Directorates
·	Director General's Office
·	Data Development
·	Strategic Evaluations
·	Partnership and Continuous Evaluations
Publications
·	Evaluation Reports
·	Evaluation Briefs
·	Labour Market Development Agreement Series
·	Lessons Learned Series
·	Evaluation Tool Kit Series
·	Evaluation Forum Newsletter
·	From Theory To Practice

Overview of the Labour Market Information Strategic Initiative

In August 1995, the Province of British Columbia and the Federal Government entered into the Labour Market Strategic Initiatives Agreement to test approaches to social security reform in British Columbia in the areas of employment, learning and education, income security and services, as part of the Strategic Initiatives Program.

The Labour Market Information (LMI) Strategic Initiative was one of the joint initiatives carried out by the governments of Canada and British Columbia under the Labour Market Strategic Initiatives Agreement. The objective of the LMI Strategic Initiative was: “to answer the need for the development, production and distribution of high quality job and career related labour market information and, particularly, its integration into career counselling in secondary and post-secondary educational settings, in order to support the school-to-work transition”¹. The Initiative addressed this objective by focusing on the development and dissemination of LMI resources for career development purposes, with career practitioners as the primary audience. Many of the resources created by the Initiative, although aimed at career practitioners, were also intended to be used by end-users, often with the assistance of career practitioners.

The Joint Committee on Enhanced Labour Market Information provided overall direction for the LMI Strategic Initiative. The composition of the committee was intended to provide a broad range of input into the planning of the activities of the Initiative and included federal and provincial personnel who collect, disseminate or use LMI, as well as career practitioners from the field. The federal-provincial co-chairs of the Joint Committee made the final funding decisions. In addition to the Joint Committee, there were subcommittees that oversaw planning for each activity area. There were five main activity areas for the LMI Strategic Initiative:

• Research and data development: to develop new sources of labour market data for use in career-related labour market information products and services;
• New and enhanced information products: to produce and distribute new career-related labour market information products, using existing or new sources of labour market information;
• Community-based information partnerships: to pilot test selected community-based projects, in collaboration with community or sectoral agencies;
• Implementation of new technologies: to test the relative merits of alternative delivery mechanisms and technologies for the dissemination of labour market information in schools, community agencies, homes and government offices; and
• Quality standards and training: research to develop standards for training of career practitioners and quality standards (currency, accuracy, etc.) for the development of labour market information, as well as pilot testing training approaches and strategies for delivering training.

Through the Labour Market Strategic Initiatives Agreement, the governments of Canada and British Columbia provided contribution funding of approximately $8,210,000 for the Labour Market Information Strategic Initiative for the period from 1995/96 to 1998/99. Each funding partner also spent additional funds on administration costs, translations and other related expenses.

About 100 projects were funded by the LMI Strategic Initiative. Projects are defined as publications, community-based initiatives, websites, research documents, resource listings and guides, inventories and annotated listings of available sources of labour market information. Also included are brochures, displays, marketing, standards and training activities. These projects resulted in:

• the production and distribution of 26 LMI print resources, including updating and reprinting four of the print resources;
• the development and distribution of six facilitator’s guides and lesson plans;
• the on-line mounting of 31 resources, including three editions of Career Paths;
• the creation or support for the development of 12 websites, including BC WorkInfoNet, various local websites, Community Skills Centres websites and industry-specific and special interest websites;
• the creation of five CD ROMs for various audiences, such as Career Gateways, and
  Xplore Science Careers;
• the development and distribution of seven resource guides, annotated listings and inventories, including the brochure “What’s Key in Labour Market Information”;
• the production of 17 research papers, models and databases; and
• the delivery of 32 public forums, workshops and training sessions throughout the province, including 22 community-based LMI seminars in the spring of 1998.

Evaluation Purpose and Methodology

The summative evaluation of the LMI Strategic Initiative reported here was conducted to assess the impacts and effects of the Initiative and to determine whether it had achieved its objectives.

