Yukon College: Whitehorse Correctional Centre Campus (WCC)

What is the overall impact of the initiative and how is this measured?

In the 2014-15 academic year 108 inmates registered for academic upgrading or basic education opportunities; 36 students participated in five-week full-time work programs.

Updated stats will be made available later in 2019.

What challenges have you faced and how were these overcome?

• Attrition issues: Students leave in the middle of a program because they are released. Try to keep programs short term.
• Shortages of resources – not enough time or staff to do follow up once students have left the correctional centre. Hope to build this into our budget.
• Wide range of essential skill levels within a classroom. Instructors need to be very skilled and provide a diversity of learning opportunities.

What are 3 key lessons you learned from developing or delivering your initiative? What advice from those lessons would you share with others?

• Insure that every cost associated with a program is included in funding budgets, i.e. curriculum development, back fill for staff, follow up with participants.
• Curriculum and program scheduling needs to be flexible when working within the correctional institution. The institution has its own priorities, policies and protocols and we have to be able to adapt and work around them.
• There needs to be on-going cooperation and communication with the correctional institution in order to ensure the smooth delivery of educational/vocational courses and program and for the ultimate success of the students.

What have participants, stakeholders and partners thought, felt and/or said about your initiative?

“The option of being able to academically upgrade at WCC is very important and the teachers do a good job in assisting and supporting inmates in achieving their goals.” – JS, inmate

Which Essential Skills are covered by the initiative? Reading Text Document Use Numeracy Writing Oral Communications Working with Others Thinking Skills Computer Use Continuous Learning

How are the Essential Skills integrated into your initiative?

Essential skills are a component of all of the upgrading programming being offered, based on the needs of the learners. (Note sample courses). Particular essential skills may be addressed through a specific course such as Basic Reading, Financial Literacy or Math Essential Skills. In the vocational programming all essential skills are addressed with a focus on those essential skills most relevant to the occupation. Essential skills are integrated around job tasks. For example, document use is taught using relevant work place documents and in the Kitchen Helper Program Numeracy is taught through the use of recipes etc.

Depending on the focus of the programming WCC campus offers a host of trades certificate courses such as: Industrial Safety, Standard First Aid, Food Safe, H2S Alive

Work placements within the Correctional Centre were offered participants taking part in the Building Service Worker training program

Transitional support is also offered – educational planning for those participants about to be released from the correctional centre

The campus also offers annual Income Tax Workshops, regular student advising, and assistance with forms for birth certificates, health care cards, and other official documents.

How do you assess participant Essential Skills?

Learners are given a pre and post skills assessment using a variety of recognized ES assessment tools. Students are assessed against course learning outcomes and curriculum rubrics. Also assessed based on task completions, demonstration of skills and instructor observations.

What are the components of the initiative? Occupation-specific skills training Academic upgrading Occupational certifications and/or licensing Work-integrated learning (i.e., internships, co-ops, work placements, etc.) Life skills Career and/or educational planning Job search services Cultural, language, and tradition awareness and/or training Other

How do you support participant success in the program? Attendance allowance Individualized counselling Individualized tutoring Job placements Wage subsidies Access to other in-house services After program follow-up support Other

How was Indigenous culture integrated into the program content or delivery?

Classroom activities include traditional activities such as drum making. Elders are involved in delivery of programming and culturally appropriate resources/texts are used. Language resources are made available to learners.

What do you think are the most important competencies and attributes for staff involved in this initiative to have?

Instructors need to be flexible, patient, work with a wide range of learning styles and skill levels, able to create trusting relationships, work with challenging students, be culturally sensitive and cope with a correctional environment.

Who are your partners, and what is their involvement in the initiative?

Whitehorse Correctional Centre