Services to Learners

The Guild provides a number of services to learners as part of our Literacy and Basic Skills Programme. They include:

• Information and referral - staff responsibility
• Literacy assessment - staff responsibility
• Training plan development - staff responsibility
• Training - tutor and/or staff responsibility
• Follow-up - staff responsibility

Information and Referral
The Guild works with other literacy providers such as the Peel District School Board and Sheridan College to make sure that learners are enrolled in the literacy program that best meets their needs. Information on the Peel Literacy Guild is widely distributed throughout the Region of Peel. Staff members are also available to give information and referral support to learners who may have other needs such as food banks, counseling, shelters etc.

Goal Directed Literacy Assessment
The co-ordinators work with learners to identify their literacy goals. Prospective learners are then assessed on literacy areas that pertain to those goals in order to identify their current literacy skills. These skills are then measured against the Learning Outcomes Matrix.

Co-ordinators also conduct ongoing assessments with every learner every six months in order to identify the progress made toward the goal(s) and to document what demonstrations can be done successfully.

Training Plan Development
Co-ordinators develop training plans that identify the learners' goals, current literacy skills, and what skills are needed to achieve the goal(s). Tutoring strategies and relevant teaching materials are also identified. Finally, the training plan includes some demonstration activities that provide evidence that goals are being achieved. Learner and tutors gets a copy of the training plans. The co-ordinators check with each learner and tutor pair periodically throughout the six months to ensure that the goals in the plan will be met and that the information is still relevant.

Training
The actual tutoring is the heart of the Guild's programming. Tutors use the strategies and materials listed on the learners' training plan to teach the skill sets that must be mastered if the goals are to be achieved. Co-ordinator support is always available to tutors who need ideas on new teaching materials or activities.

Follow-up
Learners who leave the program are interviewed at three and six month intervals to evaluate the effectiveness of the training activities they received.