Since the focus of the Initiative had been on addressing the needs of career practitioners, the views of career practitioners were a major focus for the evaluation. The primary data collection component entailed a combination of faxed surveys and telephone interviews of 150 people, including career practitioners who provide assistance to individuals doing career planning, and analysts and program planners who are involved in the collection, dissemination and/or use of labour market information for planning of employment and education programs. Career practitioners included:

• classroom teachers in secondary schools teaching grade 11 and/or 12 students in the Career and Personnel Planning program;
• counselors providing career counselling to post-secondary students;
• career practitioners who work for not-for-profit and private agencies providing career development services to employment insurance recipients on contract to HRDC, and/or to income assistance recipients on contract to the MAETT; and
• provincial and federal employees who work in the field providing services to clients of MAETT, or HRDC, respectively.

A second component was a survey of end-users, including secondary students, income assistance and employment insurance recipients doing career planning with a federal or provincial contractor, and post-secondary students. In addition, case studies of 15 projects carried out through the LMI Strategic Initiative were conducted.

Case Studies

Each case study consisted of a profile of a project, or set of related projects that were funded by the Initiative. The profiles provide illustrations of some of the impacts of the projects, both large and small. In some cases, the impacts are local, as the project is only intended to have a local impact. In other cases, the impacts are much broader in scope. The profiles illustrate some of the challenges faced in carrying out projects of this nature, and some of the lessons learned in doing so. A description of each of the 15 projects is provided in this report as well as a synthesis of the lessons learned from the case studies about collecting LMI, and producing and disseminating LMI resources. A complete profile of each of the 15 projects is provided in a separate volume, The Summative Evaluation of the Labour Market Information Strategic Initiative: Profiles of Selected Projects.

Lessons Learned

As a Strategic Initiatives Program, the LMI Strategic Initiative was to test and evaluate innovative and cost-effective ways of addressing its objectives to learn what works and what doesn’t. A wealth of lessons about collecting LMI, and producing and disseminating LMI resources have been learned from the activities of the Initiative and have been captured in this evaluation.

One of the key lessons of the Initiative as a whole was the value of working in partnership. The value of partnerships was frequently mentioned by respondents when citing benefits of the Initiative, or lessons learned from carrying out individual projects. The LMI Strategic Initiative itself was a federal-provincial partnership. The implementation of the Initiative took the partnership concept further by setting up its activities and delivery processes to involve both those who collect and/or disseminate LMI, and as career practitioners, the primary audience for the resources produced by the Initiative. A number of benefits of working in partnership were identified by respondents, including:

• improved understanding of the needs of users;
• more cost-effective approaches to addressing needs;
• reduced overlap or duplication with other projects;
• sharing of resources, either in-kind or financial;
• sharing of knowledge about collecting, producing and disseminating labour market information; and
• creation of more user-friendly LMI resources.

Another benefit is that working in partnership is one way that lessons learned from other projects can be shared with other collectors, producers or disseminators of labour market information. Another lesson about partnerships is the amount that can be achieved with a relatively small amount of funding through the cooperation and dedication of those involved. None the less, some funding is needed for partnerships to happen. Partnerships only exist to achieve some end and money is needed to do this. With the end of the LMI Strategic Initiative, Initiative funding has ended. Any ongoing work in this area is funded either out of operating budgets or through new funding sources. Hence, money for carrying out LMI projects has been greatly reduced, and with the reduction in funding has come a concomitant reduction in the amount of partnering occurring in this area.

Chapter 2 provides a synthesis of the lessons learned from individual projects that were profiled for the case studies. Other key lessons learned through the activities of the LMI Strategic Initiative as a whole are provided in the final chapter of the report.

Summary of Key Findings and Conclusions

The LMI Strategic Initiative resulted in the creation and dissemination of a wealth of LMI resources, in both print and electronic form. To encourage the effective use of these resources, it developed facilitators’ guides and provided workshops and training on the use of a number of LMI resources. To improve the capacity for the collection of local or sector LMI, and the development and dissemination of LMI resources, it funded a number of pilot projects in communities throughout BC that resulted in other resources.

The Initiative made LMI resources available to their intended audiences by widespread distribution of free print copies, and by creating internet or CD ROM versions of a number of resources. In addition, the Initiative established the BC WorkInfoNet website, which provides links to a wide range of LMI resources, including ones created by the Initiative as well as many others.

