Summary of the Evaluation of the Supports for Student Learning Program

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About the program

The Supports for Student Learning Program funds a broad range of youth-serving organizations. This funding is allocated to offer tailored financial and non-financial learning supports. The Program provides funding via two core streams to support learners that are at risk of educational disengagement:

• Stream 1 – Afterschool and Wraparound Student Supports ($150.1M in funding issued from April 2019 to March 2022), and
• Stream 2 – Outbound Student Mobility Supports ($18.2M in funding issued from April 2019 to March 2022)^{Footnote 1}

Key findings (Stream 1)

Equity-deserving groups face more barriers, are underserved, or are underrepresented in post-secondary education. This has negative consequences for students from these equity-deserving groups and for Canada. Organizations funded as part of the Stream I offer flexible and tailored supports to students.

More mature projects (for example, Pathways to Education Canada and Indspire) are demonstrating promising results in terms of:

• high school graduation
• post-secondary participation and graduation, and
• labour market outcomes

The Stream 1 contributes to developing partnerships among youth-serving organizations. This allows for knowledge generation and dissemination.

Key findings (Stream 2)

Post-secondary institutions which received funding through Universities Canada and Colleges and Institutes Canada developed lessons learned and promising practices. They support the successful implementation of study and work abroad experiences. This includes research on reducing barriers, virtual mobility, recruitment strategies and introducing wraparound supports.

Recommendations

1. Continue to gather evidence to understand the characteristics, challenges, and promising practices and to address any emerging needs and better support underserved or under-represented students in post-secondary education
2. Explore ways to improve the sustainability of projects beyond the Program funding by supporting the development of partnerships and by increasing the Program’s role in generating and disseminating lessons learned and promising practices among all youth serving organizations
3. Continue to further improve and strengthen data collection strategy to inform results and support decision-making, including exploring ways to inform program impacts