Adult Learner Awards

Each year, we award $750 bursaries to adults who are working toward a grade 12 certificate or grade 12 equivalency (GED).

We also award $1500 scholarships to adults who have completed their GED and are enrolled in a post-secondary institution working toward a diploma or degree.

To qualify for a bursary, you must be an adult who:

♦ Has not completed grade 12 or GED

♦ Has not been in public school for at least 3 years

♦ Is or will be enrolled in College, Technical or Trade school or private training as of Dec 1, 2021

To qualify for a scholarship, you must be an adult who:

♦ Has completed GED

♦ Is enrolled full-time at a post-secondary institution working toward a diploma or degree.

Since 2002, we have granted $145,000 in bursaries and awards to adults who have gone back to school.

“Making the decision to return to school has been one of the most rewarding and gratifying experiences of my life.”

Agnes MacDonald winner of the PEI Literacy Alliance Adult Bursary

“Now that I am finished and graduation is upon me this week, I can’t begin to explain the way I feel. Excited, grateful, emotional, confident all rolled up into one. It’s just an amazing feeling, and I never expected it. I would recommend returning to school to anyone, at any age. Remember: ‘better late than never.'”

AnnaMarie Drake

of working aged Islanders have low-literacy skills

“At 57 years of age, I am just learning how much I have missed out on by not being able to read. Literacy Alliance has helped me over the last two years. I have a great tutor. My reading and spelling have improved a lot.”

PEI Volunteers for Literacy Program participant Doug Curtis

“I decided I wanted to better myself and further my education. I was scared. I didn’t think I was smart enough to do it. Then a good friend said to me, ‘Norma, you are smart and very capable of getting your GED. You deserve it.’ My partner has also been very supportive of my decision to go back to school. ‘The only way one fails at something at something is when you don’t try,’ he said. So, with those things in mind and the encouragement of my friends and family, I enrolled at Holland College.”

Norma Stac is a winner of a PEI Literacy Alliance Adult Bursary

“I believe learning to read is empowering. It puts each person in better touch with their world and gives them confidence. Without exception, my learners have been excited about their new ability and have been more hopeful about their future.”

Volunteer tutor Margaret Knox