The evaluation found that awareness of LMI and its uses was good and has been growing. The intended audiences for the resources produced by the Initiative were, to a considerable extent, getting and using the resources intended for them, although the use of specific resources varied depending on the resource and the audience. The biggest users of LMI resources were career practitioners who work directly with clients, particularly government contractors. The range of resources developed by the Initiative met the needs of a diverse range of intended users. The needs of end-users, however, were not met to the same degree as were the needs of career practitioners, analysts and planners. This difference perhaps reflects the fact that career practitioners were the primary audience for the activities of the Initiative, not end-users.

Among all the activities of the Initiative, and all the products and resources created, four stand out as key resources because they address the needs of a broad range of users: Work Futures, the BC WorkInfoNet website, Making Career Sense of Labour Market Information, and A Guide to the BC Economy and Labour Market. It is noteworthy that all four were produced early in the course of the Initiative. Resources produced near the end of the Initiative may, or may not, turn out to be just as useful, but at the time of this evaluation they were not in widespread use. It may be that time was the issue. Before people can make effective use of a new resource, they need to spend some time learning how to use it. But lack of time was an issue for many respondents, who felt they did not have time to learn how to use the resources.

The evaluation examined the extent to which the LMI Strategic Initiative achieved its objectives of:

• improving labour market information products and services to better meet the needs of a diverse range of users;
• increasing access to labour market information resources that meet the needs of a diverse range of users;
• enhancing coordination in the development, production and dissemination of labour market information; and
• increasing integration of labour market information into career planning and decision making.

With respect to the first objective, improving LMI products and services, the evaluation detected improvement in the quality of labour market information and improvement in the products and services to better meet the needs of a diverse range of users. The evidence suggests that the LMI Strategic Initiative made a significant contribution to the improved quality of labour market information, including outcome and student flow information, and made some contribution to increasing the amount and type of community and sector level labour market information. The LMI Strategic Initiative did, therefore, achieve its objective of improving labour market information products and services to better meet the needs of a diverse range of users.

Regarding increased access, the LMI Strategic Initiative increased the availability of labour market information resources to meet the needs of a diverse range of users, by:

• producing resources in a variety of formats, such as print, CD ROM and internet;
• creating different resources to make LMI accessible to different users;
• promoting the resources to audiences of career practitioners and other users;
• making a large number of LMI resources available on the internet through one site, the
  BC WorkInfoNet website; and
• distributing LMI resources free of charge to a wide audience of intended users.

Through increasing availability, the LMI Strategic Initiative increased access to a wide range of LMI resources for intended users. None the less, users still experienced some difficulties in access because they lacked information about some of the resources, how to obtain them, and how they can be used effectively. In addition, barriers to access still exist for people with disabilities.

The Initiative enhanced coordination in the development, production and dissemination of labour market information by:

• providing effective communication to ensure those involved and other producers of LMI were informed about the Initiative’s activities and plans;
• facilitating cooperation and collaboration and establishing effective partnerships for the collection and dissemination of LMI; and
• avoiding duplication in the collection and dissemination of LMI.

In fact, the Initiative’s effectiveness in establishing partnerships is viewed as one of its key benefits, in addition to the range of useful resources it created.

To address the fourth objective, increasing the integration of labour market information into career planning and decision making, the Initiative attempted to make sure intended users knew how to use the resources by developing various training manuals and facilitator’s guides and by providing training on how to use LMI. As a result, more people know how to use labour market information and more are using it in career planning and program planning. By increasing the number of relevant LMI resources for career planning, and by increasing awareness and understanding of the value of using labour market information, the Initiative has contributed to increasing the integration of labour market information into career planning and decision making.

Although the objective of the LMI Strategic Initiative specifically identifies the secondary and post-secondary school audiences, the focus of the LMI Strategic Initiative was broader than this to encompass the entire career planning audience, including government clients on employment insurance or income assistance and the career practitioners who provide support to them as they strive to integrate, or reintegrate, into the labour market. The Initiative had an impact on all these audiences, but its greatest impact was on the career practitioners who provide support to government clients. The Initiative was less effective in addressing the needs of the secondary school audience. Teachers, who were less likely than other career practitioners to use LMI, were more likely to have difficulty accessing LMI, and less likely to have access to the internet. They were also less likely to feel that resources met their needs. Contractors and counselors, on the other hand, who were more likely to use LMI, were less likely to have difficulty in accessing LMI and were contractors were much more likely to feel that LMI resources met their needs, and counselors were somewhat more likely to feel this way.

