In February and March of 2024, research by the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks was undertaken to respond to LINC stakeholders seeking more information and guidance around placing and promoting LINC learners with literacy needs, both those with L for Literacy designations in their CLB profiles, and those without. As differing practices at assessment centres and service providers in urban and smaller communities and between provinces had led to some inconsistencies for literacy learners, a survey of the field was conducted to better understand the situation across the country, and to determine support that could be given.

Three of the key conclusions of that research were:

• Assessors are in the best position to make the initial decision on whether to assign the L designation.
• Administrators and/or Instructors are in a better position to make decisions on whether to assign, retain or remove the L designation using professional judgement, supported by real-time evidence and the use of a decision tree process/protocol.
• Learners must be consulted in the decision process when changing the L designation in a classroom situation.

This Resource Package for Programs represents a direct response to the second key conclusion by providing support to programs to assign or remove the L designation using a combination of evidence and informed professional judgement. It includes:

• User Guide
• Package #1: Placing a literacy learner
• Package #2: Adding an L designation
• Package #3: Removing an L designation