Program
Outcomes

According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), outcomes-based programming is based on planning and managing a project with a focus on defining the desired client outcomes and measuring their achievement. The plans, activities and outputs of a project should promote the achievement of the actual change in short-term and medium-term outcomes, cumulatively leading to long-term outcomes. They should be measured to allow for the adjustment of project design, address challenges and build on promising practices. Additionally, outcomes should guide the project design and determine whether a project was successful.

The relevant program outcomes for language training for Call for proposals (CFP) 2024 are as follows:

• Immediate outcomes: Clients improve official language skills

Immediate outcomes are measured through Immigration Contribution Agreement Reporting Environment (iCARE) by the percentage of language training clients who advance to the next level and the percentage of EAL  literacy clients who achieve EAL literacy levels.

• Intermediate outcomes: Clients use an official language to function in Canadian society

Intermediate outcomes are measured through the annual Newcomer Outcomes Survey (NOS) by the percentage of clients who indicate they are comfortable using an official language without help in daily life situations and changes in their indicated comfort level over time (2-5 years in Canada).

Immediate outcomes are directly attributable to the program, usually achieved within 0 to 6 months. Intermediate outcomes are the changes resulting from the program up to 3 years afterwards. The long-term, or ultimate, outcomes are the changes that come from both the program 
and other life experiences.

The Evaluation of Language Training Services report in 2020 identified challenges with language outcomes. It stated that: 
“When it comes to language training, one of the main outcomes that could be derived from this type of settlement service could be seen as language skills progression. However, given the variety of the program offering and goals of learners, multiple outcomes can be associated to language training. In this context, it proved difficult to approach language progression as the outcome on which to base the success of the program and to determine what could be considered as a sufficient level of progression for the program to succeed. As such, the department would benefit from clarifying the primary outcomes associated with language training, as well as defining clear targets for achieving those outcomes.” 
(IRCC, 2020)

While program outcome expectations are clear for mainstream LINC programming, the outcomes measurement tools may not gauge outcomes 
very well for more specialized programming. Additionally, it is challenging to set up iCARE for non-traditional LINC classes, which can impact or skew outcome results.