What we have seen that works, particularly when we're looking at the foundational skills, is to integrate them with a very small investment—between 20 and 60 hours focused on the requirements of what is needed for the job now, rather than K-to-12 long-term math and literacy.
We're finding that, first of all, the learners who have dropped out at the high school level are really not interested. It's very difficult to convince them, as adults, to go back and do grade 10, grade 11, and grade 12. But you can work with the companies, the colleges, and the local community providers, to provide that just-in-time, "what do you need to be able to do the job", which is very, very focused.
Our colleges have developed some workplace essential skills testing tools that are based on the international adult literacy scales. They require an hour or two, at the most three, depending on the learning needs, to assess what the needs are, work with the company to know what technical skills are required, and then marry those in very targeted interventions. They tend to work better.
If the funding allows for that, that is much more targeted to immediate needs, where the individual sees the practicality of it and the enterprise sees an immediate benefit in terms of skills acquisition and productivity in the workplace. Then you have the beginning of a winning formula. Then you can leverage those small successes, and the individual then wants more.