Quesnel, British Columbia
Driver Education Preparation Project (DEPP)
Project Lead: Rebecca Beuschel, Literacy Quesnel Society
The Literacy Quesnel Society’s “Driver Education Preparation Project” beta-test project was delivered in Quesnel, a city of about 23,000 in central BC, between Williams Lake and Prince George. It was a forest industry town, but with mill closures and industry slow downs, the economy is diversifying.
Obtaining different levels of driving licenses provides an array of job opportunities, such as working for the city and schools, road maintenance companies, logging and mining companies, and delivery companies. The Driver Education Preparation Project (DEPP) helped participants learn the content they needed to know to complete the driver learners’ test. Many adult leaners’ ability to successfully complete the written test was hampered by their low literacy skills, comprehension skills, inexperience with test writing, computer literacy or a combination of these factors.
The program included group work, skill building, discussion, role play, and exploration of the knowledge needed to pass the test. Results include potential increases in participants’ job readiness, computer literacy skills, abilities to work in a group setting, self-directed study techniques and confidence building skills.
This beta-test site has developed and shared curricula for their training delivery, and was selected to continue to the Pilot Test phase of this project.
Read the beta-test report.