Dr. Audrey Penner, Director of Adult Education, Learner Support and Applied Research, Holland College and Dr. Satya Brink, Director Learning Policy Directorate, HRSDC, will present preliminary findings from a two-year study entitled Investing in Effective Adult Learning for Island Prosperity: Back to Basics at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, April 9th in the MacKinnon Lecture Theatre in the Charlottetown Centre. The report will be jointly published by Holland College and the Learning Policy Directorate, HRSDC at a later date.

The study includes findings on predictors of adult program completion, learning gain achievement, cost of learning gain, factors influencing learning gain, and labour force information about adult learners who attended the Adult and Community Education programs on Prince Edward Island. Using a repeated measures design learners in the ACE programs were evaluated three times over the period of this study from October 2008 to January 2010.

The intent of this research project is to show how investment in adult education can support the Island's prosperity strategy by assisting in labour force development for economic diversification and increased support for knowledge based industries.

Dr. Penner says the research uncovered some surprising information.

"The number of learners who were functioning at Level 3 was a very positive surprise in this study. This finding allowed us to focus on learning gain in our programs. However, what can't be forgotten is the number of Islanders who are not functioning at a Level 3 or do not have a high school diploma, they are an untapped human resource for Prince Edward Island"

Dr. Brink pointed out that this type of analyses using both national data and administrative data from Holland College can provide solid evidence on the success of current investments for strategies such as Island Prosperity.

This research is a joint project of Holland College's Applied Research division and Learning Policy Directorate, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, with the support of the Department of Economic Growth, Tourism and Culture, PEI and ACOA.