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This report presents findings from the formative evaluation of the Canada/Alberta Labour Market Development Agreement (LMDA) in the form of an Overview Report. Other findings reports in this series include a Technical Report, an Evaluation Brief, Recommendations and Lessons Learned.

1.1 The Canada/Alberta Labour Market Development Agreement

The governments of Alberta and Canada entered into a joint agreement (the first for any jurisdiction) on December 6, 1996 with regard to the provincial management of labour market development programs in Alberta. Each agreed to work together in the implementation of Alberta Programs and Services (APSs) and in the operation of the National Employment Services (NES). The LMDA came into effect on November 1, 1997. Delivery is through staff of Alberta's Advanced Education and Career Development (AECD)² department or third party service providers, using funding from the EI (Part II) Account of Human Resource Development Canada (HRDC).

1.1.1 Goals and Key Principles

The APSs under the LMDA are to assist individuals to prepare for, obtain and maintain employment resulting in savings to the Employment Insurance (EI) Account. In so doing, a return on investment will be achieved through a reduction in dependency on Employment Insurance (EI) and in social assistance (in the form of Support for Independence [SFI] benefits, through Alberta Family and Social Services [AFSS]), and additional tax revenues through increased employment.

The key principles of the Canada/Alberta LMDA include:

• Giving the highest priority to the integration of the unemployed into the workforce and providing the highest quality labour market development programs and services to the people of Alberta;
• Measuring, monitoring, assessing and evaluating the success of labour market development programs and services in order to help the unemployed of Alberta to prepare for, find and keep a job;
• Recognising youth employment as a priority and being committed to co-ordinating youth initiatives;
• Recognising the value to Canadians of co-ordinating local, provincial and national labour market and labour exchange information;
• Reducing unnecessary overlap and duplication in labour market development programs and services; and
• Recognising the possibility of achieving significant economies and quality improvements through co-operation in the future development, management and funding of systems infrastructure that meets the objectives of provincial and national labour market programs.

1.1.2 Alberta Programs and Services

There are seven APSs under the LMDA, which are the subject of this evaluation:³

• Career and Employment Assistance Services (CEAS)—By providing self-directed services (e.g., access to labour market information, self-help tools), directed career assistance (e.g., career advice, group workshops) and client-specific services (e.g. individual counselling, case management), enables individuals to make well-informed career planning decisions and prepare for employment transitions.
• Self-Employment (SE)—Provides clients with formal instruction in business plan development, one-to-one business counselling, coaching, guidance and follow-up during business plan implementation.
• Training on the Job (TOJ)—Helps individuals acquire transferable skills and experience with employers in jobs that are in demand in the labour market. Participants become employees for up to eight months while prospective employers are reimbursed for the job training provided.
• Skills for Work (SW)—Provides clients with a combination of life management skills, occupational training, academic upgrading and work experience needed for jobs in demand which have an entry level of at least $7.00 per hour.
• Job Placement (JP)—Designed to match unemployed Albertans who are ready, willing and able to work but need help in locating and obtaining jobs with employers needing to fill jobs.
• Skills Development Upgrading (SDU)—Provides clients in need of basic foundation training, academic upgrading or English as a Second Language financial assistance to improve their employability.
• Skills Development Skill Training (SDS)—Provides clients with financial assistance to complete short-term skills training with approved public or private training providers.

1.1.3 Eligibility

Eligibility under the LMDA is restricted to unemployed individuals pursuant to the Employment Insurance Act (without employment and actively seeking employment). To be eligible for participation in one of the above-mentioned programs, individuals must fall into one of the following groups:

• Current (active) EI claimants;
• Former EI claimants whose benefit period has been established or has ended within the past three years; or
• Those who have established a claim for maternity or paternity benefits within the past five years and who are returning to the labour force for the first time after having left work to care for a new-born or newly adopted child.

Apprentices who obtain a layoff of convenience from their employers to attend the in-school component of their apprenticeship training, and who qualify as active claimants are also considered participants under the LMDA.

