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learn$ave Project: Final Reportfor full-time PSE students who were recent graduates ofan adult secondary upgrading or equivalency program.Yukon offers grants for full-time PSE students who are notdependent on family support but ties the level of supportto their academic achievement in their PSE program.Apprenticeship grants or scholarships are available inmost provinces and territories but are usually offeredonly after students have completed the first year of aneligible program.Provincial IA programs provide some support foradult education through cash benefits both in the form ofincome support as well as cash or voucher-like benefits.Training benefits might be used to cover the costs ofsupports to learning such as childcare expenses, transportationcosts or start-up expenses for a new course orprogram. Voucher-like programs cover the eligible tuitioncosts for certain skills training or education programs.In most cases to benefit, clients must first apply for IAbenefits and meet the associated income and asset-tests.Exceptions include the following:• Saskatchewan’s Provincial Training Allowance paysa modest weekly sum to low-income adult learnersenrolled in one of three provincial basic education orskills training programs (eligibility is still subject toincome- and asset-testing);• Quebec’s provincial manpower training program offersunemployed adults an employment assistance allowanceand reimburses clients for eligible training-relatedexpenses when they take part in full-time trainingprograms;• Yukon’s Training allowance, a means-tested benefit forfull-time students in college or approved skills trainingprograms, pays between $100 and $200 per weekdepending on household size; and• Alberta’s Part-time Training Grant offers low-incomeworkers up to $5,000 per year when they maintainemployment income and take part in eligible trainingprograms.While direct cash transfers may be promising instrumentsfor reaching low-income target populations,many have design features that are likely to reduce theireffectiveness as incentives for low-income working ageadults to return to education or training. In many cases,the assistance specifically excludes adult students bylimiting eligibility to youth or reduces the attractivenessto adult students by requiring full-time participationin education and training. For working age adults witheven modest employment, the forgone wages to pursuefull-time studies are almost certain to be a large disincentiveand none of the cash transfers above are likely tofully replace that income. Similarly, the voucher-likebenefits available through provincial income assistanceprograms generally first require participants to beeligible for welfare benefits, meeting stringent incomeand asset tests designed to ensure use of the program islimited to cases of last resort. Even among the examplesof exceptional provincial programs listed above, thereis limited evidence for impacts on participation in adulteducation and training. For example, a 2000 evaluation ofSaskatchewan’s Provincial Training Allowance noted thatit functions primarily as an income assistance programand found little impact on participation in or completionof training programs as compared with similar adultsoutside the program (PRA, 2000).Repayable assistanceFor individual learners, the largest group of programs tosupport higher education in Canada consists of provincial,territorial and federal student loans programs. In mostprovinces and territories, the federal and regional loansare administered cooperatively. In Quebec, Nunavut andthe Northwest Territories, the provincial or territorialprogram has replaced the federal one altogether.Student loans programs provide repayable loans toeligible post-secondary students as determined by federaland provincial or territorial criteria. In the majority ofprovinces, provincial loans are available for only fulltimestudents while federal loans are available for bothfull-time and part-time studies. Applications to thesefederal and provincial loans programs also generallyserve as the screening mechanism for many direct grantsand bursaries mentioned above, such as the Canada StudyGrants and Millennium Scholarships. Repayment of theborrowed amount begins only after the student leavesschool and the repayment burden has been somewhatsubsidized through tax relief (discussed above), interestrelief and forgiveness of portions of the total debt. Asof August 2009, the interest relief and loan forgivenesswill be replaced by ceilings on the amount of repayment,determined as a proportion of earned income as well asby time (generally up to 15 years). The loans themselveshave undergone several reforms since learn$ave waslaunched, shifting from a risk-shared financing programwhereby loans were issued by private sector financialinstitutions but the risk was financed by the federal government),to a direct loan program. By way of illustration,expenditures on the federal portion of student loans alonewere about $1.0 billion in 2008-2009 (HRSDC 2010) andabout 3 in 10 Canadian post-secondary students relyingon government student loan programs (Berger, Motte, &Social Research and Demonstration Corporation Appendix A | 111