Survey Design and Data Management Archives - SRDC

Understanding the Experiences of Equity-Deserving Students and Prospective Students who Face Barriers Accessing Student Financial Assistance

Wallaa Daramlly — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:53:19 +0000

This project examines the experiences of equity-deserving individuals who face barriers to accessing student financial assistance (SFA) in Canada. Despite the availability of federal and provincial supports, some current and prospective postsecondary students do not apply for or receive financial aid, even when they may be eligible. This study seeks to understand why.

Using a mixed-methods research design, the project gathers evidence from two groups: current postsecondary students who are not using student financial assistance and youth aged 18 to 30 who are not currently enrolled in postsecondary education. Surveys provide national-level insight into awareness, perceptions, and barriers, while in-depth interviews explore how financial, administrative, informational, and personal factors shape decision-making.

By centring the lived experiences of equity-deserving populations, the project aims to generate actionable evidence to inform policy improvements to make SFA more accessible, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of diverse learners across Canada.

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Pan-Canadian Cancer Biomarker Inventory

Wallaa Daramlly — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 19:38:34 +0000

This project aims to develop a comprehensive, up-to-date inventory of publicly funded cancer biomarkers across Canadian jurisdictions. Building on a preliminary database developed by CDA-AMC, publicly available information will first be compiled and organized. Consultations will then be conducted with jurisdictional contacts to complete and validate the database, ensuring it contains accurate information on funded biomarkers and their key characteristics for the most common cancer types. Through these consultations, the project will also assess the feasibility of regularly updating, maintaining, and publishing this resource as a living inventory in the future.

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LINC Sector Coordination

Wallaa Daramlly — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 15:06:50 +0000

This project engages with LINC Sector Coordination stakeholders such as attendees at LINC Gatherings, members of the Settlement Language Working Group and Advisory Group, participants in LINC teacher training, and MOSAIC staff through interviews and focus groups. The goal is to learn what is working, for whom, and why, and to identify areas for adjustment.

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Scaling & Replicator Strategic Evaluation and Learning Support for FSC

Wallaa Daramlly — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 15:12:24 +0000

SRDC is undertaking several evaluations within new categories of Future Skills Centre (FSC) projects. The SCALE initiative invited existing FSC partners whose projects were ready for the next scale-up phase to apply for additional funding to advance their projects along a clearly defined scaling pathway. The projects were selected to answer pressing strategic questions that represent gaps in knowledge and/or practice – and around which FSC investment strategies are oriented. The projects embrace ongoing testing of program feasibility and effectiveness derived from specified scaling objectives. The REPLICATE initiative funds FSC partners whose projects present the best evidence of effectiveness and impact to conduct replication projects with up to two or three different partners working in different geographical locations. The projects test the feasibility of replication as further proof of the effectiveness of the program and help to further build up a cohort of partnerships ready to move towards full scaling and sustainability, as well as test replication as a strategy for project sustainability.

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Resources and Practices for Engaging Opportunity Youth in Career Development

Wallaa Daramlly — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 17:20:46 +0000

This project explores the best ways to engage students who are disconnected from school and at risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment, or training) in career development. The right support at the right time can reengage students and positively shape their career paths. Yet career development professionals face two major challenges: first, it is often challenging to reach young people who are disconnected from school and not inclined to seek support; and second, when they do reach this population, they may not know what supportive career guidance practices are most impactful.

To address these challenges, the project combines a literature review and environmental scan that identifies promising programs and practices and a survey of 500 school guidance counsellors across Canada that gathers insight on both barriers to engagement and best practices in working with opportunity youth. Together, these sources highlight obstacles to engagement and uncover practical strategies for supporting opportunity youth. The mission of the project is to find tangible ways to reach and engage this population, understand what practices and tools can motivate them to engage in career planning, and learn what further resources are needed to support career counselling practices.

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National Training System to Ensure Low-Carbon Building Performance to Reduce Energy Consumption

Wallaa Daramlly — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 18:09:01 +0000

SkillPlan, in partnership with the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers and Local Unions (IAHFIAW), Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU), Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC), Climate and Industry Research Team (CIRT), and Building Efficiency Resources (BER), is supporting Canada’s climate and low-carbon economy goals by developing, implementing, and evaluating a national energy assessment training program for the Insulator Heat and Frost Red Seal trade. The project will train both unionized and non-unionized journeypersons and apprentices in the Insulator Heat and Frost Red Seal trade with technical, operational, and communication tools to upgrade their knowledge and skills, and develop their leadership capacity.

