Essential Skills for Employment at YWCA Toronto

YWCA Model – Building Sustainable Futures (BSF)

YWCA Toronto facilitates a national learning collaborative which gathers the experience of YWCA Associations from across Canada.

Together, we have explored how our approach to essential skills training could be refined as a model and adapted to work with diverse underserved populations in different demographic areas. Our publications include a compendium of promising practices with a companion toolkit that contains a sampling of the lesson plans, practitioners’ tips, and resources developed and tested by collaborators. This five-year national participatory research was funded by the Adult Learning, Literacy and Essential Skills Program, Government of Canada.

This collaboration contributes to developing the capacity of literacy and essential skills (LES) organizations and support people to strengthen their own capacities, seize employment opportunities, and increase their incomes.

The Building Sustainable Futures Learning Collaborators:
• YWCA Agvvik Nunavut, Nunavut
• YWCA Halifax, Nova Scotia
• YWCA Hamilton, Ontario
• YWCA Metro Vancouver, British Columbia
• YWCA Moncton, New Brunswick
• YMCA-YWCA National Capital Region, Ontario
• YWCA Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• YWCA Thompson, Manitoba

JOIN THE YWCA BUILDING SUSTAINABLE FUTURES COMMUNITY

Please join this vibrant learning community that is contributing to building a skilled and inclusive workforce across Canada. Sign-up to receive free updates, invitations to events, and notices of opportunities for involvement in the project. Click here, to complete the form. Email any questions to buildingfutures@ywcatoronto.org.

YWCA RESOURCES

Professional Business Practices Curriculum
In 2010, YWCA Toronto produced their first publication of a Compendium of Best Practices in Employment Programming and an accompanying Professional Business Practices Curriculum designed to work with marginalized women. The pilot project helped to build the capacity of Literacy and Essential Skills service delivery organizations and raised interest in the field amongst a wide range of stakeholders nationally. See below to download these resources, free of charge:

• Compendium of Best Practices in Employment Programming
• Professional Business Practices Curriculum

Building Sustainable Futures Compendium and Toolkit
In 2019, YWCA Toronto produced their second publication of a compendium of promising practices with an accompanying toolkit that contains a sampling of the lesson plans, practitioners’ tips, and resources developed and tested by collaborators. The project has enabled us to document our learning, and share our promising practices and lessons learned while developing our YWCA Building Sustainable Futures program model. This model was incubated and refined through YWCA Toronto’s Skills Development Centre as part of a contribution to building a skilled and inclusive workforce. For interested readers, we have also published a French translation of select content from the Compendium and Toolkit. See below to download these resources, free of charge:

• YWCA Building Sustainable Futures Compendium
• YWCA Building Sustainable Futures Toolkit
• YWCA—Construire des avenirs durables résumé et trousse

INTEGRATING ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR EMPLOYMENT

The Government of Canada and other national and international agencies have identified nine essential skills needed for work, learning and life: Reading, Document Use, Numeracy, Writing, Oral Communication, Working with Others, Thinking, Computer Use and Continuous Learning. These skills provide the foundation for learning all other skills. They enable people to evolve in their jobs and adapt to workplace change. They are used in the community and the workplace in different forms and at different levels of complexity. For more information, visit Employment and Social Development Canada at https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/essential-skills/tools/what-aresential-skills.html