Impact Bond: Essential Skills Social Finance (ESSF) Pilot Project 
Stage of development: Implementation
Policy sector: Employment and training
Intervention: The intervention seeks to recruit low-skilled, unemployed adult Canadians to raise their essential skill levels through the delivery of a training initiative based on Douglas College's proven Foundations Workplace Essential Skills Program. ESSF offers a blended-learning model comprised of group and individualized instruction designed to increase essential skills and engage participants. It is comprised of 144 instructional hours, typically delivered 6 hours per day, 4 days per week, for 6 weeks. Curriculum content supports learning in five main categories: document use, writing, digital technology, reading and numeracy. Each has a set of group activities, plus guidelines and resources for individual practice, at lower and higher levels of skill. As part of the curriculum, learners develop and produce their own portfolio of documents and resources to support them in their trajectory towards stable and satisfactory employment. The portfolio is more than a CV, containing materials for individual career exploration and job search, as well.
Start of service provision: 2016-10
Total investment commitment currency: CAD
Total investment commitment: 250000
Total investment commitment (USD): 188591.687
Target population: Unemployed or underemployed adult Canadians with lower literacy skills, defined as below Level 3 on the IALS scale.
Targeted number of service users or beneficiaries: 91