http://www.esportfolio.com pdf format


Who are those ESPORT™ folks?

Essential Skills Online

PLATO Essential Skills Online (ESO) is an e-learning program designed to help learners develop the Essential Skills they need for the jobs they are seeking. ESO acknowledges prior learning and skills and offers instruction and practice focused on new skill development rather than on previously mastered abilities. ESO is designed to develop transferable Essential Skills; it is not intended as industry, company or job specific. Essential Skills Online provides competency-based skill-building activities that have been steadily perfected over many years of use, and includes assessment and management tools to teach across a broad spectrum of learner abilities and to monitor and report progress and skill competency gains. Clients can manage offline, online and Web-based resources to provide students with the help they need, when they need it.

Connecting ESPORT(TM)™ and PLATO® Essential Skills Online

After completing ESPORT 's Essential Skills assessments some learners will identify Essential Skills gaps for their chosen occupation. A facilitator can help the learner develop a learning plan using Essential Skills Online as a bridge to close the skills gap and acquire the Essential Skills they need for the job they are seeking.

For example, if a client needs higher numeracy skills prior to starting a Construction Electrician apprenticeship, they can be enrolled in the ESO Numeracy course for NOC 7241 Construction Electrician. If a client needs to improve their Document Use skills for a Purchasing and Inventory Clerk job, they can be enrolled in the Document Use course for NOC 1474 Purchasing and Inventory Clerk. And, as the learner builds Essential Skills, they quickly and easily document their achievements for prospective employers in their ESPORT Essential Skills Portfolio.

Grant Bishop, Eskilon's President says, "Because both ESPORT & Essential Skills Online are available on the Web, the potential to help the job training market is enormous. Think of all the communities and employers across Canada facing skill shortages, which previously haven't had convenient affordable access to tools like this. Think of Canada's First Nations who need community-based programs for capacity building and economic development. Think of all the adults who want to improve their skills for access to better jobs but can't afford to go back to school full-time."

The client experiences ESPORT™ & PLATO® as software tools for life and career change. That is the public face of the project. Behind the experience of the software tools and the training provided in the field, and the technical support, there is a broad partnership between local agencies, service providers, and governments.

Two basic building blocks in this public-private partnership are ESPORT™ and PLATO Learning®. PLATO Learning is represented in Canada by Eskilon Learning Solutions Inc. (Essential Skills Online) and President, Grant Bishop. In this article, Grant explains how his company fits into the bigger picture.

 

By
Grant Bishop,
ESKILON Learning Solutions

 

Eskilon Learning Solutions Inc. is the Canadian distributor for ESPORT - the Essential Skills Portfolio - and for PLATO Learning, Inc., a leading provider of technology-enhanced learning solutions for young adult and adult learners.

Eskilon's focus is sales and marketing of technology-based products and services for education, training and employment, serving for example, community colleges; ESL, literacy and upgrading programs; pre-apprenticeship preparation programs; school-to-work programs; welfare-to-work and job training programs; and workplace learning. Eskilon is establishing business partners across Canada, each of whom will augment ESPORT and PLATO Essential Skills Online with complementary products and services to create an Essential Skills solution for the communities and clients they serve.

 

Funding for this project is provided by the Government of Canada through Human Investment Programs, HRSDC.