Nova Scotia Compass Program - October 1995

Nova Scotia Compass Program

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• Introduction
• Project description
• Evaluation approach
• Key findings
• Conclusion

This brief summarizes the findings from a process evaluation of the Compass Program, a Strategic Initiative funded by the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia. The evaluation was jointly managed by a Federal-Provincial Committee with representation from Human Resources Development Canada, the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services and the Employment Resource Centres that deliver the program.

The Strategic Initiatives Program, announced in the Federal Budget of February 1994, is a five-year Federal-Provincial cost-shared program to test innovative ideas about social security reform. Pilots considered for funding include those that are designed to test new options for reform in training, income security and social services and learning; explore ways to help people move from welfare to work; and find more cost-effective approaches to labour market programs.

The Compass Program is funded through a federal-provincial cooperation agreement between Human Resources Development Canada and the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services. A budget of $15 million is available toCompass over the 2 year period from October 1994 to October 1996.

The Compass Strategic Initiative was developed in response to rising caseloads at both the provincial and municipal level and to growing dependency on social assistance, especially the increasing number of youth depending on municipal assistance and growing numbers of single parents on the provincial family benefits caseload.

The Compass Program is intended to enhance the employability of social assistance recipients (SARs). The program has been designed:

• to provide opportunities to working age adults including single women and laid-off fishers displaced from the labour market;

• to assist unemployed youth at risk of long-term dependency to develop job skills;

• to complement and build on existing training and employment services offered by the province, municipalities and the federal government; and

• to encourage the participation of private sector employers as partners in the program.

The Compass Program comprises the following four components:

Work Experience Option (WEO): This component is designed to provide youth (18 to 30 years of age) in receipt of municipal assistance with an opportunity to gain work experience. During the pilot period, the WEO has also been opened up to a limited number of Family Benefits (FB) clients. In the first year of the program, clients were paid an allowance of $160 a week while on placements not exceeding 26 weeks. The WEO now pays a minimum wage of $5.15 per hour for placements not exceeding 16 weeks.

Transitional Training Option (ITO): Under this component, a wage subsidy is available to private sector employers to provide employment opportunities to job-ready SAR clients. Tenure is for a maximum of six months for full-time work with a wage subsidy of up to $5.62 an hour. Employers are required to contribute a minimum of 25 percent of the hourly wage.

Enterprise Development Option (EDO): The goal of the EDO is to assist SAR clients to establish and operate a small business. Under Stream I of the EDO, clients acquire core training in entrepreneurial skills and business development over a 20 week period, as well as receive after-care support consisting of one-on-one counselling with the trainer for a minimum of 6 months. Under Stream II, qualified clients receive loan assistance of up to $2000 for their business, and in exceptional cases, up to $5000 through the Business Service Centres of the Nova Scotia Economic Renewal Agency.

Opportunity Fund: The Opportunity Fund enables the purchase of speciality items/ services such as textbooks, manuals, course fees, workboots, and safety equipment to enhance the employability of a client. It can be used by Employment Resource Centre (ERC) clients and by clients who are involved in provincial vocational training and employment programs.

This evaluation focuses on the WEO, TTO, and EDO components.

The process evaluation reviews the first six months of the implementation of the Compass Program. The evaluation examined issues related to program design and delivery as well as preliminary outcomes. Information sources included: a review of the literature, interviews with stakeholders, focus groups with program stakeholders, and a survey of 251 client participants, 110 eligible clients not placed, and 56 employer participants.

Project design

Much of the success of Compass is due to the design established for its delivery. Compass was designed to be one part of an integral range of employment and training services available to SAR clients. The program is delivered throughout the province by existing Employment Resource Centres (ERCs) who have the experience and knowledge of municipal and provincial clients.

The Job Developer is a key element of the Compass Program design. An innovative approach to securing placements in the employer community, the Job Developer function is dedicated to matching job-ready clients with local employers. Under the WEO, Job Developers identify employers capable of providing quality on-the job training, and under the TTO identify employers with the capacity to hire trainees. Along with linking SAR clients to employers, Job Developers also monitor the placement.

The process is client driven and entirely dependent upon having ready access to appropriate referrals from the counsellors. ERC staff work with their clients on an individualized basis, completing employability assessments to ensure clients are job ready before referring them to the Compass Program.

A particular strength of the organizational structure of Compass lies in the Regional Compass Liaison Committees being established throughout the province to facilitate communication among the Compass partners. Members of the Committee include ERC coordinators, counsellors and Job Developers, Economic Renewal Agency field officers, and Community Services counsellors.

Partnership building

The strongest of the partnerships emerging out of the Compass experience is that built between the ERC counsellors, the Job Developers and the Compass Coordinator. The ERCs have embraced the Compass Program and melded it into their existing operations to provide a seamless service delivery to clients.

Partnerships have been an especially important element in the development and delivery of the EDO, an option that reflects the flexibility of the Compass Program design. Responsibilities for this option reside with an Advisory Committee consisting of staff from the Economic Renewal Agency (ERA), the Department of Education and Culture, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Department of Community Services and the Employment Resource Centres, and Human Resources Development Canada. This partnership flows out of the key partners' commitment to build a coordinated approach to service delivery.

As a result of the EDO, the Economic Renewal Agency has been provided an opportunity to become acquainted with the needs and background of SAR clients. It has also provided Community Services with an avenue to assist SAR clients interested in self-employment.

Employers view Compass as a partnership between themselves, the client and the government agencies involved.

Success

The Work Experience Option has been successful in placing youth with employers. Survey results indicate that 34% of those who completed the placement have been hired by their employer.

The Transitional Training Option is meeting the employment needs of municipal clients. Survey results indicate that 67% of this client group who have finished their placement have been hired by employers. However, this option is less successful in meeting the employment needs of single parents due to lack of transportation, lack of subsidized daycare and fear of losing health card benefits. Removal of these barriers and enhanced linkages between provincial counsellors and the ERCs as delivery agents for Compass is believed necessary to encourage the participation of this group.

Close to a third of all clients who were placed through Compass indicated that the chance to acquire relevant experience was the most important program feature for them. Second in importance was the role played by the Job Developer in working with them to find a placement.

Compass has been welcomed by the employer community for a number of non-financial considerations including: the length of the placement; a wide range of skills to draw upon; the program monitoring; a minimum of paperwork; and most importantly, the time saved the employer in the client screening process (a function performed by the Job Developer).

Preliminary results of the EDO indicate that the Stream I training component is providing the target group with the knowledge and skills required to establish and run a small business, and in some cases, skills necessary to obtain employment elsewhere. The majority of businesses started as a result of the EDO have been small and home-based in nature and have been funded under Stream II without obtaining additional financing for start-up costs. The EDO Advisory Committee has recognized that, in many cases, the $2,000 financing through Stream II is not sufficient to start a business and has recommended an increase to $5,000 in all cases rather than just in exceptional circumstances.

Preliminary evaluation results indicate that the Compass Program is a valuable job placement tool for the job-ready SAR client. Employers have responded favorably to the program and feedback from the municipalities indicates that the Compass Program is a success in terms of meeting the needs of youth and the job-ready clients.

The partnership which has developed between Community Services and the Economic Renewal Agency in the development and delivery of the EDO is of particular significance. By including a component directed towards encouraging SAR clients' entry into small business, Compass has provided the first mechanism for the province of Nova Scotia to assist SAR clients make the transition to self-employment.

Establishment of the Job Developer position has been an additional innovative feature of the Compass Program which has been key to its success and welcomed by provincial counsellors, ERC staff and SAR clients alike.