SRDC is leading a comprehensive needs analysis to support the design of the program training. SRDC will also support this project through developing a comprehensive evaluation framework and protocols, conducting fieldwork, data quality control, analysis, and knowledge dissemination.

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PROSPECTS: Propelling to Result-Oriented Strategies in Planning, Evaluation, and Continuous Transformation in Settlement

Wallaa Daramlly — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 18:30:21 +0000

PROSPECTS is an initiative funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), aimed at enhancing the capacity of organizations within the settlement sector in evaluation and research. Our project is designed to support Settlement Service Providers (SPOs) in developing outcome-based approaches by incorporating evaluation into their project planning and management processes. This project will foster a cultural shift towards outcome-based approaches through a series of activities grounded in the principles of “meeting organizations where they are” and “active development through generative listening and learning by doing.” We will begin with a cross-country consultation and an assessment of the sector’s capacity to understand the diverse needs of various organizations. Our project team will compile, design, and offer a range of tools, resources, workshops, and peer learning networks to enhance the sector’s practical knowledge. SRDC will provide free, customized support, including expert advice tailored to specific needs and broader capacity development planning. This will empower settlement sector organizations to seamlessly integrate program evaluation into the design, planning, management, and continuous improvement of their programs. PROSPECTS will also focus on raising awareness about the benefits of adopting outcome-based approaches in settlement sector programming through regular communication and a knowledge-mobilization campaign.

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Expanding Apprenticeship Success Through Improved and Enhanced System of Technology (EAST Project)

Wallaa Daramlly — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 20:11:39 +0000

SkillPlan, BC Construction Industry Skills Improvement Council, in partnership with Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU), Provincial Building Trades Councils (PBTC), U7 SOLUTIONS, British Columbia Colleges (BCC), and the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC), are providing online educational tools, resources, and materials to support apprentices progressing in and obtaining certification in an apprenticeship in the Red Seal trades. This project will be delivered across Canada. More specifically the project seeks to firstly improve the quality of training in the skilled trades by utilizing a structured, integrated, and accessible online training system and secondly to support Red Seal trades partners to create safe and inclusive workplaces of equity-deserving groups, including women, youth, newcomers, Indigenous and racialized persons, persons with disabilities, as well as low-skilled individuals by expanding training platform and developing new courses. SRDC is helping to test and measure the results of this project through a mixed-methods approach which will include administrative data from online platforms, surveys, and interviews.

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Analysis of the Labour Market Challenges and Workforce Development Needs of BC’s Non-Profit Housing Sector

Wallaa Daramlly — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 16:35:43 +0000

Non-profit housing providers face significant challenges in recruiting and retaining staff due to increasingly complex tenant needs, an aging workforce, and the necessity for specialized knowledge in asset management and energy efficiency. Staffing shortages and the difficulty of attracting professionals to non-urban areas exacerbate these issues. Additionally, there is a need for Indigenous-led training programs and the potential professionalization of housing-related careers. This project aims to address these challenges by scanning relevant secondary data sets to capture insights into labour market characteristics and trends relevant to the non-profit housing sector’s workforce as well as develop and implement a survey of provincial sector workers that identifies opportunities for capacity building and policy work to support BC’s non-profit housing sector.

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Evaluation of Riipen’s Level UP

Wallaa Daramlly — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 16:44:57 +0000

SRDC is working with Riipen to evaluate its Level UP program. Riipen is a mission-driven social enterprise and the world’s largest experiential learning marketplace platform, connecting educators, students/learners, and employers across North America. The Level UP Program is Riipen’s flagship Canadian program, launched in early 2021 to provide over 33,000 learning experiences by March 2025.

The evaluation focuses on the first four years of the program and combines comprehensive administrative data with results from a broad, public-facing survey of recent graduates to assess longer-term outcomes for Level UP participants and identify an appropriate comparison group.

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