A special project of Frontier College Funded by the National Literacy Secretariat Human Resources Development

• Main Author: Philip Fernandez
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.482.5782; http://en.copian.ca/library/research/youth/youthlit.pdf

Government of Canada Strong literacy skills are a predictor of success in school and in the workplace. Many Canadian youth (aged 16-24) who have dropped out of school have low literacy skills. Even if they wish to return to school, they have to overcome a number of barriers which contribute to their low-literacy skills in the first place. The purpose of this research was to identify those elements which would contribute to creating effective and successful programs for youth who have dropped-out of school. Two groups of youth, one from Toronto, Ontario, and the other from Saint John’s, Newfoundland, were interviewed using focus groups to collect “oral testimony”. This report discusses what the youth said and looks at the implications of the data collected. Based on this discussion, it make recommendations regarding program design and policy. i Acknowledgments Many people were involved in this research project. First of all, my thanks to the