Best Practices

The following report outlines how other provinces are integrating Essential Skills into their trades, what
the research shows about best practices, and where improvements in
Essential Skills instruction are needed.

This report also explains the basis for the Learn to Learn project. Read why we at the UA Piping
Industry College are certain that skills like oral communication, working with others,
continuous learning, and thinking skills are the key to success in the trade. Below is a caption from the report itself along with the link to the full-report.

Essential Skills for Piping Project: Summary of Research

This report summarizes the research conducted as the first stage of the UA Piping Industry College of BC (UA PIC) Essential Skills for Piping (ESP) project.

The primary goal was to promote the value of essential skills and literacy training to as many stakeholders and industry representatives within the piping trades as possible, so as to introduce a long-lasting sustainable system that will benefit apprentices, journeypersons and supervisors, and employers alike. To accomplish this goal, the UA PIC has contracted with HRSDC to:

1. Perform research to determine best practices in literacy and essential skills.
2. Adapt these practices to an applied, focused piping trades program. The program will consist of three pilots: a pre-apprenticeship literacy and essential skills course, a continuous mentoring program (possibly online), and a supervisor’s course.
3. Evaluate the pilot programs after their delivery and make recommendations for future sustainable programming.

This report marks the end of the first phase of the project, in which research into essential skills best practices has been conducted and assessed. The recommendations in this report will help the project’s Steering Committee make program planning and curriculum design decisions as the project continues. The following topics are discussed:

• The need for essential skills in piping training
• A summary of the research conducted as part of the review and its findings
• Current essential skills projects in Canada and elsewhere, including the best practices in Essential Skills Training modeled in these projects

Attached to this report is a formal literature review that details the academic research findings associated with this project, and an extensive research bibliography indicating the sources consulted to date for the project. For more information, read this report.