In addition, unemployed individuals who are not eligible for funding support through EI Part II may receive services under employment support measures (CEAS and JP). Uninsured individuals may also benefit indirectly through community partnership activities supported under LLMP. These "uninsured individuals" (including Supports for Independence recipients and "other Albertans" not in receipt of SFI), are not included in the targets for the LMDA nor in the findings of the formative evaluation.

1.1.4 Accountability Framework

Alberta and Canada have set up a Results-Based Framework to measure achievement of success. Short-term results are based on performance measures. These track:

• The number of active EI claimants and other EI clients (reach-back);
• Return to Work (RTW) of EI clients; and
• Savings to the EI Account (unpaid EI) as a result of re-employment of active claimants.

Targets are established for fiscal years based on these measures. For 1997-98, established targets are:

• Active EI claimants should represent at least 65 percent of all EI clients;
• 14,481 RTW by EI clients. Priority is to be given to the RTW of active claimants; and
• $99.8 million in unpaid EI.

In the medium and longer term, other measures to be assessed include:

• Sustained employment or self-employment as a result of APSs;
• Reduction in dependency on EI and government assistance;
• Savings to social assistance and the EI Account;
• Increased tax revenues from earned income; and
• Others as agreed to by the Joint Evaluation Committee.

1.1.5 Other Factors Affecting the LMDA

A number of factors, many of which pre-date the implementation of the LMDA, have had a bearing on its development:

• EI changes in July 1996—reducing the duration of benefits and increasing the eligibility requirements;
• Downsizing of federal public service, with the resulting increase in service delivery by contracted third parties;
• Canada-Alberta Service Bureau Pilot Project;
• HRDC's offer of provincial delivery of EI Part II programs and services to the province in a period of devolution. (Alberta was the first province to accept this offer in the form of the Canada-Alberta LMDA.)
• Generally buoyant labour market in Alberta.

1.2 Evaluation of the Canada/Alberta Labour Market Development Agreement

As part of the LMDA, Alberta and Canada have agreed to cooperate in the development and implementation of a three-phased evaluation process. The first phase resulted in the document Logic Models and Evaluation Issues, Questions, Indicators and Data Sources.

There are two subsequent phases—a formative phase (the subject of this report) and a summative phase. The formative evaluation began in October 1998 and provides information to enhance the design and delivery of the LMDA and individual APSs. The focus of the summative evaluation will be on measuring the outcomes, impacts and cost-effectiveness of the APSs. Both of these phases use multiple lines of evidence—both qualitative and quantitative.

The formative evaluation includes three telephone surveys involving non-apprentice participants (997), comparison group members (426) and apprentices (200). Other data gathering activities include document review and review of secondary data, 61 key informant interviews (involving management, staff and community partners) and 11 focus groups (involving third party delivery agents, employers and participants). In total, 128 individuals were contacted.

As comprehensive as these data collection methods and the analysis they support have been, readers are reminded that the formative evaluation represents the very early days of the LMDA in Alberta. Data collection and analysis represents a 15 to 17 month window (up to the early part of 1999) after implementation of a substantially new set of programs and delivery methods in Alberta. As such, the formative evaluation covers a period of significant transition. Transitions continue. We report information on activities conducted after this date that are intended to address concerns identified during our data collection period. However, we have no evidence of the efficacy of these activities.

1.3 This Report

This report is structured around the key issues of the evaluation:

• Relevance and design—Chapter 2.
• Delivery—Chapter 3.
• Process outcomes—Chapter 4.
• Impact on individuals—Chapter 5.
• Impact on communities—Chapter 6.
• Assessment of short-term success—Chapter 7.

Note that quotations from the qualitative research are italicized.

Footnotes

2	During the latter stages of the evaluation, the Alberta government underwent a re-organization. Parts of AECD and AFSS became Alberta Human Resources and Employment. We refer to AECD and AFSS throughout this document.
3	An eighth APS, Local Labour Market Partnerships (LLMP), although not officially part of the evaluation is discussed briefly in this report. Also note that SDS and SDU are generally discussed under the umbrella of the Skills Development Program (SDP).