Programs help adult learners

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Literacy programs in British Columbia receive $700,000 a year to help the province's adult population learn to read and write. A total of 33 provincially-funded literacy projects operate across the province, even in the farthest regions of British Columbia.

On the Queen Charlotte Islands in Masset, the Haida Gwaii Adult Literacy Program is funded to provide help to 20 individuals.

"Our main program is providing one to one tutoring to people who want to improve their reading and writing skills," said spokesperson Kerri Wilkie. "Last year we trained adults on how to teach the kids reading and writing skills, and we did that in both the Haida villages."

Wilkie said the main challenge is having people recognize what the service is and be able to come forward and stick with it, because often when there are literacy barriers, there are other barriers as well.

"They sort of start stacking up."

It takes a while before progress is seen, and it takes commitment.

"The hardest part is getting students into the program and knowing that they'll really see that it's going to work for them."

Progress can be seen in as soon as a month.

"If you happen to get a great tutor pair together, people who really click, people start feeling successful right away."

The program is success based, she said. It's designed so that the adult is the leader. The program allows the learner to choose materials that would be of specific interest to them.

"Most adults will come into adult education because they see a need in their life that they need to solve, like they need to go back to school or they have funding to go back to school or they are looking for work and they have to retrain, and they're suddenly challenged with learning situations."

The program does not bring a curriculum to that person. It's helps the learner see what he or she needs to improve the process.

"So the materials are really relevant and interesting to the person," said Wilkie.

"We're doing some interesting projects up here, said Wilkie. "We became partners with Community Futures and developed an entrepreneurial literacy program for people to go into self-employment who have literacy barriers."