Tamara's Comments

COMMENTAIRES DE TAMARA TAMARA'S COMMENTS

Definitions are changing, anything else?

Tamara Kaattari has been the Executive Director of the Literacy Link South Central in London, Ontario, since 1996. Since she has always believed in providing advice to the government about the needs and trends in Ontario’s literacy system, she has agreed to share her point of view on a couple of the topics that are covered in this issue of Perfectio.

We asked Tamara if she was seeing any changes coming, medium-term, for the LBS providers, in relation with the new Skills for Success model. Here is what she said:

Over the last several decades, LBS providers have been working with different curriculums and frameworks (Essential Skills, different iterations of the International Adult Literacy Survey, the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework), but soft skills were always on the map, even if they didn't have the same names. For example, we spoke about "engaging with others" rather than collaboration, so it's more about definitions. Yes, the definitions are changing, but the learners we serve have low foundational skills in other areas as well (reading, writing, math, digital literacy, etc.). It’s rare for someone to want to attend LBS just to focus on soft skills. That said, the new Skills for Success Framework does draw attention to some important areas of skills – like creativity and problem solving – that are very much in demand because they touch every area of a person’s life and are critical for current and emerging jobs. ■