilities, necessarily affects the time they take to complete a program and the chances that they will obtain a diploma within a normal time frame. Also, adults who take courses to improve their chances of finding employment, in particular under employability programs, may be forced to drop out before completing them, not because they have failed in their educational endeavour but because they have succeeded in finding a job. Comparing the results achieved by adults with those achieved by youth-sector students, without qualifying the factors involved, could lead to an unfair appraisal of adult achievement and of the effectiveness of the services currently provided to adult students. It is interesting to note that the education system possesses little or no data on the satisfaction levels among adult students concerning the services provided.

Adequate achievement indicators must be developed, since they alone can give the education system the feedback it needs to assess its effectiveness and introduce appropriate corrective measures in problem areas. If adult students, too, are to achieve success in their studies, several changes must be made.

4.4 Reviewing Educational Programs

Establish a system to collect and analyze data on programs that do not lead to a diploma.
Implement a system for reporting the number of diplomas awarded upon completion of local programs.
Request that the Commission d’évaluation de l’enseignement collégial (the Québec assessment board for college-level education) examine, within the scope of its mandate, the quality of the education provided in CEGEPs and colleges, with a view to broadening attestations of college studies.
Ensure that data on the types of services provided, attendance, financing and educational achievement are included in annual reports of CEGEPs and colleges.
Obtain data on the satisfaction levels among adult students concerning the services received.

To meet the multiple, ever-changing needs of adult students and to continue the educational reform, we must review adult-sector general education and vocational and technical education programs, initial and in-service teacher training programs, and where necessary, create new programs.

The First Priority Area: Reviewing Current Programs and Designing New Ones

General Education

In accordance with the Educational Policy Statement,¹¹ a review of elementary and secondary-school curricula will inevitably lead to a review of the general education programs offered to adults. The Ministère has always been careful to avoid creating artificial barriers between the youth and adult sectors and has, in fact, tried to ensure as harmonious a transition as possible from one to the other.

Other factors must be taken into consideration as part of the program review process. In particular, Québec’s changing population profile will require that people born here, and those arriving from outside the province, develop new values and attitudes. For this reason, as mentioned in the Policy Proposal on Educational Integration and Intercultural Education,¹² adult-sector general education programs must be adjusted to integrate new objectives based on intercultural relationships and the changes they bring.

We must develop new courses on the media in light of their increasing importance in our lives. Television, radio, video and the print media are now available to all, but often create passive consumers. It is important to help students develop a critical attitude toward the media and learn how to use them to update their knowledge and share information; the media must become dynamic tools in the hands of parents, consumers and citizens.

Vocational and Technical Education

If lifelong learning is to be made an integral part of vocational and technical education, the skills acquired in initial training programs must be transferable and must meet labour market requirements. The current program development and review process establishes no distinction between youth-sector and adult-sector programs, and thus already responds in part to these two objectives.

The program review process is based on a high level of collaboration between the world of education and the world of work. Throughout the process, input is provided by industry representatives and specialists from the specific trades and occupations targeted by the programs, and the advice received from the sectorial committees concerned is also taken into consideration.

Program development based on competencies facilitates the rapid adjustment of the programs to meet the changing needs of the labour market.

In addition, the review of the programs as a whole provides an opportunity to harmonize the services provided as much as possible. This should, in the long run, avoid duplication and unnecessary delays when objectives change.

It should be noted that the possibility already exists for educational institutions to develop and implement their own programs to meet specific needs for skills upgrading or career re-orientation. The main difficulty resides in financing the very development of such programs.

The Second Priority Area: Ensuring Versatility Among Teaching Personnel and the Updating of Knowledge

Review secondary-level general education curricula in accordance with the Educational Policy Statement and the Policy Proposal on Educational Integration and Intercultural Education, especially in connection with citizenship education and the use of the media.
Continue the review of vocational and technical education programs from a perspective of lifelong learning.
Continue to work together with other partners to ensure that programs correspond as closely as possible to the needs of the labour market.
Integrate the concept of continuing education as a concept of lifelong learning into youth-sector programs.
Introduce intercultural education objectives into college-level programs, especially programs leading to occupations involving direct contact with the public.

Teacher Training

The review of elementary and secondary-level curricula provides an opportunity to review initial teacher training programs and to integrate the lifelong learning concept, since the skills acquired in the programs must allow teachers to interact effectively with both youth and adultsector students. It is therefore important that future teachers learn the methods and approaches specific to adult education, and that they do practicums in both sectors, youth and adult. This approach is preferable to the establishment of two separate programs, one for youth-sector teachers and one for adult-sector teachers, and also has the advantage of increasing teacher mobility while preserving the quality of the pedagogical or andragogical approach.

Adequate in-service training must be provided for teachers currently employed in the system so that they will be prepared should they ever change sectors. Also, there is general agreement that the need for teachers to hold legal qualifications, awarded after undergoing specific training, should not be extended to those working in popular education.

Review teacher training programs, in collaboration with Québec universities, to prepare teachers for work in both the regular and the continuing education sectors.
Ensure the availability of in-service training to prepare teachers to work with reviewed and new programs.

4.5 Support for Research

Research in the field of continuing education is essential in order to improve accessibility to services, and it must take into account the needs of all players and partners in the field.

Priority Area for Intervention: Providing Support for Research at All Educational Levels

The overall direction of research within the Ministère must be clarified. Although many research projects have relevant content, they mostly focus on collecting data on student populations and managing services. There is a lack of prospective and fundamental research, in particular into the causes and effects of illiteracy, with the light it could shed on possible solutions.

Research into how adults learn, the transfer of learning, educational environments, the support and supervision of distance education, the evaluation of andragogical approaches and recognition of prior learning, to name only a few possible topics, could make an important contribution to improving continuing education.

The goal of decentralization contained in the amendments to the Education Act, and the move toward greater autonomy for educational institutions, is based on the assumption that institutions will have access to the tools they need to correctly assess the needs of their target populations. From this point of view, research is an essential tool not only in the orientation of organizational development, but also in the identification of the needs of the population and the renewal of approaches adopted by educational personnel.

In addition, although progress has been made in a number of fields, research is still given low priority in the field of literacy. Given the context of budgetary constraints and the problems resulting from decreasing enrollment, school boards and popular literacy groups tend to concentrate on providing services and raising public awareness of the importance of education. Despite a few well-directed, structured projects, research in the field of literacy is fragmented and of varying value, and the links between specialized research and practical applications have yet to be established. Even fewer research projects have been designed to evaluate the success of various types of intervention. Lastly, there is a lack of detailed data on the reading abilities of adults in Québec, as contained in the International Adult Literacy Survey, and census data is generally under-used.