Overall Conclusions

During the course of the LMI Strategic Initiative, a paradigm shift occurred regarding the use of labour market information. More than ever before, career practitioners and program planners are using labour market information. At the end of the Initiative there were more and better quality LMI resources than there had been when the Initiative began. Many of these resources were the work of the Initiative, in whole or in part.

Because of the increasing concern with labour market issues, some of the activity of the Initiative — and the resulting LMI resources — may have occurred even if the Initiative had not happened. There is no way to know how much would have occurred, though. The Initiative did, however, provide a forum for this activity, and for partners to work together to address the need for better LMI for career planning purposes. The Initiative also provided funding that made it possible to significantly increase the level of activity in this area compared with what had happened before the Initiative.

By partnering with, and involving, a wide range of career practitioners and program planners in its activities, the Initiative was responsive to the needs resulting from the paradigm shift. By increasing the number of relevant LMI resources for career planning, and by increasing awareness and understanding of the value of using labour market information, the Initiative contributed to increasing the integration of labour market information into career planning and decision making.

Although there is a greater recognition of the value of LMI now, the paradigm shift is not complete. More work is needed around raising awareness and teaching the value of using labour market information in career planning and program planning, and around informing intended users about what LMI resources are available. Even once the shift is complete, and the need for labour market information in career planning and program planning is accepted by all, work will need to continue in order to continue to meet this need.

Lack of time is a factor that limits how quickly this shift can occur. Those who are not experienced with labour market information need to take time to learn about it and its uses. They need to know what resources are available to address their needs, and how to make effective use of these resources. This takes time, which is limited for many. Many intended users find it difficult to find the time to learn something new and hence, some are behind others in their facility with using labour market information.

Although the LMI Strategic Initiative has been effective in improving the quality of labour market information, there is a continued need for work in this area. Labour market information is timely information that becomes outdated relatively quickly. There is the danger that if resources used for career planning are not kept up-to-date, people will end up making ill-informed decisions. The potential damage will depend on how much the labour market has changed since the resources were developed. For specific sectors that have experienced a lot of change, either growth or decline, the result of using out-dated resources could be a reduction in effective functioning of the labour market. People could end up making career decisions that are not consistent with the changes in the labour market, resulting in higher unemployment, and/or skills shortages in the labour force.

In addition to the need to keep LMI resources up-to-date, there are needs that the LMI Strategic Initiative was not able to address. In particular, the needs of people with disabilities for accessible and relevant labour market information. Occupational information is also needed for people with low levels of education.

As a means of improving the functioning of the labour market, labour market information is serving a public good. One benefit of the Initiative is that it was able to fund the free distribution of many of the resources. This is likely an important factor in the Initiative’s effectiveness, as about half the people in the intended audiences did not have adequate budgets to meet their LMI needs. Lack of budget was not a limiting factor for these people because of the widespread free distribution of the resources, both in print, and electronically. The ending of the Initiative has meant that there is less funding for the creation and dissemination of LMI resources.

Since audiences do not have enough money to purchase the LMI resources they need, the collection and dissemination of LMI cannot be self sufficient. To continue to address the LMI needs of career practitioners and end-users, and encourage the further integration of LMI into career planning, continued government funding is needed for the collection, development and dissemination of LMI, and training in its use.

The principal benefits of the LMI Strategic Initiative have been the development of effective partnerships for the collection, development and dissemination of LMI resources and the creation of LMI resources that meet the needs of a diverse range of users. The needs are ongoing, but the shelf life of LMI resources is not. Work on updating resources and developing new resources will have to continue if the needs of users are to continue to be met. Whether the significant benefits that the LMI Strategic Initiative has achieved will be sustained depends on the availability of government funding to continue work in this area.

Footnotes

1	Cooperation Agreement Concerning the Labour Market Components of the Canada/British Columbia Strategic Initiatives, Schedule C, 1995.